22 DECEMBER 2017 • plsn.com

Over the course of 2017, the staff at PLSN checks out every new product that has to do with the live event industry and beyond. Besides the

wide variety of lighting categories we have these days for fixtures, there are great innovations in everything from touring video systems to clamps and gadgets that aid us in our pursuit of the perfect tools for our shows. The editor and a roundtable of writers, lighting design-ers, a video director and stage technicians have de-cided that the following two dozen devices that have come out in the last year bear some special acknowl-edgement for their excellence in filling a special need in our marketplace.

By NookSchoenfeld

Best New Hybrid Light

Best New Effects Light

Best New Strobe

Best New Moving Batten

Best Hard Edge LED Spot

Best New Club Light

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Robe MegaPointeMany fixtures

claim to be hybrids, but they really excel at one facet, not the others. They may make a good beam, but the only reason they call it a wash is because of a frost flag. This fixture will have none of that — it is a beauty.

Packing twice the brightness of its predecessor, it now includes a CMY system with the TV color wheel. The new zoom range can adjust from 1-42° and the field of light is virtually flat if you desire. We finally have a thin beam fixture with a linear dimmer.

Accepting the award are Lorien Cochenour, Josef Valchar, Harry von den Stemmen and Bob Schacherl.

GLP JDC1The strobe market

seemed to hit its peak a couple years ago as everyone had their own version of how they should be made. Some used reflectors, some were just blocks of cells. All of them could strobe, but GLP wait-ed…because they are different.

The JDC1 has 12 cells of intense white LEDs in a center tube. They surround this tube with another 12 cells of RGB LEDs to make a multi-part fixture that rocks. Add the fact that they put a motorized tilt on it, and that says it all.

GLP’s Udo Kuenzler accepts the award from PLSN publisher Terry Lowe.

ADJ Vizi CMY300Club lights are often

one-trick ponies, and many of them are just eye candy. But occasion-ally, a new fixture comes out that has all the fea-tures of a large model, but is scaled down in footprint and price point to open one’s eyes.

The Vizi CMY 300 does just that. A solid color mixing system backed with an LED sourced light engine with 300 watts of power is perfect for any low hang. Besides onboard wireless DMX it has two prism wheels, motor-ized focus, zoom and iris.

Accepting the award are ADJ national sales manager Alfred Gonzales and ADJ group president Toby Velazquez.

GOLD STAR AWARDS

Elation Chorus Line 16The advent of LED strip lights revolutionized the way these products were used. Eye

candy and blades of light cutting across stages gave them a whole new use. Adding a motorized tilt changed the world. But they still weren’t overly bright.

Enter the Chorus Line 16, a batten designed to cut through the other layers of video and light beams on the stage. Boasting 16 cells of 40W 4-in-1 RGBW LEDs with individual control, motorized zoom and tilt, it can throw a beam 40 feet.

Accepting the award from PLSN publisher Terry Lowe is Eric Loader.

Chauvet Professional Pyxis

Multi-cell LED prod-ucts are everywhere, but few of them serve dual purposes, with a main beam that can wash a stage or pro-vide a shaft of light while surrounded by smaller LEDs that provide eye candy or more oomph to your main beam. This is precisely what Chauvet has done with the Pyxis. Not for the weak programmer, this fixture dazzles with a 60 watt four-in-one LED in the center surrounded by nine 15 watt LED cells. Mixes colors and effects in a cool way.

Albert Chauvet accepts the award from PLSN editor Nook Schoenfeld.

ClaypakyAxcor Profile 900

As is Claypaky tra-dition, they wait until they have a product perfected before they release it. They don’t compete, they inno-vate. As the market for hard edge spots with LED light engines becomes saturated, they are excelling.

The Axcor Profile 900 has all the bells and whistles you need from a hard edge moving spot, including framing shutters, animation wheel, color mixing and the lot. But it also offers 24,000 lumens of light that is as powerful as their Scenius models.

Accepting the Gold Star award are Claypaky’s Giovanni Zucchinali and Brian Dowd from ACT Lighting.

24 DECEMBER 2017 • plsn.com

GOLD STAR AWARDS

Best New Light for Theater

Best New Conventional Fixture

Best New Beam Fixture

Best New Eye Candy

Best Moving Light for Camera

Best New Exterior Architectural Light

Best New Interior Architectural Light

Best New Battery Operated Light

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HES SolaFrame Theatre

High End Systems dedicated their man-ufacturing to using all LED light sourc-es for their fixtures years ago. For years, they have had R&D teams working on cooling sys-tems to try and make the first totally silent fixture.

The SolaFrame Theatre is completely fanless and enclosed in a way that all the functions are silent. No motor noise or clanging gobo wheels. With full-frame, four-plane shutters, these retain the effects packages from their SolaSpot series.

