Selecon Rama 6″ FFT PC

Last month, I heard that Selecon, the New Zealand lighting manufacturer, had designed a new conventional lighting fixture that was going to make people interested in a Fresnel. It was hard to get excited. A couple years ago, people crossed a PAR with a Fresneltype lens and that did not thrill me. But then I actually used the new Selecon fixture.

I think Selecon is about to change the way the U.S. market looks at conventional fixtures. It’s not just one or two new cool things; it’s about 10 unique things that will have the whole industry asking, “Why hasn’t someone thought of this before?” The Rama series is Selecon’s group of lens luminaries that includes the Rama 6” and 7” Fresnel and the Rama 6” and 7” PC. I am going to concentrate on the 6” FFT PC that I just used in a theatre performance. It is a 1,200-watt fixture with many options.

FFT stands for “fast focus technology.” All of the functions, including pan, tilt and beam focus, can be set with one hand and no tools. First, let me tell you about the zoom. A knob on the side of the barrel is attached to the bulb and reflector inside the fixture. Sliding the knob adjusts the beam size from 5º to 60º. One great thing is that you never have to turn the zoom knob to adjust the beam. You simply squeeze the knob and slide the mechanism back and forth. Letting go of the knob automatically locks it in place. This eliminates the loss of barrel knobs and saves time. There are also no metal-on-metal parts here. Nothing will stick when the fixture gets hot.

The fast focus technology includes a new type of pan grip on top of the yoke. To focus the pan, you grip the knob and twist the fixture until it is focused. Letting go of the pan knob locks the fixture in place. Bumping it with another fixture will not throw it off its focus. There is also a scale in degrees on the pan grip, which can greatly simplify a hang if the designer cares to list the focus degrees for each fixture on a lighting plot. This could be a plus for Broadway theatrical tours. You can attach any clamp to this pan grip.

The tilt mechanism is similar, except they have come up with a killer idea. The yoke slides back and forth through a groove on the outside of the fixture so you can adjust the pivoting point of the fixture to balance it correctly. Hence, if you are adding accessories such as a barn door or color changer, you can simply slide the yoke forward to offset the extra weight. It takes the awkwardness out of focusing top-heavy light fixtures.

The PC in the name stands for Pebble Convex, which is the type of lens in this fixture. Instead of a stepped lens with concentric rings like a Fresnel, this lens looks like a frosted narrow spot PAR lens. It’s designed to project a soft beam with no edges. It’s clear like a Leko, except the outside perimeter of the lens is stippled to make it more diffuse. I now have a fixture with an adjustable beam that I can use as a Leko, but I don’t have to make the beam edges soft. This is a huge advantage over using a Leko with an iris because an iris mechanism actually cuts the light beam down to size by blocking light, thus reducing the total luminous flux. A zoom redistributes the flux instead of blocking it, which makes it more efficient.

The fixture is built with a rounded barrel. It is 12 by 12 by 19 inches in length. It has rounded edges and no sharp corners, which helps prevent it from catching it on scenery. The barrel is metallic, but the front and rear pieces are built from a specially-engineered plastic. This keeps the surface temperature down and allows a tech to focus the fixture without burning fingers. The barn door and gel frames are made of the same type of plastic, so they will not heat up or cut you while you’re focusing.

Speaking of gel frames, Selecon has finally invented one that prevents the gel from falling out of the frame. Their patented “Grippa” frame locks two plastic pieces together and holds the gel between them. You can throw it like a Frisbee and the gel will stay in place. Plus, the frames have rounded edges that let them slide in place easily.

A side door along the barrel swings down to make it simple to change the bulb without having to refocus the instrument. It also makes it easy to clean the inside of dust and accumulated fog oil. There is a micro switch located in this door that kills the mains to the light whenever the flap is open. No more bothering to unplug the fixture just to change the bulb.

Last but not least, I must mention the built-in retractable safety cable. The safety wire pulls out of a base on the fixture to secure it to a pipe and it retracts for easy storage. The safety wire will not get lost or catch on a road case when you put it away.

This fixture can take either a 1,200-watt or 1,000-watt bulb. It is designed to take ‘T’ or ‘CP’ class lamps. They can ship with either a GX 9.5 or G22 lamp base. The one thing to remember is that a typical Fresnel bulb takes a full second to heat up to full, so don’t plan on bumping and flashing with this particular fixture. But it will produce a perfectly flat field without any noticeable hot spot. As far as photometrics, this fixture will dish out 727 footcandles from 21 feet away when it’s zoomed to a 5º spot. At a full flood zoom of 60º, the illuminance was measured at 27 from the same distance. The beam size of the 5º beam thrown from 21 feet was a respectable 18 inches. The size of the 60-foot beam was 24 feet wide. The fixture weighs 17.2 pounds and is 12 by 12 by 19 inches long. The list price for this fixture is $350.

After 30 years of battling with safeties, losing focus knobs and focusing with a wrench, all I can say is, it’s about time.