I recently saw some new LED effects that really turned my head. Up until now, I think every LED fixture I’ve ever seen produces a soft-edge beam and creates a color wash. For the first time that I can recall, I saw an LED fixture with sharply focused beams of light. This could change everything. A few weeks ago the Tour de France was on television. It’s one of the few TV shows I like to watch – if you don’t count The Daily Show. Watching a bike race might sound about as exciting as watching your hair grow, but it’s not like that. It’s actually very exciting.
Invariably, a group of riders forms what’s called a breakaway – they break away from the pack, or the pelleton. About halfway through each 120 mile-or-so stage of the race, the pelleton decides it’s time to reel the breakaway back in. They start picking up speed like a runaway freight train and they gradually bear down on the breakaway. As they get close to the finish line it’s anybody’s guess whether or not they will catch them. In the meanwhile, individual riders in the breakaway try to make a move to accelerate so quickly that they lose the others in the breakaway. Usually such an attack is short-lived, as the others accelerate right behind the attacker and they usually catch up. But the attacks come over and over again, and the attacker hopes that the others in the breakaway “crack” and get left behind before the pelleton catches them. The successful attacker has the best chance of outracing the pelleton and winning the stage, which means instant world-wide recognition, a pile of cash in the form of endorsements, and a legacy in the historic Tour de France. And here’s the cool thing: the breakaway riders aren’t always the ones who are favored to win the Tour. They’re often guys who have little chance of winning the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey. Some people look at the development of LED technology as a horse race, but I think it’s much more like a bike race. The LED pelleton is constantly picking up speed and bearing down on the LED breakaways. It’s fun and exciting to watch the attacks from the breakaways and as the main group catches up it’s going to be a mad dash. Right now, though, we’re seeing very cool product launches attacking the pack. The LED effects that I’m speaking of are made by American DJ – not your conventional technology leader but in this day and age, anything goes. Check out the pictures of their new line of LED effects.
{mosimage}
