Every year, lighting manufacturers reveal their latest model of a fixture to go along with other competitor's models in that range. In order to make their product stand out among the other brands, there has to be something new and unique that the fixture can do. Clay Paky has indeed taken the next step in developing the most advanced effects on any large hard edge fixture I have seen. One of the things that make this fixture so special is the length it has gone to in the projection category. There are two separate and distinctly different sets of rotating gobo wheels. There are two bi-directional rotating, shaking and indexable wheels with six replaceable dichroic glass patterns. While this may be common in fixtures this size, what is unique is that the two wheels seem to have two distinctive different gobos on each. One wheel seems to contain patterns that were chosen to make beautiful aerial breakups. By this, I mean the light is projected through some haze to make a beautiful breakup pattern of light beams. The other wheel of rotating gobos seems to choose shapes that are better suited to projecting textures on scenery than the actual beam splitting itself. This ability gives something to every designer here. Along with these wheels, there is a static gobo wheel with holes for eight gobos that do not rotate.
Animated Star Gobo
What's revolutionary about the Alpha Spot HPE 1500 is its patent-pending Animated Star gobo. This is a new effect that consists of a secondary iris effect that is located about halfway up in the focal point of the lighting instrument so it focuses outside of the normal iris range. When you adjust the focus point of the light beam on this position, the designer gets a circular beam chopping effect, but instead of making the light beam larger and smaller like a normal iris, it seems to break the image apart and collapse it as it shrinks. You can actually feather a gobo pattern to make it look soft around the edges but sharp in the center. The built-in effects the light has for this feature are quite sparkling and add a new dimension to hard-edged fixtures.
Morphing between gobos on different wheels is linear and sweet to my eye. You can have two different gobos in the light path and still focus sharply on one pattern, without noticing the other. The focusing optics on this baby is second to none. In fact, this fixture has the first "auto focus" capability that I've ever seen actually work well on any moving light. It let me focus a sharp image on a wall, then preset a specific DMX channel to lock it in focus at a specific distance. Now I can play with the zoom, (i.e. making the beam larger), and the image will stay sharp. Of course, disabling the auto focus allows you to soften the edges of gobos. I noticed that the entire gobo image shining on a wall was crisp. It does not soften around the edges like comparable fixtures.
Clay Paky has taken the animation wheel a step further. This wheel is able to produce a rippling wave-type effect over the other patterns in the light. It is hard to explain without viewing the actual effect, but it blows away all other animation wheels I have seen on today's market. The zoom ratio of 9:1 is impressive as the fixture can zoom its beam size from 6 to 57 degrees, very quickly. Adding to these already high-performance effects are a 5-facet rotating prism wheel and a linear 0-to-full frost filter. There is a standard iris mechanism besides the "animated star" mentioned earlier.
The CYM color system is fast and efficient. I was able to mix a nice red as well as a Congo blue, through the filters. But Clay Paky has shown me something I have never seen before. A dedicated channel is provided that premixes the colors for the user. By following a printed sheet in the manual, the Alpha Spot HPE 1500 actually will provide the user with 250 pre-made color macros that follow the CYM values. Say you are trying to blend the perfect lavender to resemble a specific gel you like to use. Chances are, this color system can find it for you rapidly. You could make all your color palettes for a show without ever seeing a fixture turned on. Of course, this bad boy also comes with a color wheel consisting of six replaceable dichroic colors, as well as a linear color correction wheel that can dip the color temperature down to 3200 degrees from the original 6000 that the bulb puts out.
This fixture is bright, and the light output is truly white. The Osram 1500W Fast-Fit discharge light is easily replaceable and guarantees 750 hours of life before it starts dimming. The fixture requires 200 to 240 volts of AC to run, but you can set the output down from 1500 to 1200 watts if preferred. I believe they are working on making this model go down to 800 watts in the future. The shutter is both mechanical and electronic. You can set the light to idle at half-intensity by closing the shutter and sending the color flags to full ("Black") mode and save on power usage. The shutter comes with a wide variety of effects ranging from typical strobe functions to various cool pulsing effects.
The fixture comes with a new function entitled "Create a Cue Effect." There are eight different zoom/iris effects built into the fixture. A user can go into the state-of-the-art LCD panel on the outside of each fixture and assign it to a be in a group with other fixtures. Then the operator assigns each fixture an ID number within that group. This makes it easy to adjust the offset on these different effects without the use of an effects engine on an expensive lighting console. One simply adjusts the effects through a single DMX channel to offset the different timed outputs on each fixture.
Hardware-wise, this fixture follows the other Alpha fixtures – the body is made from an aluminum structure with a die-cast plastic cover. These fixtures are built road tough, and I have not witnessed any cracks in the casing for any of these models. The fixture still weighs in at 109 lbs. and is fairly large. Its size is 33 inches tall by approximately 19 inches square. The pan limits extends to 540 degrees and can pan from zero to full in 4 seconds. The tilt reaches 252 degrees and takes 3.2 seconds to go from zero to full. None of this is breaking any records, but the fixture is incredibly silent when it moves, due to the use of three-phase motors for pan and tilt. The light reacts very well to a circle effect I apply to its pan and tilt. No jerky moves, just a linear circle as intended. Handles on the sides and quarter-turn locking clamps make it easy to hang. The fixture comes with two rubber pads that mount to the bottom should you wish to use this fixture as a floor light.
DMX can be applied through 5 pin or 3 pin XLR connectors. It is also ready for Ethernet as well. Firmware uploads to the light can be achieved through the XLR connectors and can be done while the fixture is turned off. The fixture has forced air-cooling that expels heat through vents. The fan speed can be adjusted accordingly to what wattage you tell the fixture to output. The cooling system is monitored and the power supply will shut down if it notices any overheating. The bipolar circuit breaker comes with thermal protection as well.
