15
MOVING LUMINAIRES

The most radical innovation in lighting to come along in more than four decades has been moving luminaires—remote-controlled lights, computer-controlled lights, intelligent lights, wiggle lights, movers, moving lights, whatever you choose to call them. The introduction of the Vari*Lite in September of 1981 by Showco, Inc., a concert lighting company from Dallas, stunned the concert community, not only because of the innovative quality of the product but also because they were not a manufacturer looking to sell a product.

How could the giants of the lighting world miss this idea? Actually, remote control of luminaires had been around for a long time. From my trips throughout the world—specific ally, what I saw in Japan's NKH television studios and at the BBC in London in the early 1970s, as well as reports out of Germany—I was aware of earlier usage of motorized luminaires. However, these were only pan and tilt devises added to the fixture, not a total new design with RGB, CYN, or dichroic color changes. So what made this such an historic introduction? One explanation would be that the established lighting community saw it as a rock & roll effect only and didn't visualize its potential in theatre and television. This is not the first time the mainstream has been slower than rock & roll to pick up on a concept. (The list is long, including the PAR-64, trusses, multicable, and portable packaging of dimming). Again, tour lighting ingenuity had taken an existing technology and improved it tenfold.

THE HISTORY OF MOVING LUMINAIRES

To fill in some historical background, I was fortunate to be able to have a conversation with Louis Erhart, a Yale graduate who had assisted the legendaryStanley McCandles from 1932 to 1934. He joined Century Lighting in 1937. In 1941, he helped establish their West Coast factory operations, retiring as vice president in 1972.I called him to find the historical facts on foreign installations, only to be told that American ingenuity had not been lacking. He produced a copy of a data sheet on a luminaire Century marketed as the Featherlight. It was the outcome of a joint venture with Paramount Studios to develop a commercially saleable remote-controlled luminaire.

The story of that luminaire began toward the end of 1949 when production began on Cecil B. DeMille's cinematic spectacular The Greatest Show on Earth, subsequently released in 1952. A unit was desired that could be mounted high in the Big Top without an operator. A Mr. Hissorich is credited by Erhart as being the developer for Paramount. The joint venture ultimately produced a fully automated television studio in New York in the mid-1950s (NBC's Studio H). Unfortunately, some people thought it represented a potential loss of jobs, so they reportedly did everything possible to sabotage the concept. It is too bad they did not realize that automation increases productivity, thereby increasing usable production time and the need for even more crew. This has been proved in studios in Japan and London. Sadly, the Century/Paramount project was dropped soon after. The designers cited technical shortcomings in motor design, which could have been resolved if they had been willing to stick with the concept. Several of these units exist and were in working order at Los Angeles Stage Lighting until that company closed in the 1980s.

A British firm also has offered information about an early product. Dennis Eynon founded Malham Photographic Equipment, Ltd., in the early 1950s. After meeting William Cremer in Paris in the 1960s,

they collaborated on many projects, including the Top Rank Bristol Suite (Figure 15.1). They installed Cremer's Mixlight, which projected patterns onto balcony walls and used 45-degree mirrors to project patterns onto the dance floor, according to James Eynon, Dennis' son and currently codirector of a company called Malham Lighting Design, Ltd., in London. To quote a letter written by James Eynon on August 7, 1995:

The Mixlight was a development of a 1000w spotlight which contained 2 colour hanging systems. One was a conventional colour wheel with gel colours in an aluminum segmented wheel. The other was a four-blade paddle wheel with perforated gel panels, which rotated axially in a plane at 90 degrees to the conventional colour wheel.

These projectors could also take gobos (made from perforated metal) or glass patterns made from standard pattern glass. They were not remote controlled but changed continuously and used 240-watt AC synchronous motors supplied by Crouzet of France. The projectors had been formerly used at an exhibition, “Formes et Lumieres,” in Liege (commissioned by Phillips).

