The new logo caught me by surprise. Though I knew Strong had recently purchased the rights to build and sell the Technobeam from its former manufacturer, High End Systems, it didn’t really fully register. But when I took it out of the box, grabbing it by its two handles, and set it down on the floor standing on end, there it was, staring me in the face. The Strong logo on the mirror end of the fixture is a stark reminder of the new manufacturer. The question is, is it the same fixture?
From all outward appearances it seems that it is the same fixture. The 34” long, 16” wide and 13” high fixture (with the yoke) still has the familiar black polycarbonate housing (although it’s available in white upon request) with the sleek-looking rounded mirror head. The two side handles make it easy to carry and the bottom of the fixture allows it to stand upright. The polycarbonate helps keep its weight down to a very manageable 41 pounds.
One of the original advancements in this fixture when it first came out was the optical efficiency. The patented two-piece combination elliptical/spherical reflector was designed to capture as much light as possible from the MSD 250 lamp while offering the optical clarity of a spherical reflector design, and it is still on par with the current technology.
The manufacturer may have changed, but little else has. It still has seven great looking Lithopatterns and 11 dichroic colors plus a CTO and an open no color. The quality of the etched glass patterns and the richly saturated colors remains consistent with the original product and the colors are well chosen to provide a good range of color without choking the light output. The dark magenta and indigo colors are really nice looking. The Lithopatterns are also noteworthy for their great colors, especially the psychedelic TB-Lumoil and the rich red Technowedges, and their grayscale depth and textures. The optical system provides the sharpness that makes these glass gobos nice and crisp. The effects wheel includes a 5-facet rotating prism, lenticular glass, “slow glass,” and a frost filter.
Using a Minolta T-10 Illuminance meter I measured the illuminance with a 40-foot throw at 129.6 footcandles. Any time I can get over 100 footcandles of white light, assuming I can control the ambient lighting, then I’m happy because I can always dim my other sources or zoom them to their biggest beam angle to match the intensity of all the other sources. This particular measure was done with the narrowest beam angle of 11°, which produced a spot that was 7 feet 8 inches in diameter. And that brings up another nice feature of this light, namely the manual zoom. In a perfect world every light would have a remote zoom, but that’s not the reality. The second best scenario is to be able to manually adjust the zoom when you need a different beam angle. In this case, you can adjust it by opening the access door, popping open the lens tube, and moving the adjustable lens to another position. I did it with the light on, though I wouldn’t necessarily endorse that method.
In addition to the features already mentioned, the Technobeam also has split colors, color spins and scans, an iris with macros, remote focus, shutter with macros, dimmer and 28 macros. The dimmer looks smooth but it’s not entirely uniform from the perspective of watching it projected on a wall. But dimming a white spot on a wall is seldom the way it’s used. The pan and tilt is very smooth and fast — it can pan 180º in less than a second — and slow diagonal movements are very graceful. The shutter strobes well, if a bit slow by today’s standards. It’s a mechanical strobe as opposed to an electronic strobe, and once you’ve become accustomed to electronic strobes anything else seems slow by comparison.
All in all, the Technobeam is still a fine lighting instrument. It provides plenty of light for many applications with throws of up to 40 feet. The colors and projections are well designed and they present bright, colorful, sharp images. The moving mirror means that it can pan and tilt quickly but it also does slow movements very well. It has plenty of effects to keep the show fresh and interesting while offering a variety of looks. And it doesn’t take a behemoth to rig it and troupe it.
Strong Entertainment Lighting has chosen a proven product with which to launch into the automated lighting market. Their 75 years in the business and reputation for reliable products are in good hands.
What it is: moving mirror automated luminaire
Who it’s for: anyone who needs an automated profile fixture for throws of up to 40 or 50 feet
Pros: small, bright, fast, relatively inexpensive, great effects and colors, lots of features
Cons: no remote zoom, some non-uniformity in the dimming, mechanical strobing
Retail Price: POA
