Cool-Light's Blue Line body with "HMI" guts

[USLatin]

I understand Richard from Cool Lights is considering building his "HMI alternative" light using the Blue Line fresnels. I apologize for not knowing exactly what Richard's plans for this light are, but my limited light knowledge forces me to simply call them HMI-alternatives... ask him for details

Apparently the Blue Line 650W have a flicker problem which seems to be attributable to the wiring... I guess Richards lights will have his own wiring so this problem will not carry over. Right Richard?

Also, can you explain again, possibly in simpler terms, what type of lights these will be? Also their tungsten-equivalent outputs and anything else you can share to give us an idea of what the specs you are considering?

 

[Cool Lights]

Some History...

Some History...

Background

As many of you know, my company Cool Lights USA was founded to originally help bring down the price of fluorescent fixtures by helping to create a semi pro market and thus allowing more people to discover the joys of "cooler" and energy efficient soft lighting. After all, there really isn't much to separate a tungsten softbox from a "tungsten-colored" fluorescent fixture at the photographic level. Except you don't heat up your studio with one of them...

Anyway, I had soft light options covered really well with further plans to develop dimming options and more portable fluorescent softlight fixtures. Sometimes though you need a good "hard" light for some use or another. Most of the time, shadows are considered to be an issue to be eliminated. On the other hand, sometimes you want good, hard and well-defined shadows and diffused light just cannot do that. Because of this, I was also interested in offering an energy efficient alternative to tungsten for hard light options.

Making fluorescent "hard" doesn't seem doable at this point with what we have available today. A fluorescent light can't really be hard even if it tried--it's surface area is just too big, thus it takes a point light source to really do it right. It seems that all point light sources, which are hard by nature, have a few things in common regardless of the technology behind them. They are all a small, concentrated, blindingly bright, ball of high intensity and burning energy. It also seems they all emit UV to one extent or the other too. Yes, even our old friend tungsten emits UV. They also all emit a lot of heat to one extent or another. Some are more efficient in lumens per watt than others: tungsten 10 to 20 lumens per watt (lpw), metal halide (of which HMI is part of the family) 80 to 120 lpw, bright single source, high wattage LEDs are 30 to 100 lpw, etc.

I was really hoping to find the "coolest", hard light source to go along with our "cool lights" company charter and also let us have a complete offering of soft and hard light both. High wattage, single LEDs in the 60 to 150w (yes they exist!) have some potential but they aren't quite there yet and the cost is very high. Really, the "brightest" technology for these purposes I could find was metal halide. The more I researched the subject, the more I became aware that the beloved HMI, of television and movie lighting use, is nothing other than metal halide or high intensity discharge (HID) and just a trademark of Osram Corporation. I wrote a couple of articles on this in my blog culminating in the building of a metal halide fresnel for under $500. As it is our other charter to further the DIY lighting cause I published this information for those that can benefit from it and actually build something on their own.

We also like to provide full solutions for those that don't have the time or inclination to build something--so I had embarked last year on research and development of a line of metal halide fresnels and pars to, once again, create a semi-professional line of fixtures and bring the prices down from the "astronomical" level they are at today.

At some point, it will sink in how ridiculous these "HMI" prices are, but for now you may be a bit skeptical that all this is really doable for pricing that independents and small shops can actually afford. So be it. Let the re-education process begin! Let's start with our fresnel offerings and where we are at now.

 

[Cool Lights]

The Fresnels

The Fresnels

A while back, when I wrote the article on making your own metal halide fresnel, I had decided to use an old, used fresnel to prove it could be done and also somewhat to start calling attention to the issues surrounding exactly how I am lowering the cost of "HMI" type fixtures. In the meanwhile, I also started to obtain samples here in China (where I live most of the year now) for fixture "bodies" that could be used for our mass-produced products.

I can't tell you how many factories my wife and I have visited and how many days we went home disappointed. I knew early on that I wanted to use the famous "blue line" as our model for the fresnels for a number of reasons, not the least of which, they look great and are very compact compared to the garden variety of typical fresnel out there. It took a while to find the elusive blue line factory but we finally found it. Not before I had a couple of other tries with another model though. This fixture was my first 575w metal halide fresnel prototype.

​

It was okay but not great especially from the standpoint of size--the lens is an 8" and it just seemed so big and bulky. In addition the barndoors were a bit flimsy and the lid on the front for accessing the bulb compartment wasn't totally fitting correctly. One thing I really loved about it was the super well-defined shadows it put out. Just what we love in a fresnel, for instance, the ability to close the barn doors to a rectangle and you get a very sharp rectangle of light on the wall. It really has a great lens and focusing mechanism. Before we go much further. Lets talk a bit about what is a fresnel for those that might not totally be sure. If you already know, you can skip ahead.


The Fresnel and What It Does

What separates a fresnel from many other types of stage/studio lighting is the combination of the focusing mechanism and the special lens (yes, a "fresnel" lens). The focusing mechanism can vary a bit from one model to another but by and large, they all have pretty much the same concepts. You usually always have a sled that moves back and forth through some means. On the sled is a relatively small mirror in the back; a socket and bulb in front of the mirror. Moving the sled back farther from the lens makes the light smaller and moving it towards the lens makes it a larger beam. Here's a look inside a 300w blue line to give you an idea of how it looks.

