Environmental Lights has been called the King of LED tape by many in the production business for two reasons: they seem to carry every and any type of LED tape a designer could wish for, and their gear is top notch. They never settle on their laurels, choosing to continue to refine their gear and upping their product lines. With the debut of their latest entry into the faux neon market they have taken their game to the next level.
For over ten years, many companies have been trying to emulate the continuous, glowing, colored tubes of neon. It started with rope light that, when put at a distance of 50 feet or so, could emulate neon, but was never bright enough to really “pop.” Others have tried using traditional LED tape, but it never curved fluently and looked amateurish at best. Environmental Lights has long offered acceptable substitutions for faux neon including RGB, solid colors and a wide selection of CCT type products. What they lacked was a model with a fourth color, a deal breaker with many designers. The new product offers RGB nodes with an additional choice of either a 3,000K, 6,500K or an amber as the fourth color.
Nowadays, there are some popular bending tapes for curving LED strips, but users usually notice hot spots along the line (cameras are great at catching these) where the LEDs separate, and most available models are not IP65-rated. I cannot make an outdoor sign out of those materials. I can go on Amazon and find some cheap stuff, but would I trust it on a televised production or touring show? I think not.
Last year, Environmental Lights put out an LED tape product that had a continuous ribbon of LED through the whole line, meaning no dots, no hot spots. Upon turning the fixture on, I thought they did indeed use the same technology here, but I was mistaken. My eye could not view any single 4-in-1 individual nodes in line. But I am told that yes, indeed, this product is made of RGBA (or RGBW) nodes, but the secret to making it look seamless is in the packaging. The reasoning for using the 4-in-1 nodes over the continuous strip is that they found users have more colors and better mixing abilities with this particular sealed product.
I tested this tape up against a Sony professional 4K camera in my shop. If I place the camera a foot away from the tape, I can see the individual nodes stand out as hot spots. But once I am five feet away, they are unnoticeable to the camera. Great for photos.
I’ve been sent a demo unit to test out, as I am a designer who includes LED tape in every production I design and have been known to design custom scenic signs made of RGB faux neon. Over the years, I have been miffed that my signs had a pink hue whenever I dialed in a white mix. Environmental lights saw the need to improve their line and came up with the sturdiest faux neon LED tape product I have ever seen that can gives users a great white hue.
The Hardware
My eye could not view any single 4-in-1 individual nodes in line. But I am told that yes indeed, this product is made of RGBA (or RGBW) tape. The LED nodes are tightly spaced with 60 per meter with 16.7mm (.66in) between them, but the secret to making it look seamless is in the packaging.
Available in a white silicon casing product is rectangular in shape, 3/8” wide on the side emitting light and 11/16” on the other sides. Two sides of the product are solid. The side that emits light has a translucent seal that glows perfectly even like neon gas when lit. The fourth side has a little window that techs can use to view the back of the LED tape sealed inside the silicon. This window is solely so any installer can see the marks on the backside of the internal LED tape to know where to cut it without damaging the product. These cutting marks are approximately 4” apart. A razor knife or heavy pair of dykes can slice through the materials.
The standard five-meter length came to me rolled up in a small box. But the material immediately rolled out in a straight line, retaining zero of its curved shape. In fact, I can move this stuff around at any angle, and it’s pretty good at staying in place by itself. Gluing it to a hard backing while spelling something out in a custom script font would be a cinch.
As you can see in one of these photos, I was able to bend the tape over 180° and it works fine, though the company lists a 40mm lateral bending radius in their specs. In fact, I twisted the product hard, threw it against the wall and sprayed it with a water hose, just to try and break it. I failed. I will venture/vouch to say this tape is indestructible when used properly.
The product is IP65-rated and comes with injection molded ends to keep them water- and dirt-tight. I cut one of the ends off at a joint to see how the tape resides within the enclosure. The LEDs face sideways and down at a slight angle, bouncing the light off the white shell and on to the translucent part, revealing the colors. The company sells white caps to seal off the ends of any cuts as well as easy-to-attach controllers. They also offer special splicing connectors that make it a cinch to connect two pieces or attach an XLR connector if meant to run from a DMX controller.
Environmental Lights has also sent me the StudioPro Digital Knob RGBW Controller. This small DC-powered controller allows me to bring up the four colors individually and mix them. They offer this to folks for speedy installs that may not feel the need for a console to run them. The model I am testing out is RGBA; there is no white LED. With just the red, green and blue diodes at full, the color looks more blue tinted (think CTB) than the pink I would expect. Adding in the amber warms up the color nicely. However, if the user is more concerned with having a perfect white source the manufacturers suggest using one of the RGBW options.
There are two distinct things that separate traditional glass neon from the Environmental Lights neon products: the EcoFlex 4-in-1 Neon can mix thousands of colors, and it is dimmable. They also aren’t susceptible to breakage like glass, making neon signs on stage a thing of the past. However, in this day and age of designer gratification, the company knew they needed to offer a choice of the four-color product if they were going to get a perfect white solution that was bright, to add to the red, green and blue diodes. With the launch of the EcoFlex 4-in-1 models, they have achieved this.
The diodes all reach deep saturated colors such as blood red and cobalt blue. I can mix a yellow color with no trace of green hue, which is something I have rarely seen before. The fixture proves able to fade up at 1% increments incredibly well. The glow is noticeable at 1% intensity, and a 30 second fade from full intensity to zero can be flawlessly performed. Can’t ask for anything more in an LED tape, let alone the faux neon style.
Environmental Lights also offers other single color, white, and RGB neon products for both indoor and outdoor projects. For larger projects, they will often customize the product to fit the exact need. This can include preparing it to specific sizes with injection molded ends along with configuring the wire outputs and leads — bottom, side, rear exit, etc. — whatever the install needs.
At a Glance:
The Real Faux Neon Deal
This product transforms environments in an array of industries including retail display, entertainment, trade show/exhibit, hospitality, casino gaming and audio-visual integration. Choose between three models of EcoFlex 4-in-1 LED Neon to suit your color mixing choice.
PROS: Best faux neon LED product on the market. Bright, saturated colors in a fully weather protected, UL listed, enclosure that bends smooth and easily.
CONS: None
FEATURES
- UV resistant and low maintenance
- Flexible, durable silicone housing with 40mm lateral bending radius
- IP65 rated with factory-sealed ends
- RGB plus option of either 3,000K, 6,500K, or Amber
- Up to 5-meter run lengths
- Easy to install
- UL Listed
Manufacturer: Environmental Lights
More Info: www.environmentallights.com
Note: The list price is $275.85 per 5m roll, but Environmental Lights offer account-based pricing for professional discounts.
