From mobile entertainers with full lighting packages to touring lighting production, our gear is going to find itself caught in some precipitation, at some point in its life, no exceptions. As clients want larger and more immersive events — be it the outdoor tent wedding with full production services, a local stage at the downtown festival, or a corporate event that needs a large illuminated walkup and building façade, the lights are getting wet at some point. Make peace with it. They’re also going to get dusty, and that plays games with everything if your fixture isn’t fitted to keep out the dirt. We do shows in the desert; cue the next three-day red dust location festival. ADJ has made peace with our unfortunate fact, and has prepared a sizeable selection of IP65-rated fixtures for your dust- and water-spray-resistant luminaire needs.
Just a quick reminder for anyone who hasn’t Googled “IP rating” yet, IP means “Ingress Protection,” and it refers to a device’s protection against items and particles of dust getting inside the housing of the device. The first number refers to the device’s Intrusion Protection, or how well it stops gack from getting inside the fixture. The “6” in IP65 refers to “protection against dust that may harm equipment.” The second number refers to the device’s Moisture Protection, and this can go from no protection to prolonged immersion in water under pressure (level 9). The five in IP65 refers to protection against water spray from all directions, so these ADJ fixtures are dust tight and can handle water falling onto them.
Also worth mention is maintenance — many manufacturers require a fixture in need of repair to be sent to either their factory or an “authorized service center” to get it working again. Not only does this just drain the life force out of your day, but it’s also expensive and takes the unit out of service for a month or more. ADJ provides the ability for rental companies and production companies who want to bring the ADJ line into their inventory to make repairs internally, get parts, and even recertify the IP rating after accessing the inside for a repair, via equipment from ADJ. This is a major selling point in today’s market, where we are an industry full of people with the mantra, “If I can’t open it, I don’t own it.”
Build and Design
We’re going to look at quite a few fixtures here, so keep an eye out for a few things: Notice that a lot of these units have rubberized plugs to stop water from getting in, and that goes for all of the seals, too — the units are built to be, no joke, IP65 rated. The construction shows it, and I’d feel comfortable employing these on any gig where I need to be indoors and outdoors. Second, notice that ADJ has really delved into the multi-color chip market full steam ahead, keeping with the pace of the white, amber, and UV wavelengths in the competition.
Moving Heads: Hydro Wash X7, Hydro Beam X1, and Hydro Beam X2
New to the ADJ family are three new automated fixtures, two beams and a wash: ADJ’s Hydro Wash Z7, and the Hydro Beam X1 and X2. Hydro Wash X7, the obvious wash in the family, and has a bevvy of impressive features, including motorized zoom (6° to 40°), gamma correction presets, individual control of its seven pixels, each of which is a 40W Osram RGBW LED. Hydro Wash is a 280W LED fixture.
Hydro beam X1 and X2 are separated by about 300W — both X1 and X2 use Osram’s Sirius HRI reflector lamps, the X1 at 100W and the X2 at 370W. Both fixtures are 3° beams, both have frost effect filters to give you a bit of a wash, and both fixtures can be connected to a controller via the onboard ADJ Wifly EXR wireless DMX. Hydro Beam X1 has a 16-facet prism, a fixed gobo wheel with 11 gobos and 4 apertures (beam reducers), and a color wheel with 12 colors, CTB, and a UV filter. The X2 model, with its higher output, has a rotating gobo wheel with 5 glass and three metal gobos, three apertures, and the gobos are pretty easily removable.
Something with all three of these moving heads: they’re all IP65, they’re all three RDM compliant, and they all have switchable power supplies and 5-pin data connections. The Hydro Wash X7 and Hydro Beam X1 are around 35 pounds; the Hydro Wash X2 weighs in at 64 pounds.
Panels and Linear Wash: The 32 HEX Panel IP and 15 HEX Bar IP
ADJ’s IP lines include a 6-color powerful panel washer and a linear strip, both under 25 pounds. The panel washer, 32 HEX Panel IP, features 32 punchy 12W 6-in-1 LEDs — RGBWAUV — which provides a 24° beam for your color washing pleasure. The 32 HEX Panel IP is full of features to make this unit uber-usable, from five dimming curves to seven DMX modes, RDM, multiple settings for gamma correction and LED refresh rate, and it’s built tough.
The linear wash in the IP family is the 15 HEX Bar IP, which features 15 of the same RGBWAUV chips found in the 32 HEX Panel IP. Similar to the Panel, the 15 HEX Bar features a 25° beam angle, RDM, tough construction, and multiple selections for gamma, flicker, and DMX control. The 15 HEX Bar IP also allows connectivity with the ADJ Wifly EXR Wireless DMX networks.
Both of these IP washers have Seetronic water-tight connections for data and power, and covers for the service port, DMX in and through, and power in and through.
COB Washers: Encore Burst RGBW IP, Encore Burst UV IP and Encore Burst 100IP
ADJ has brought three COB chip wash units to the IP family, a 4-color RGBW model, the Encore Burst RGBW IP, a WW Version called the Encore Burst 100IP and a dedicated UV wash, the Encore Burst UV IP. Each unit provides a 50° beam for your coverage purposes, and both are full of features, including both units being under 9 pounds. Encore Burst fixtures include OLED displays, water tight connections, and have four DMX control modes. Encore Burst is a solid washer for everything from accents to signage and in between.
LED Pars: 7PZ IP, 7P HEX IP, 12P HEX IP, and 18P HEX IP
ADJ has provided several excellent models of LED par-type fixtures, both fixed range and motorized zoom range, for the jobs that we’ve become accustomed to employing LED pars to light. The IP family is a mix of 4- and 6-color chip fixtures, all with a uniform set of features like RDM, Seetronic IP connections, built-in color macros, operational modes, et al.
The 7PZ IP is the one quad-color (RGBW) unit in the family, employing a motorized zoom with a range of 5° to 45°. Different from the three other LED pars in the family, 7PZ IP includes access to the ADJ Wifly Wireless DMX Network, allowing you to install these in cable-problematic areas. This fixture has seven 15W RGBW LEDs as the punch behind the par.
The 7P, 12P, and 18P HEX IP fixtures from ADJ provide a good working range of products for the extended services in which production and rental companies find themselves immersed. The scalability along the product line reaches in both directions of application, working in refined venues to grungy arenas like a fine paint brush to a power sprayer of color. All three of these fixtures have 63 built-in color macros; they all three have the same 4 DMX modes (6, 7, 8, and 13 channel) and the same five modes of operation (Static Color, DMX, Sound Active, Program, and RGBAWUV modes); all three of these fixtures have selectable dimmer curves, and a 30° beam angle. 7P, 12P, and 18P HEX IP all use the same 12W 6-in-1 RGBWAUV LED, so there is homogeny within these fixtures in your rig for a uniform look.
I highly recommend giving the new ADJ IP lines a twirl — they’ve got the field covered with respect to application. Moving heads, COB washers, uplighters and wall washers, and a great selection of LED pars — all rated IP65. Take that, Mother Nature.
ADJ IP65 Weatherproof Fixture Pricing
- Hydro Wash X7 $3,199.95
- Hydro Beam X2 $4,999.95
- Hydro Beam X1 $2,239.95
- Encore Burst RGBW IP $899.95
- Encore Burst UV IP $899.95
- Encore Burst 100 IP $549.95
- 7PZ IP $899.95
- 7P HEX IP $439.95
- 12P HEX IP $599.95
- 18P HEX IP $799.95
- 32 HEX Panel IP $1,299.95
- 15 HEX Bar IP $879.95