Accepting the award is “Zod” Moosavi from High End Systems.

Mega-Lite Color Pac SeriesBattery powered LED uplights have been

a big seller in the corporate, party ambience market for years now. They come in all sizes, but more often than not, the user cannot get a wide beam of light out of them that still boasts good output.

Kudus to Mega-Lite for inventing a squat square fixture with a wide 120° beam angle. A small vertical footprint allows one to place these under tables efficiently. A light source of 81 SMD .25W RGBWW LED’s quietly provides vibrant colors.

Terry Lowe (center) presents the award to Mega Systems’ Isabel Cabada, Miguel Cabada, Arturo Cabada and Julia Garcia.

Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beam

Since the boom of the pencil beam came along, nobody has paid attention to the fat collimated searchlight beam market. Old sky trackers of yore were outdated, and a need for a whole new concept and model was growing.

The VL6000 Beam fills that void. A large 14-inch front aperture — using a new exclusive Philips ellip-soid reflector array system — produces a retro style searchlight effect, with a high output tight collimated shaft of light. A unique color system as well.

Accepting the award are Alex Nicu and Martin Palmer from Philips.

Blizzard Lighting LoopOne can go crazy looking at all the various disco type lighting products on the market.

But every once in a while, something catches our eyes, and even if we have no use for it at the moment, we just know we’re going to want some of these one day.

That was my first reaction to seeing the Loop. It’s a seven-eyed LED batten that twirls continuously in all directions. Around each of the seven cells is a separate loop of LED, simulating a neon ring. All rings and cells operate alone, providing tasty eye candy.

Accepting the award are Will Komassa and Frank Luppino from Blizzard

Martin MAC Encore Performance

When it comes to precise color tem-perature in a moving light, it’s always been a battle for an DP to get a bunch of these fixtures to match precisely, not to mention that prop-er CTO is rarely mixed flawlessly in moving lights.

Harman’s Martin offers a cool daylight version and a warm color model with LED sourced light engines. The buyer chooses the fixture best suited to their needs. It is best in its compact class and size with a high CRI and a small footprint. Extremely quiet operation.

Accepting the award from Nook is Markus Klusener, product manager for Martin. See “Road Test,” page 72.

D.T.S. Brick LED Wash Light

When I look at exterior architec-tural lights I often see weathered, ugly fixtures. I often wonder why a more rock ‘n’ roll approach to exterior light fixtures is not used more often. It pleased me to see the Brick from D.T.S. illuminazione s.r.l, and how sleek and rugged it looked.

The new high power, very compact, self-contained IP65 LED Wash light is built tough. With 24 Osram Ostar stage N RGBW LEDs, the user gets high-quality color mixing along with major output. Comes complete with interchangeable beam angles.

D.T.S.’ Antonio Parise accepts the award from PLSN publisher Terry Lowe.

Chroma-QInspire XT

When spec’ing interior lights for installation, there are a zillion options. But what sets the professionals apart from the oth-ers is the sturdiness of the design, the output versus beam spread and any other options they offer.

Chroma-Q covers all your options with this pendant model. It’s a fully homogenized beam that offers 9500 lumens with white or RGBW color mixing. It’s got an onboard PSU, theatrical grade dimming, convection cooling, and it looks sexy. Great for replacing existing units.

Accepting the award are AC Lighting’s Jean- Francois Canuel, Frank Mikeska and Paul Pelletier.

Astera AX1 Wireless Pixel TubeMany companies offer some version of an LED uplight powered by a battery. Astera

has been leading the way for several years now in the battery operated, remote con-trolled LED market with their line of products.

It was refreshing last year to see them come out with the AX1 Wireless Pixel Tube because it gave us a new piece of gear in our LED toy box. Perfect for actors, storefronts, concerts, parties, anywhere that fast and easy setup and control is warranted.

Terry Lowe, center, presents the award to Astera’s Sebastian Buckle and Craig Singer from distributor Inner Circle.

26 DECEMBER 2017 • plsn.com

disguise.one/en/products/gx

Recently awarded the PLSN Gold Star for Best New Media Server, the gx range’s unrivalled power density pushes generative content to to new heights.

Whether it’s smoke that moves as it is touched or water that ripples as performers pass by, the immersive experiences will captivate audiences like never before.

power to respond.

GOLD STAR AWARDS

Best New Small Gadget

Best New Video Touring Carts

Best New Media Server

Best Touring Video Tiles

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RC4 Wireless RC5 EASS SystemThere are quite a few small handheld gadgets that can help a stage production with a

cool gag. Smoke machines, mirrors and tiny lasers spring to mind. But when it comes to pure importance of a single gadget for a performance, we tip our hats to RC4 Wireless.

They introduced the latest incarnation of their high-performance RC5 series: RC5-EASS. The acronym stands for “Extended Area Super Secure.” It allows users to privately select any subset of 101 RF channels within the 900MHz band.

