Elation has stepped up their product line considerably in the last year, and the introduction of their latest hard edge light is no exception. They have become the first company to build a 1,200-watt fixture with a body the size of everybody else’s 700-watt models. And the light produced from the double-ended MSR 1,200-watt lamp is pure white with a perfectly flat field. The Complete Fixture
Every lighting manufacturer out there can boast about something that their fixture excels in. But each one is usually missing some feature or other that another light has. Elation has topped everyone because this new light has every feature that the others have. It is missing nothing.
This model weighs only 78 pounds, which is light compared to its competitors, and it’s a mere 18.5 inches square by 25 inches long. Its sturdy black housing appears tough enough to withstand the rigors of being loaded in and out of a road case every day. It uses a Philips Gold MSR 1,200 FastFit lamp with an output of 95,000 lumens and a color temperature of 6,800K. The estimated life of this bulb is 750 hours. It also has a dichroic glass reflector and an auto-voltage ranging electronic switching power supply can accept anywhere from 208 to 240 volts.
Gobo Love
It has two gobo wheels, each with five indexable, rotating, replaceable gobos. I actually liked all the gobos in this fixture, and that’s not normal for me. One wheel has all dichroic colored patterns and the other has metal patterns. Some of these patterns are designed for use with the animation wheel that comes with this model. The animation wheel can be used to project accurate water and fire effects. Morphing between the different gobo wheels is very well done. The focus ability allows each wheel to get sharp while the other wheel is barely noticeable.
The CMY color mixing system works flawlessly and the color flags are fast. I can even get a decent red mix and Congo blue color out of this fixture. A fourth set of color flags allows for variable CTO. It also has a color wheel with eight slots for interchangeable dichroic filters. This includes CTB and other TV corrective lenses as well as typical red, orange, green, and blue colors. Of course the color and gobo wheels can spin, too. There is also an effects wheel that has your typical three-facet prism as well as another glass effect they refer to as the 3D prism.
Frosty Love
Elation has also brought back the frost feature that a lot of manufacturers ignore these days. I love being able to chase the sharpness of a patterned beam quickly, and this light achieves this flawlessly. It is lightning fast, as is the hard strobe shutter. The built-in shutter effects and color macros make for some pleasant programming features. The separate iris and zoom mechanisms worked quite well. The beam can zoom between 18 and 45 degrees.
The movement is fine and reacts in typical fashion to the circle effect on my console. When moving slowly it can achieve this circle nicely. I put the light beam in a small iris with a tight zoom and pointed it at a cymbal on the stage. Then I whipped it into a moving effect. When I released the effect, the fixture went to the precise position it was in prior to this command. It didn’t overshoot the pan values, which is something typically associated with heavy 1,200-watt fixtures. This fixture can pan a whopping 630 degrees before it hits a physical end stop.
No Wires
I ran this fixture straight from the desk with no control cable. Elation sells a wireless DMX512 transmitter that I attached to my console with a 5-pin XLR cable. Each Design Spot has a built-in wireless DMX512 receiver. There were no glitches or noticeable drop outs receiving data. I placed the transmitter out of site of the fixture and it still performed perfectly.
The fixture can run in a standard or extended DMX512 mode, depending on how many channels you prefer to use. It can also run in stand-alone or sound-activated mode.
There are several other features that you will enjoy. Some of them include remote DMX512 addressing, built-in color preset macros, built-in DMX recorder and a battery backup for the menu display.
The list price for this puppy is just under $10k, but you can easily purchase them from your local dealer for around $7,000. Elation also is releasing a “Beam” version of the same fixture.
Elation Design Spot 1200C
What It Is: a 1,200-watt automated moving light loaded with features
Who It’s For: Anyone who wants a hard-edge automated fixture in a compact housing
Pros: Compact, light in weight for a 1,200-watt fixture, all the bells and whistles you could want
Cons: Could not get a sharp beam with just the animation wheel effect. (The manufacturer says it’s not intended to be used that way).
Price: $9,399 (Retail); $6,999 (MSRP).