Cremer was somewhat eccentric, it seems. After a few years he left the company in the hands of his secretary, bought a yacht, sailed the Caribbean, and wrote novels. He returned to Paris and ran a restaurantuntil committing suicide in 1980. Dennis Eynon now lives in Ireland.

James Eynon went on to recount that, after a falling out with the Rank Organisation, Cremer concentrated on television studio designs for his remote-controlled devices. He developed a 1000-watt spotlight that had a motorized pan and tilt and could be focused remotely. The Rank Organisation, persuading Cremer to sell them components, continued supplying Top Rank, Bristol Suite, and at least two other ballrooms.

The luminaires developed in Croydon, England, had six functions: pan, tilt, focus, iris, blackout shutter, and color wheel. It is thought that the iris mechanism was supplied by Strand Electric. The motors were from Crouzel of France and as far as can be determined were 240-V AC. Control was by means of hardwiring through spiral cables to an operator panel, which had momentary switches.

Michael Callihan, in an article in the August 2006 issue of PLSN, said that he believes he has uncovered even more history. Famed New York lighting designer Jules Fisher apparently patented a pin spot with remote pan and tile in 1965. But, an even bigger discovery was that a patent was issued to Edmund Sohlberg from Kansas City in 1906 for a balcony-mounted follow spot; cables ran backstage so a stagehand could control the beam size and direction. while hardly an electronic solution to remote control, it did have an electrically controlled color wheel, according to the article.

The discovery of a patent granted to Dr. Fritz von Ballmoos in Switzerland adds further to the automated luminaire saga. A physicist by trade, with no theatrical experience, von Ballmoos entered a design competition with a friend. He studied what was considered to be the state of the art at the time and devised an automated 200-luminaire system for the theatre. Their design won and was installed in the early 1970s. The luminaires had pan, tilt, and intensity control and could change colors using two color wheels. The system apparently remained in use for some 20 years. He also applied for and received patents in a half-dozen countries, and the initial patents have survived two reexaminations. Callihan believes that these documents provide the best documentation for the history of luminaires, and Dr. von Ballmoos' design was perhaps the most influential for the next phase of development of modern moving luminaires.

In the meantime, in the United States, Showco, a successful concert lighting and sound equipment supplier in Dallas, was working to develop a color changer for the PAR-64 luminaire. In 1980, a team of designers drew upon a couple of emerging technologies—dichroic coated glass and metal halide lamps. The team was headed by Jim Bornhorst, then an audio engineer and console designer who worked for Showco, and it included Brooks Taylor, a software designer; Tom Walsh, a digital hardware designer; and John Covington, an analog systems designer.

Rusty Brutsché, president of Showco at the time, guided the project from start to finish. He was considering dropping the add-on color changer idea in favor of a completely new luminaire. In the fall of 1980, Brutsché and his partner, Jack Maxson, along with Bornhorst and other Showco employees, were having lunch at a local barbecue restaurant. During a discussion of the feasibility of building a new dichroic filter-based luminaire, Maxson remarked, “Two more motors and the light moves ….” An all-out building effort ensued, and by December of 1980 a prototype and a controller existed. Brutsché decided that the group Genesis would be a likely candidate to preview the system, now known as VL Zero (Figure 15.2).

Brutsché and Bornhorst flew to London to present the idea to the band members. In the hayloft of a 500-year-old barn in the English countryside, they executed two simple cues. A band member exclaimed, “I expected the color, but by Jove, I didn't know it was going to move.” With that, an active personal and business relationship began between the two groups.

On September 25, 1981, in a bull ring in Barcelona, Spain, Genesis opened their Abacab tour with 40 Vari*Lite prototype luminaires. The audience reacted immediately the first time the luminaires came on and moved into the crowd. Each time it happened, the crowd's reaction grew. “I remember thinking that we had seen our little system work its magic with the music and knowing that things somehow had changed,” said Bornhorst on the occasion of the 15th-year anniversary of that night in Spain.

