Although the exhibition hall didn't open until 10 a.m. on the Sunday morning of Sept. 12, the networking before PLASA started on the streets of Earls Court in London in the days prior to the annual production industry exhibition. That's where the real gathering of the tribe began, where you were more likely to run into your industry friends and neighbors than in your own back yard. On one particular day, Robbie Bruce of Barco/High End Systems, Greg "AJ" Jesse of ESP Vision, Martin Michaud and Thierry Pouliot of MDG Fog Generators and Jean-Charles Juliat of Robert Juliat were all spotted in a 30-minute period. In the case of Jean-Charles, this show was his swan song – he recently retired, leaving the company in the capable hands of his son, François Juliat.
As the son of company founder Robert Juliat, Jean-Charles carried on the family tradition of building products with impeccable optics, and he elevated the science to an art. His contributions to the industry cannot be overstated, as anyone who has had the good fortune to use a Robert Juliat fixture in a show will testify. Jean-Charles told me in broken English (and his English is far less broken than my non-existent French) that he came to PLASA one last time to bid farewell to his industry friends and family.
Crossfading Technologies
Jean-Charles' exit and simultaneous passing of the torch parallels an historic shift in the lighting world, where conventional sources, some of which have served us well for over 100 years, are crossfading with newer, more efficient LED technologies. That's not exactly fresh news, but what was making headlines in London that week were all the new forms LEDs are taking, and the LED spot fixture, in particular. Ironically, Robert Juliat was one of the first companies to introduce an LED-driven theatrical profile spot called the Aledin. It's basically an RJ Series 400 or Series 600 fixture with the same optics but with an LED engine. In fact, the original Series 400 and 600 fixtures can be retrofitted with the LED engine. The Aledin has three zoom ranges and variable color temperature from 3500K to 5800K.
GLP hinted at the trend towards LED profile automated spots when they released a teaser video on the Internet a couple of weeks before PLASA showing their new Impression Spot One (still under development, but scheduled for launch towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year). It's a moving yoke fixture with a 400-watt LED engine that outputs a nicely uniform and bright beam.
And once the show was underway, there were several other LED Spot Fixtures to see, including the Martin MAC 350 Entour, which was launched earlier in the year, and the Selecon PL1 focusing RGBW LED fixture with a PC-style beam. The PL1 is driven by one of the LED engine/optics cells found in the Vari-Lite VLX (the VLX has seven of them), which uses 120 watts, and it can zoom from 14° to 50°. There is also a Selecon PL3 with three LED cells and a PL5 with five cells. The latter is optionally available with motorized pan and tilt, which essentially functions as a remote version of a pole-operated studio fixture.
Strong continues to deliver more LED surprises, and this time, they came with their own LED spot fixture called the Neeva. It has an array of RGBA or RGBW LEDs, but it produces a focusable hard edge beam with framing and projection capabilities. The field is flat and the projections crisp, and the bonus is that it looks like a conventional theatrical fixture that begins with "S" and ends in "4."
Pulsar's stand stood at the front of the exhibit hall basking in LED color wash, thanks in part to their new Chroma Powerline range of tri-color LED fixtures, as well as their Chroma Flood 400 series of flicker-free tri-color LED fixtures. Not far from there was the Chroma-Q stand, with their new Color Force 48 and 72 fixtures. They output 8000 lumens of RGBA color-mixed light with a CRI of 92.
Other Bright Ideas
But LED spot fixtures weren't the only new game in town. Coemar's new Reflection FullSpectrum is an RGB or variable white LED fixture with a unique interchangeable LED array that is directed backwards onto a parabolic reflector. The light that is emitted is free of aberrations in color and uniformity, and it produces no multishadows. Prism Projections revealed their new Reveal Studio LED fixture that looks like a 10-inch Fresnel fixture, except this one has tunable color temperature from 2700 to 8000K. With a CRI of 92 and an optical feedback system that monitors and maintains the color, it has particular promise for theatre and studio applications.
Then there were the creative LED products like Martin's new MAC 101 moving yoke fixture with an array of RGB LEDs. Their stand was dominated by two walls arrayed with MAC 101s programmed to a choreographed light show that was a real head-turner. Their example served as inspiration for designers to use the small, relatively inexpensive fixtures in large numbers as both a color wash fixture and as a grandiose video display.
Studio Due did its part to keep the trend towards architectural LED fixtures alive with its new Studio LED 600 fixture, the LED version of their City Color fixtures. It features RGBAW LEDs and zooms from 15° to 40°.