Accepting the award are RC4 Wireless’s Jim Smith and Brianne Silver.

Oracle LED Systems (Triton VT)

While so many man-ufacturers offer quality high-res products, the demand for extra strong frames and carts that en-able the fast and efficient hanging of video walls is an art form all in itself. Engineering and total packaging is half the battle.

Oracle LED (Triton VT) has come up with the Black Wid-ow Creative Touring System — strong carts that hold multi-ple rows of tiles. The long rows of cabinets can be clamped together in their carts, then flown quick and safely.

Accepting the award are Oracle’s Pieter Laleman, Franck Van De Cayzelle, Isaac Campos, Joe Lapchick and Sid Garcia.

disguise gx SeriesEach year media servers become more com-

plex, yet easier to operate as more users are mas-tering all the available functions. Live rendering of images has become the latest tool that all the video directors have glommed onto.

The gx range combines output and processing power to produce dynamic content. The user can render in real-time video, audio, MIDI, tracking and automation data or interactive inputs. With HD and better frame rates, they push the color, clarity and complexity of media to new limits.

Accepting the award is the team from disguise (formerly d3 Technologies).

ROE Creative Display CB8

Video tiles are commonplace in nearly every large-scale event. They are often mixed and matched to get different looks for shows. But every once in a while, there’s a special need for a special product that fits an application.

Such was the case with U2 this year when PRG put together a huge video sculpture behind the band for the stadium shows. With a need for a strong wind wall presence, light weight yet durable product, the CB8 was chosen for the job.

Accepting the award are Frank Montero, Jason Lu and Grace Kuo.

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GOLD STAR AWARDS

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Best New Software

Best New Motion Device

Best New Hardware Best New Video Switcher Best New Video Tile

Best New Truss

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Avolites Ai v10.1 Media Server SoftwareNew software releases are quite often simple upgrades where features are modified

and tweaked. But every once in a while, a major release comes out that offers video direc-tors some great new options. Such is the case with the Ai update.

The big news is that Notch software is now fully integrated into the system allowing eight layers of live rendering/manipulation of content can be rendered live simultane-ously. This software can run from your own computer.

Accepting the award are the folks from Avolites/Ai and distributor Group One Ltd.

Kinesys Apex Chain Hoist System

Over the last few years the number of new chain hoists and ways to control them have tak-en leaps and bounds. While many manufacturers make systems that emulate Kinesys motion control, none of them offer their own chain hoists with brains.

The Apex system is the complete solution to chain hoist control applications. It has sub millimeter precision and true zero speed hover. It also contains silent brakes, intelligent duty cycle management and real-time data logging.

David Bond accepts the award from PLSN publisher Terry Lowe.

Whirlwind PL2 Power Link StringersThere will always be certain things around a stage that are always there and taken for

granted. From AC power distros to motor controllers, some of the most basic yet essential gear we need comes from Whirlwind.

Their line of Stage AC stringers is the latest tool that can help anyone who needs pow-er on stage. One can link them to specific lengths and design perfectly laid out systems on and under any stage as well as in a truss.

Jim Grillo, Michael Laiacona and Carl Cornell accept the award.

Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio HDWe don’t see all that many new switchers hit the mar-

ket that offer huge amounts of bells and whistles without the price tag to go along with them. We are all always looking for an affordable piece of gear that can suit our needs, and footprint.

I asked our resident video expert Doug Murray to name one single video product that stood out last year. He echoes this. Then we asked Jeff Gooch to review it. They both give it a big thumbs up as a fantastic switcher for any application. (See article, this issue, page 71).

The award was shipped to their office.

Vanguard LED Displays Rhodium Series

The importance of turning a vid-eo wall of cabinets into an actual physical structure with no view of cables and cleanliness of product is of huge importance to some. The idea of having cabinets sized in a 16:9 ratio is a bonus.

Vanguard’s Rhodium Series of-fers this option. Cabinets can be completely internally cabled for a clean installation. Frames can be suspended, wall mounted, recessed, and ground supported. Service and installation from either side. Avail-able in 4K - 8K LED display.

The award was shipped to Van-guard principal Michael Wiener. For more details on this company, see “Company 411,” this issue, page 56.

Litec MyT Folding Truss Steroid Roof SystemI see a lot of new conical connectors at LDI, as well as a few gadgets that are indeed

helpful in everyday truss use. But almost everyone seemed to offer modifications as op-posed to unique engineering — until I saw the MyT truss in action.

I witnessed this truss system pin together very quickly as a custom roof was erected in Europe. What I would have thought would take several days was achieved in one with this structural marvel.

Accepting the award for Litec and Area Four Industries are Franti Zykan, Andrea Santello and Fabio Prada.

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