According to Tom Littrell, also with Showco in those early days:

Vari*Lite, Inc., engineers began the entire project which was to become the Vari*Lite by thinking in terms of a wholly unified system of automated luminaires and control. The GE Marc 350 bulb, designed initially for slide projectors, had made its appearance in the entertainment world in truss-mounted follow spots and came to the attention of Jim Bornhorst and his team in the late 1970s. They also began to investigate dichroic glass as a permanent color medium not susceptible to heat. The Vari*Lite, Inc., engineers created a practical fading color changer built around the properties of dichoric glass and packaged it, along with the new arc source, into a realistically sized stage lighting instrument.

A photograph of the bench model (Figure 15.3) was finally revealed after years of concealment. For many years, Vari*Lite was very quiet about how everything worked because they feared patent infringement.

Their fears came true, and for a number of years they vigorously defended their patents in court.

VARI*LITE HISTORY

Vari*Lite was formed to handle the manufacturing and marketing of Showco's new product. The Vari*Lite was described as “a self-contained, computer-controlled lighting luminaire.” The luminaire consists of an upper box assembly that houses the lamp power supply, pan mechanism, and other electronics. The lamp housing, or head, contains the lamp, color mechanism, mechanical dimming system, and tilt control. The upper box is also where all the mounting hardware attaches. All of the luminaires are controlled by a multiplexed digital signal distribution system. This means that a single three-wire microphone cable from the computer provided all of the control data for all of the luminaires.

The original Vari*Lite used a GE Marc 350-T16 lamp that could produce 140 fc at 40 feet with a color temperature of 5600 Kelvin. It took 2 seconds to rotate the unit 180 degrees, and the position was accurate to within 1 degree on either axis. It had a mechanical douser that went from full on to full off in under a half second. The beam spread could be varied by choosing any of eight available aperture openings.

Probably its most unique feature, and not copied until later, was the color system. The luminaire produced 60 colors using dichroic filter prisms rather than standard color media. It could change color in one tenth of a second. In addition to the 60 preselected colors, it was possible to dial in a custom mix of colors at the computer console.

Originally, the luminaires were all controlled via a custom computer console with proprietary protocol processing. The processors and cue memories were in the luminaires themselves, and a high-speed bidirectional data link allowed them to achieve a sophistication level that a central processing system couldn't provide in large rigs, according to Rusty Brutsché. Because of this, Vari*Lite products could not be run from any other console, except those designed by Vari-Lite. The original console could store 250 cues from 96 luminaires. It had no tape or disc drive storage; the unit used integrated-circuit storage. Cues could be written for each luminaire or for groups of luminaires and could be retrieved at will or in sequence. The board operator could manually manipulate any feature of any luminaire during a cue.

I am not privy to the details of the next turn of events in this company's long history, but in 2003 Genlyte Thomas Group acquired all assets of Vari*Lite's manufacturing and sales division including the Vari*Lite name, brand, and all patents associated with the Vari*Lite products. There is no doubt that the company has continued to build on its solid reputation and has many loyal designers, even after a further sale to the Philips Group took place.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

This look at the early development of motorized, remote-controlled luminaires should not be taken in any way as minimizing the efforts of the highly inventive work done in the late 1970s and beyond. I am in awe of such creativity and the desire to advance our media.

Further progress in the design of moving luminaires (or motorized yokes or moving mirror luminaires operated via computer control—all names for the same general product) can be attributed to two nontraditional manufacturers: Showco, the touring lighting and sound company from Dallas, and Morpheus Lights, Inc., a San Jose, California-based touring lighting company. The development of their products took similar paths but had interesting variations on the theme. More than 18 other companies are now in the field, with many more offering new entries every month. Some are close copies, but many have added features that have enriched this innovation. So, the rock & roll computer luminaire has obviously disproved expectations that it was only a gimmick or a short-lived effect.

