The automated lighting industry has seen a new trend in lighting products over the last few years. We now have many creative LED products that are making use of continuous rotation of pan and tilt. This type of movement opens up some exciting new possibilities and designers are placing the fixtures all over their plots. The technology to endlessly rotate fixtures is not new, and in fact was used quite some time ago with standard discharge fixtures. However, the concept never really took off until it was applied to an LED panel. Now programmers and designers have many different tools that take advantage of continuously rotating pan and tilt.
Round and Round
Programming positions for continuously rotating fixtures is really no different than other fixtures we typically encounter. In fact, the fixtures operate exactly like all others when building normal positions. You can adjust the pan and tilt from your desk within a predefined range of degrees. Typically these are 540° for pan and 270° for tilt, but could be more or less, depending upon the manufacturer.
When you want to rotate the pan or tilt parameters, then you will need to adjust another channel specific to that function. For instance, most manufactures provide both “Pan Continuous” and “Tilt Continuous” channels in addition to the normal pan and tilt adjustment channels. The continuous channels operate much like a gobo rotate parameter channel, allowing you to adjust the continuous rotation speed and direction. So rotating the pan continuously is as simple as adjusting one channel’s values. When you want the fixture to stop rotating, you set this channel back to a “no function” or “stopped” value, and the fixture will return to the position defined by the normal pan and tilt channels.
Random Rotations
As with programming gobo rotations, you may wish to randomize the direction and/or speed difference between multiple units. You can accomplish this with the pan or tilt rotation in the same manner as you would with gobo rotation. Simply select all the units, put them in the desired rotation speed and then select a random grouping (or just the evens, for instance) and change the direction of the rotation.
Additionally, the continuous rotation will always start from the current pan and tilt location of the fixture head. So if you put the fixtures in different pan and tilt positions before spinning them, then they will all spin with very different results.
You could also make use of fan/align tools to offset the rotation speed values of multiple fixtures with a quick turn of an encoder wheel on your desk. Simply select the fixtures in a random order and then fan/align the speed slightly, and now all your fixtures will be rotating at different speeds. In addition, it may be important to select certain fixtures based on location in the rig and invert the rotation direction from the other fixtures (stage left vs. stage right). This way they appear to all be spinning in opposing orientations instead of all turning the same direction.
“Clever” vs. “Lazy”
Having a narrow beam fixture or a linear fixture with multiple narrow beams spin around and around in circles can produce some amazing beamage in the air. However, it may also end up illuminating areas of the stage that are undesired. I have seen many shows where the continuously spinning tilt spends half the time pointing light backstage and into the grid. While this may be cool in some instances, in many others it is just plain sloppy programming.
A good programmer should already be familiar with building “flyout” type of cues or effects with standard automated fixtures. A flyout will have fixtures tilting up and down, but only have the output on during the rising upward portion of the movement. There are many ways to achieve this look, but most will create it using a combination of effects where an intensity effect is offset with a movement effect so no light is ever seen to be moving downward.
Much in the same manner as building a flyout, programmers can create exciting and dynamic looks with continuously rotating fixtures. By allowing only a portion of the rotation to be seen, different looks can be achieved. First, start the fixtures rotating their pan and/or tilt at the speed you desire. Next create an intensity effect that turns the fixtures on and off during a portion of the movement. Now adjust the offset or phase and rate of the intensity effect so that you are only seeing the fixture on for the portion of the rotation that you desire. As you make the changes, you will see many different looks appear on stage. Furthermore, you can make use of fan/align and/or grouping tools to further modify the effect between fixtures and really create magic.
Multiple Points of Light
Many of today’s creative LED fixtures utilize multiple sources of output on a single head. Whether the fixture is constructed as a linear bar, rectangular matrix, or is a ball or cube there could be between 4 to 40 different sources of light outputting from the single unit. Due to the various sources, you will find different looks can be created with the same spinning feature. For instance, imagine a linear fixture that has six unique outputs. If you simply turn on all six, you will see a spinning bar. But if you turn on only the first and last, then you will have two dots chasing each other.
If you instead combine intensity chases or effects that are timed similar to the rotation speed, you will see many diverse possibilities. As the various components turn on and off in different locations of the spinning head, it will appear that beams are emanating from everywhere. The possibilities truly start to be come endless.
The Pitfalls
Of course, with so many possibilities, this means that the programming time required will increase. It is important not to get too caught up in trying to figure out how to create just the right combination of effects and rotations during a programming session. As with most of your programming, you will need to spend time practicing so that you fully understand the possibilities and the time required to create each.
Furthermore, there are some other problems that can develop when fixtures are spinning continuously. First, you need to be aware when the crew is in the rig or near the fixtures, as fast spinning moving heads could cause severe injury. Second, there is often a bit of a messy transition when stopping a rotation and expecting a fixture to smoothly return to its normal pan and tilt values. Many designers and programmers find that it is best to blackout and restore positions instead of letting the fixtures automatically restore.
New Creative Doorways
The plethora of new creative LED products with continuous rotation has ushered in a new wave of lighting shows and possibilities. Programmers should take the time to play with this new technology to ensure that they are prepared for programming. Detailed use of effects combined with rotation parameters can enhance many productions, but also requires lots of programming time. Try not to just spin fixtures wildly without paying attention to all the areas that are illuminated. As the fixtures become more complex so, too, does the programming. I recently saw a fixture with multiple continuous tilt parameters as well as continuous pan. Make sure you are ready to take your fixtures for a spin.