Also on the LED automated lighting front, JB Lighting announced the release of new software that will enable wireless DMX reception on all A4 and A7 LED fixtures ever sold. They kept the hardware a secret, so the announcement came as a surprise.
Of course, the show wasn't without its more conventional automated lighting advances. Clay Paky's new Sharpy fixture was catching eyes from across the exhibition floor with its extremely tight, bright and quick beam. The fixture uses the Philips MSD Platinum 5R lamp in a small moving yoke fixture to project 19 different gobos in 14 colors. On the other end of the scale, their new Shotlight Wash fixture is a 1500-watt wash light with a unique strobe system built into the face of the unit.
Not far from down the aisle was the Robe stand with a variety of new products as well, including several new additions to the Robin line of automated lights. These include the Robin 300 LEDWash, Robin 600E LEDWash and a line of Robin 600E fixtures that includes a Spot, Wash and Beam. They also teased a new plasma lamp fixture in the same line called the Robin 600 Plasma Spot that will feature a new 480-watt plasma lamp. In addition, they rolled out a new media server, the RMS (Robe Media Server).
PRG's Bad Boy got even badder with the addition of CMY color mixing. The speed of mixing is so fast that it can actually bump from one color to another.
Controls and Networking
On the control side, it seems that everyone is busy updating software and adding features, including MA Lighting's grandMA2 with software V2 (new layout view with bitmapping, fast call presets, new cue list with break, etc.). The LSC Clarity received a software update that enables the use of time presets and presets for GAM, Rosco and Lee filter colors. But Martin trotted out their new M1 lighting console, a smaller version of the Maxxyz that uses the same operating system. It has a built-in 6"-by-9" touchscreen and outputs four universes of DMX plus ArtNet, ArtNet2 and MaxNet.
Also new was PRG's V476 lighting console, which is a smaller version of their V676 console. It has two fewer monitors and an integrated Mac Mini computer, so it's more portable. Meanwhile, Jands previewed their upcoming Vista Byron lighting console designed to integrate dimmers, automated lighting, media servers and LEDs. There is no known release date other than "when it's ready."
On the typically-busy Avolites stand, hordes of people were being introduced to the new Pearl Tiger Touch and the Titan Mobile. The Tiger Touch outputs 12 universes of DMX and has 20 submasters for cues, cue lists and chases, plus 1,000 virtual playback executors. The show file is compatible with Pearl Expert. The Titan Mobile is a compact console that uses the Titan software. It has 10 playbacks, 20 direct access executors, and it outputs up to four DMX universes plus up to 12 ArtNet universes.
Fixtures and controls are making huge advances, but there's possibly more excitement going on in the area of automation, networking and integration. Cast Software's BlackBox is one product that is bringing together motion control, lighting, video, media servers, audio, cameras and tracking performers under a single platform. They also previewed the new BlackTrax tracking system that works with BlackBox. It uses tiny infrared sensors to control X, Y and Z coordinates (in the first phase) as well as roll, pitch and yaw (in the second phase). A single system has the capability to track hundreds of objects.
PRG was also demonstrating an automation control system called the Commander. The demonstration had video display panels on automated wagons that were under the control of the Commander while their MBox media server was feeding the content under the control of the V746 lighting console, which was also synched to the Commander via MIDI show control.
Along the same lines was the new Midiator Vision Pro show controller. It is designed to integrate a variety of devices like lighting consoles and media servers using various protocols. Some of the supported brands include Green Hippo, Barco Folsom, TV-One, KissBox, MA Lighting, Flying Pig Systems and Grass Valley.
The growth of the RDM Pavilion is another indicator of the burgeoning importance of networking and controls. The list of manufacturers supporting the protocol include Doug Fleenor Design, Artistic Licence, Creative Lighting, ELC, Robe, Enttec, James Embedded Systems Engineering (JESE), LSC, Cooper Controls, Martin, ETC, Pharos, City Theatrical, Lumen Radio, Wireless Solution and more. The industry is just starting to reap the benefits of the hard work of the ESTA (soon to be PLASA) Control Protocols Working group, and the beneficiaries are the end users out in the field finding incredible applications for these very powerful tools. Just as we are bidding adieu to pioneers like Jean-Charles Juliat, we are, at the same time. offering greetings and salutations to a new crop of technology. Here's to the future.
For PLASA 2010 booth reports, CLICK HERE.