If the stigma of their being introduced by rock & roll companies caused the moving luminaires to initially be shunned by theatre and television, that prejudice has long since been overcome. Television, especially, has embraced them, awarding Emmys as far back as 1983 and 1984 to shows that featured them. Vari*Lite received the 1991 Academy of Television Arts and Science Emmy Award for the development of the Vari*Lite Series 200 automated luminaire system (Figure 15.4). The company was honored again in 1994 for its silent, compact VL5 Wash Luminaire with the innovative DICHRO*TUNE color changer for smooth, full color spectrum crossfades.

Broadway has embraced moving luminaires (see Chapter 24) and made them a staple in their lighting packages, including “Starlight Express,” “The Will Roger Follies,” “The Who's Tommy,” “Miss Saigon,”

and most currently “A Tale of Two Cities.” Films such as Streets of Fire and Batman have also used them extensively.

Rock & roll has proven that the luminaire, with its ability to be repositioned, change color, add patterns automatically, and even change focus on some units, is a very valuable tool. Even the least expensive luminaires can give a big ballyhoo effect for your money. The range of functions is as wide as the companies that develop them. Whereas it was a very small group that had the money and ability to use these luminaires in the 1980s, today and beyond the market is wide open on every level. Moving luminaires are as likely to be seen in a display window as in a Broadway show or your 8-year-old's dance recital. The uses for and variety of tools available under the generic name moving luminaire have not seen their zenith. I could never hope to keep up with this quickly changing segment of the industry.

The luminaire manufacturers listed in Figure 15.5 are among the leaders today, but I can't say what will happen tomorrow. Look at the proliferation of companies manufacturing luminaires that have been pared down to include only those units rugged enough to be viable in the touring industry. Luminaires designed for installation in clubs are not listed. This long list of manufacturers can only mean there is a thriving market not only for concerts but theatre, corporate shows, theme parks, Broadway, store displays, museums, and even architecture.

In 1999, a complete about face from its policy of not selling luminaires occurred when Vari*Lite

announced plans to offer a new line of products for sale. Up until then, shows leased units directly from the company or from one of their licensed distributors. Lighting professionals now had the choice to rent or own Vari*Lite automated lighting systems. Another transitional year for Vari*Lite was 2000, when the Vari*Lite Virtuoso DX console was introduced at Live Design International (LDI) along with the VL2000 Spot luminaire and the VL2000 Wash luminaire. The VL2000 Wash luminaire went on to receive the EDDY Designer Award for Lighting Product of the Year. The next year, they received their third Prime Time Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in Engineering for the Virtuoso console. In 2002, the Vari*Lite Series 3000 product line was introduced, and a color-mixing spotlight luminaire began shipping the next year.

The Vari*Lite Series 3500 Wash (Figure 15.6) and Series 2500 Profile (Figure 15.7) product lines were introduced next, followed by the Vari*Lite Series 500

(Figure 15.8) product line, which was touted as being the next generation of the VL5 Wash luminaire. Most recently, the Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash luminaire was introduced which boasted lumen output and beam control.

This innovative company brings more than 25 years of imagination and skilled research and development to the entertainment industry. Although the business plan may change, the reader should expect many more innovative products from this skilled team.

COST AND AVAILABILITY

Even with increased competition, costs have not lowered appreciably because the features, longevity, and accuracy have been increased. The increased demand for quieter, smoother, more powerful light output and special features does not help to lower the market price, even with a huge influx of products from manufacturers all around the world. Whether costs are coming more in line with theatre or the theatre market has decided they need these luminaires because of the desire of designers to use them, I cannot be sure. So many new products have been introduced into this market that there was bound to be a breakthrough, and it has happened. The introduction of light-emitting diode (LED) sources and digital moving luminaires (see Chapters 16 and 17) has sped the development of newer and better luminaires at a dizzying pace. Certainly we have not seen an end to the

creativity in this area. It is not possible to describe all the moving luminaires because the list would be out of date by the time you read this. What follows is a description of a sample of luminaires offering a variety of features, as well as the units that started it all.

