50,000 Hours
elektraLite, distributed by Farmingdale, NY-based Group One, seems to have found a good niche in the market. There is a single luminous white LED as the source, but they are running it at 150 watts to save on lamp life. The 50,000-hour lifetime of the LED is a major attribute. But unlike all other lights, the eye Kandy does not rely on the LED dimming itself, or having to use individual RGB diodes to change color. Besides the internal light source, the manufacturer has surrounded the output face of the fixture with 16 RGB Cree LEDs to add some dazzling effects.
I start out by shining this baby on a wall from 20 feet away. The 6-degree tight beam resembles a Luke Skywalker light saber. It is that thin. The main beam is white as snow. I’m measuring close to 400-foot candles from this distance. It has a perfectly flat field with none of the hot spots normally generated by a typical arc lamp. I get a pretty hard-edged beam that is 100 percent white. I see absolutely no traces of any other color and zero blue halo around the outside of the beam. The fixture itself has a normal mechanical shutter. It is lightning-quick. I put it in a 10 second fade and the function performs perfectly linear. Unlike other LED fixtures that tend to change color hues as they fade down, this shutter eliminates any chance of that problem. I check out the strobe function. It works well with variable speeds and pulsing. There is no random strobe function in this fixture. There is a separate strobe channel for the outside ring of LEDs. I can sync the strobes from both outputs so they work together, or tweak them at different speeds until I find a good offset strobe look.
Multi-colored Effects
To achieve different colors, the eye Kandy’s main output utilizes a color wheel for optimum light output. The seven colors on the wheel match the rainbow and change quickly. Of course, there are variable speeds to roll the color wheel for cool chases. The LEDs surrounding the outside are fairly bright. They are RGB color mixing, and in white, I meter 40 foot candles from a 20-foot distance. There is actually a 26-degree beam of light being emitted by the tri-color LEDs, so it adds to the beam. When I put both sources in red, I have a nice red hot spot in the middle of a fat beam. At this point, I’m asking myself if this fixture is a spot or a wash light. All I can think is that it’s both — a hybrid.
I start mixing different colors between the color wheel and the exterior LEDs and like what I’m seeing. Green and blue colors look great together. I write a fast chase that swaps the greens and blues, and I am laughing because it looks so cool. I could use these for an electronic dance show all day long. But it gets better — as I continue playing, I find that the LEDs can be broken down into four quadrants. So the ring can actually be four different colors. I choose a color effect from the console’s library, and the fun begins. Within a minute, I have five different effects running, and I realize that I now have the ultimate disco light.
Sharp Gobos
I take a look at the gobos. There are seven individual replaceable stock gobos. They are indexable and can rotate in any direction. They snap in place fairly quickly and I am able to bump between gobo patterns easily. The wheel can roll in either direction. Through a reducer filter, I can actually trim the beam down to a wafer-thin 3 degrees, and it is still quite bright. The gobo images are crisp. There is no separate focus function or a frost/prism filter, so the image remains sharp at all times. As I run through the gobos, I run into a pretty clever function I have never seen on any other moving light. The gobo wheel can be set in a sine wave of sorts, so the fixture constantly oscillates back and forth between two or more gobos on the wheel.
Pan and Tilt
I check out the movement on the yoke. The head can rotate 540 degrees in less than two seconds. It can tilt from zero to full in under a second. I put it in some slow movement cues, and the 16-bit motors pan and tilt without any stuttering. I put the unit in a variety of movement effects from the console and it behaves well at a medium speed with no jerking around in between direction changes. Perfect for a rock ‘n’ roll light. After a half hour on, I reach over and touch the outside of the fixture. It is slightly warm. The fans keep it well-cooled; there’s no worry about placing this fixture next to any soft goods or set piece and burning anything. The light is not miniature, but it is certainly small enough to tuck in any little space on stage. At just under two feet high and 15 inches wide, it weighs less than 35 pounds. Handles on either side make it easy to carry. The fixture has mounting brackets that can utilize any clamp to attach to a pipe or truss.
The self-sensing power supply can run on any voltage from 100-240 volts. It is fed AC through an IEC connector. The panel mount 5-pin XLR connectors take DMX in and pass it through. Of course, it can run in stand-alone mode as well. A simple LCD unit on the side is used to address the fixtures or program them in this mode. Perfect for party and storefront applications. I went down to see a show that was using these fixtures, and they certainly held their own with a bunch of competitor’s fixtures. They made an excellent rear floor light and shin kicker for this particular rock show.
I’m pretty happy with this fixture, but then I look at the retail price and my jaw drops. For everything this fixture offers, ElektraLite is only asking $2,895. Bottom line is you get a lot of punch for your buck for a fixture that truly lives up to its name.
elektraLite eye Kandy
What it is: Moving light fixture that surrounds a single 200W white LED light source with 16 RGB LEDs
Who It’s For: Lighting designers looking for cool effects including single-fixture color chases and other eye candy
Pros: Small fixture size with plenty of output for an LED source. Sweet eye candy effects for a good price.
Cons: No random strobe effect or prism filter.
Price: $2,895