MORPHEUS LIGHTS

When Morpheus Lights entered the moving luminaire market shortly after Showco, they went a step further and made two different luminaires available. The short description that follows focuses on their first technology. The Panaspot was a unit much like the Vari*Lite, with a single housing for all control functions and motors. The GE Marc 350-T16 was also their lamp of choice. A mechanical douser was used to dim the light, but they did have a fully functioning iris instead of the template idea Showco used. There was a slot for a mini-ellipse-sized pattern. The beam size was altered by a magnifying iris. The beam varied from 2 to 25 degrees. Color was via a boomerang setup of seven user-selected colors.

The other luminaire introduced by Morpheus was the PanaB. While similar to the Panaspot in size and somewhat lighter, the light source was a standard

PAR-64 lamp. Any beam width could be used, including an ACL lamp. No dimmer was built in, so intensity control had to be provided within the regular dimming system. This unit used a scrolling color changer with six colors and clear.

Right from the beginning, Morpheus took a different road by not designing a custom console. Rather, they chose to use a stock Kliegl Bros. Performer 2 computer console, assigning each luminaire a position via the soft patch. It allowed for 125 lamps to be controlled and 225 cues to be stored. Their thinking was that, because the console was mass manufactured by a mainstream lighting company, it could control the moving luminaires plus any standard theatrical luminaires at the same time. Repair and replacement was easy via Kliegl dealers around the world, so service was simplified. Kliegl Bros., though, has gone the way of many old mainstream lighting companies who did not see the future in compact, portable, reliable equipment.

The second generation from Morpheus includes many advances. The PC-Spot has a new lamp source, an Osram 400-watt HTI. A significant factor is that the complete luminaire weighs 35 pounds, considerably lighter than the VL2 and VL3. The hanging center has also been reduced to 20 inches. The tilt coverage is not so good, coming in at 240 degrees. Proven zoom optics are once again able to provide a 2- to 25-degree beam spread.

This was the first luminaire other than Vari*Lite to use a dichroic color system; however, they added a ten-frame scrolling system to provide color correction, diffusion filters, or special colors the designer may require. Six pattern holders are built in, and three are capable of rotating with programmable speed and direction, which makes for some very nice added movement in the luminaire besides pan and tilt. Patterns are combined with the zoom lens to control the actual pattern size. Remote focus of the beam from hard to soft is still possible.

The other luminaire is the PC-Beam. The lamp is a 1000-watt FEL, and the luminaire has an internal dimmer. A parabolic reflector produces variable beam spread from ACL-type to wide-floor PAR fields. Color is via an 11-frame scrolling changer. Weight is a lean 20 pounds, which includes dimmer, luminaire head, and electronics. This luminaire also has preprogrammed looks built in; 100 are stored. They can be used as programmed or modified foruser needs.

Recently, the company introduced the PanaB XR2 (Figure 15.9). This moving wash luminaire uses a 1200-watt short-arc source at a color temperature of 6500 Kelvin with CYM color mixing technology. It also has the ability to pan and tilt 360 degrees and has a beam control from 10 to 22 degrees. This company has chosen the lease philosophy of business, leasing rather than selling for most of the products.

MARTIN PROFESSIONAL

Martin Professional certainly ranks high on the list of manufacturers of durable, efficient, and user-friendly moving luminaires. The full family of luminaires totals over 15, including the MAC TW1 (Figure 15.10), which uses a 1200-watt tungsten source and a set of interchangeable zoom lenses—14.5 to 27, 20 to 41, and an exceptionally wide 97 to 105 degrees. This luminaire is also based on the demands of the television and film entertainment needs for accurate color rendering of 3200 to 7500 Kelvin to match the needs of those segments of the industry while providing

a full CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) color mixing system. The luminaire is also very quiet, producing only 40dBA. Power is automatically switched internally so the unit can be used globally without repowering.

The other lead product is the MAC III Profile (Figure 15.11), which uses a 1500-watt short-arc discharge lamp. It incorporates CMY plus variable CTO (color temperature orange) color mixing and has zoom tracking so gobo patterns remain in focus while zooming, if desired. This luminaire is also Remote Device Management (RDM) ready (see Chapter 20) and Art-Net II. Martin makes products other than moving luminaires and consoles; some examples of other such companies will appear in other sections of this book.

HIGH END SYSTEMS

High End Systems has made a business change recently because of its acquisition by Barco. This company also produces LED source moving luminaires (see Chapter 17). Their full range of luminaires also contains a longstanding moving mirror luminaire called the Cyberlight Turbo (Figure 15.12), which is the successor to their original unit, the Intellabeam. It has a unique place in lighting design, and I hope the company retains or improves on it. Generally, we are seeing a lot of club-level luminaires being produced in China in this style

but not by the major players here in the United States. The use of a moving mirror source is limited, as the mirror cannot rotate nearly as far as a yoke—type luminaire (pan, 170 degrees; tilt 100 degrees), and they tend to take up more room than their brothers, but for the right application on tour they are invaluable. Color, patterns, and the other basic functions are all there.

I have used them very successfully in play and musical productions, as well as television.

High End Systems has enjoyed another niche market in television and theatre with their Studio Spot (Figure 15.13), designed specifically for beam effects of projection patterns. It has two rotating gobo wheels and an 18- to 30-degree stepless zoom lens. Studio Color (Figure 15.14) offers beam shaping that is selectable from 8 and 22 degrees, in addition to an infinite color selection. It is equipped with variable frosting, strobe, and shutter. Both use conventional light sources. At 575 watts with CMY color mixing, they are a total package for many applications. These luminaries have proved extremely popular with television and film people, as well as theatre because of their virtually silent operation.

Richard Belliveau, chief technology officer, has introduced several products that would have to be considered flagship products. The big gun, so to speak, is the distinctively designed SHOWGUN 2.5 (see Figure 15.15) which is a very large and powerful automated luminaire that can project images, change and mix dichroic colors, and switch from

hard edge to soft edge all within a compact system. The SHOWGUN 2.5 offers 130,000 lumens of light.

SHOWGUN provides lighting in three dimensions: first, in the air with high-energy focused or soft edge beams; second, with images projected on the stage surface; and, third, at the SHOWGUN luminaire itself by using an innovative LED tracking system. The optical design incorporates a proprietary, optically accurate polymer micro-Fresnel lens that allows SHOWGUN to produce a true focused hard-edge or a brilliant soft-edge combination, without the need for two separate luminaire types. In the hard-edge focus, it can project HES LithoPattern images. SHOWGUN's main output uses a 2500-watt short-arc metal halide lamp designed as a joint venture between Philips and High End Systems and listed as the MSR 2500/2. Another unique feature is the LED tracking system, which mixes an RGB LED circular array that allows the user to either match the color of the main output beam or project a complementary color by mixing RGB values. According to High End Systems, “The LED tracking system alone produces more than 5000 lumens of output, and works in tandem with SHOWGUN's other features to redefine the rules of lighting design.”

Standard luminaires from this company include the Studio Command series (Figure 15.16) in both MRS 700- and 1200-watt lamp versions, as well as a halogen version for 3200 Kelvin needs. This luminaire group has all of the preferred features and uses CMY dichroic color mixing. The wash version is called the Studio Beam, which also uses CMY color mixing with an 18- to 30-degree zoom range.

The company also produces two unique luminaires called the SHOWPIX and the StudioPix (see Chapter 16). SHOWPIX, a combination high-power LED wash luminaire and programmable high-intensity, graphic image-displaying luminaire, represents the first in High End Systems' new product line, Pixelation Luminaires. SHOWPIX is more than an LED wash luminaire on a moving yoke. Its 18-inch-diameter head features a circular array of 127 homogeneous 3-watt LEDs with an output of 24,000 RGB lumens. “These pixels offer unlimited visual possibilities by projecting not just washes of color but also displaying images and other eye-catching effects that transform the luminaire head into a display device,” according to the company brochure. SHOWPIX is equipped with 411 stock content animations and patterns for lighting design. Users can easily upload their own files and images through the new High End System Echo application, a software program offering content

visualization as well as RDM management features. Instantaneous conversion of many file formats automatically optimizes or “supercharges” the images and maps the files to the 127 LED pixels. The mere size of the unit is also impressive; with a face area that is 17.7 inches wide, the total luminaire is 23.4 inches wide and 33 inches tall. Although big, it is still about the size of a number of new luminaires, such as the Bad Boy by PRG and the VL3500. The company claims that SHOWPIX is economical because there are no lamps to replace and maintenance costs are lower because of limited moving parts. The luminaire in use is certainly impressive and stands as a watermark for other LED-based moving luminaires.

ROBE LIGHTING

A company with headquarters in the Czech Republic, ROBE Lighting offers a solid line and wide variety, including a dozen moving yoke luminaires, several moving mirrors (scanners), and digital and LED movers, as well. Their ColorWash 750 AT Tungsten

(Figure 15.17) uses a Phillips Hi-Bright 750 FastFit halogen lamp and is available in both European and U.S. models for power service considerations. The color system is via CMY with CTO mixing, and it has the ability to place five custom colors in the unit. The luminaire comes with a 12- to 34-degree or optional 24- to 60-degree beam spread and a rotatable beam shaper. The largest unit is the ColorSpot 2500E AT. This is a luminaire with the standard features found on most of the units already discussed. ROBE Lighting is only one of a long list of companies such as Clay Paky, Coemar, and OmniSystems that you will find listed in Figure 15.5.

PRODUCTION RESOURCE GROUP (PRG)

Although PRG only offers one luminaire (for rental only), and it is tied to its own console (see Chapter 11), it will serve as another example of the next generation of moving luminaires. PRG is more than a manufacturer of moving luminaires; in fact, their

name says it all. They are a large conglomerate of companies woven together by Jere Harris; however, their decision to develop their own light and console is a departure because they are tied to Vari*Lite in a marketing arrangement. They are the undisputed preeminent source worldwide for lighting and set designers, production managers, and video and audio engineers—so says their website, at least—but it is true that it is difficult to avoid the company on some level during a tour.

The Bad Boy (Figure 15.18) is a hybrid luminaire that combines the qualities of a traditional automated luminaire with a large venue luminaire. Powerful and brilliant, road ready and reliable, the Bad Boy could be your choice when a big-beam look is required. It produces a powerful 48,000 lumens and couples its high-defi nition optics with a Philips MSR Gold 1200-watt SA/SE FastFit lamp that can be set at any level between 700 and 1400 watts. Its brochure boasts of an optical efficiency of over 40%.

Optical clarity and smooth fluid control of focus, zoom, dimming, and imaging are obtained by bringing together high-quality lenses and high-speed servomotors, perfect for high-resolution gobos. Bad Boy incorporates a zoom lens system with exceptional optical imagery and a zoom range of 8:1 from a narrow spot of 7 degrees to a wide flood of 56 degrees. The 8-inch-diameter front lens produces a large, full beam that easily can be varied by the luminaire's zoom lens and beam size iris. The zoom consists of four groups of lenses—each independently controlled for accuracy while maintaining focus during zoom changes—plus edge control for gobo focus and gobo morphing. Bad Boy's two rotating gobo wheels are indexable, and each of the seven gobos per wheel is individually calibrated so the unit automatically indexes the orientation of each gobo regardless of placement.

Bad Boy has the swift, organic movement comparable to a unit just one quarter of its size and weight. Three-phase, high-speed servomotors with a clutch and dual optical encoders for pan and tilt provide repeatable, precision responses with a maximum speed of 4.1 seconds for 540 degrees of pan and 3.2 seconds for 270 degrees of tilt with an accuracy of 0.2 degrees.

Vibrant colors are a result of the Quantum Color system. This innovative color method features four color wheels with seven discrete colors on each wheel: one designer wheel with user-changeable color filters and three fixed color wheels organized into cyan, magenta, and yellow. Bad Boy's individual color filters allow for variation in both saturation and hue of the CMY colors, resulting in a much broader and vibrant range of saturated colors that are pure and homogeneous across the beam. Because no diffusion material is required, the output brightness in white and the brightness of the colors are maximized. Each wheel uses a high-speed servomotor for rotation, which provides for instantaneous color bumps and flashes as well as smooth control for timed color changes.

ELECTRONIC THEATRE CONTROLS (ETC)

Although others have tried to develop and market an ellipsoidal that is designed around a moving luminaire, ETC has a proven product in the Source Four Revolution (Figure 15.19). This is a zoom unit with full pan and tilt and a 15- to 35-mm zoom feature. A 24-frame color scroller and the exclusive QuietDrive motor control make it ideal for theatre or concert use. One of the most recognizable features of the standard ellipsoidal luminaire is the four shutters that can shape the light, and ETC has built them into a remote controlled module. Other modules are available,

such as a color scroller, rotating wheel module, and static wheel module, along with an iris module. This unique feature allows the user to choose which functions are needed. All modules are autosensing and require no patching or internal changes to the unit. The only limitation is that the unit cannot accept all modules at once, so there is some need to be prepared to make choices. The lamp is a 750-watt, 77-volt QXL with a modulated dimmer.

ADB LIGHTING TECHNOLOGIES

ADB Lighting Technologies started life as a Belgium company in 1920. It was bought in 1987 by the SIEMENS Group, and a management buy-out followed in 2002; the company is now headquartered in France. They have a very long history in theatre design of lighting luminaires, dimmers, and consoles. The WARP Motorized 800W (Figure 15.20) had to be included in this chapter for its uniqueness alone. Yes, it is a moving luminaire, but it doesn't have to

be. It can be purchased with or with out a moving yoke. More importantly, it is a profile spot, and, yes, is still unique. The company is not trying to market this as a touring concert luminaire, but this book is about all new technology in lighting. A unique feature is that the ring control, conventional shutters have been replaced by four integrated blades, each with 360 degrees of endless rotation capability. Their innovative (patented) ring control provides focus, zoom, iris, gobo, and shutters. The rings allow for accurate fingertip (manual adjustment) from any position around the luminaire or via remote control. It uses an 800-watt halogen axial lamp and operates at 230 volts, 3200 Kelvin, which produces light output higher than with a 1200-watt conventional profile luminaire. All features beside the pan and tilt can be fitted with motors for all functions. If cost is not the main issue, this radical luminaire truly warrants further investigation.

THE FUTURE OF MOVING LUMINAIRES

The future is, to say the least, no pun intended, bright. With some of the luminaire discussed there can be no question that the versatility of moving luminaires has application not only for concerts but also in all forms of entertainment and architectural applications. The costs are dropping, and there is no comparing the design flexibility that is possible over conventional luminaires. The state-of-the-art quality and cutting-edge design of these developments are almost moving too rapidly to keep up with. When you can focus, color, and even dim a source of such brightness and high color temperature remotely, the time has come to broaden our thinking to not just concerts but all entertainment applications. I can see no area that these innovations, and along with others shown in the book are not at least something to consider in making your next production unique.

Our wish for a trouble-free streamlined system that uses as little cable as possible is becoming more of a likelihood as more computer protocols and transferable, slick computer designs are introduced to modernize our way of doing things. There is plenty to look forward to. More and more theatres, even high school and college theatres, now have moving luminaires installed. This field is simply moving too fast to stop it from taking over virtually all entertainment lighting in the not too distant future.