The focusing knob is on the back and operates a screw drive mechanism on which the sled moves back and forth. Optimally, the point light source of the bulb should be exactly in the center of the mirror. Anyway, back to our product development.

So, we recently found the models we want to use for our 150w and 575w metal halide fresnels. It's just a question of getting the factory to modify the socket and the placement of the center of the bulb in the center of the mirror. From a practical standpoint, when dealing with a factory such as this one you must be capable of ordering large quantities of their products or it just doesn't make sense to go forward. The quantities necessary would also necessitate buying the relatively more expensive metal halide bulb and ballast in larger quantity too. One compromise I hit on to get the quantity of bodies we needed was to order them in two types: stock (tungsten) and a "slightly modifed to my specs" (metal halide) version. This is the formula I needed to make this idea happen economically.

Originally, I had never planned to offer a tungsten model of any kind, but in making deals with our factory partner, and considering the need for quantity to get the pricing right, we decided it would be advantageous to offer the well-known tungsten blue lines also to our customers at very favorable prices. It helps us, it also helps you. The blue lines come in the following models: 300w, 650w, 1000w, 2000w and a large 5000 watt "location fixture.

And the smaller 5000w:

Oh, lets don't forget the super small 150w either:

We'll probably offer all these tungsten models at least on a special order basis and the metal halides will be available in (as of our plans right now) a 150w model (in the 650w body) and a 575w model (in the 1000w body). I'm not ready to totally commit to pricing but based on what we know now, the 150w fresnel should be around $389 and the 575w model of fresnel should be in the $699 range. This will NOT include hot restrike at that price. Hot restrike options will be about $300 higher. The "option" includes a different ballast/igniter combo and higher quality bulb. The 150w model is totally silent. The 575w model has some fan noise as the electronic ballast requires cooling. We are working on the issue and hope to find a completely silent fan.

Tungsten model pricing to be announced later but will be below current prices for the blue line models in the USA. That is current status on fresnels but what about the other side of our "Hard Light" series--the Pars.

 

[Cool Lights]

The Pars

The Pars

So, what separates a par from a fresnel--what is a par anyway? Really, a par is an "abbreviated" spotlight. Several different stage/studio instruments all use the same "ellipsoidal bulb/mirror placement at their heart but with different lenses and other options. It's the lenses and other options that separate them from each other. When you think of a par, think of a flash light or a car headlight. You have an ellipsoidal mirror with a hole in the center through which the bulb peaks through. The bright shining point of light in the center of the mirror in combination with certain lenses gives you the par light.

The crudest par instrument in the stage and studio lighting arsenal is the "par can" which comes in many different sizes. Its not a problem to use tungsten with these simple instruments as the dangers from open face halogen are relatively minor compared to those of a metal halide instrument (exploding bulbs, UV emitting, etc.). While some manufacturers have used this body for a metal halide par, I personally wouldn't do it--its just not safe enough for my liking. So when I embarked on this mission, to find the ultimate fixture bodies for my par models, there were several criteria I went by. Number 1: I wanted cast aluminum body for strength--to stand up to both the heat and potential bulb rupture. Yes, as I mentioned before, these are not the ultimate in "cool lights" but they are more cool relative to tungsten. Number 2: I wanted changeable lenses for differing effects.

When you consider lumens per watt (LPW), and heat generation, while the fixture body gets very hot in a metal halide instrument, the light it generates is not hot like that from a tungsten light. If you have an HMI fixture or you follow my "Build Your Own Metal Halide Fresnel" article and do it yourself, try this exercise; put up a 1000w tungsten fresnel and then a 250w (or so) metal halide fresnel a few feet apart, turn them on with both their respective lights pointing in the same direction. Then, step in to the light of each one a few feet away and tell me which one is more comfortable? They are both extremely bright and they both put out about the same amount of lumens but they don't put out the same amount of heat though.

The 1000w tungsten fresnel is radiating 1000 watts of heat and the beam of light (about 20,000 lumens worth) is full of heat. The 250w metal halide fresnel is only drawing 250w and radiating 250w of heat but the beam of light it puts out is very cool and you get a whopping 21,000 lumens of light (assuming 85 LPW which is not hard to obtain). This is why I latched onto metal halide as the follow on to my energy efficient, "cool" Fluorescent Soft Light series. These are still hot lights, but not as hot as tungsten.

Back to my ultimate par search. I found an instrument which fit the criteria. It is a common body available in China and had most of the attributes I considered important. Some of you have seen this, my original par prototype.

The original prototype was a 150w but I discovered I could fit up to a 575w bulb in there with relatively minor issues to be solved. I wanted a fixture I could also use with a 1200w metal halide type bulb but this fixture was just too small. The ballast attaches to the side of the unit and has a fan, like the fresnel model. Every single model of 575w electronic ballast I've found seems to have a fan unless it's magnetic (and we could still go that route but it's quite a bit larger and heavier though). Even the ones intended for studio use still have fans which is incredible but seems to be the case. I think most are not using this high of wattage in studios though. These 575w and above instruments are probably mostly used for location work where the fan noise may not be so critical--or again, magnetic ballasts may be used which don't require a fan.

I kept searching for the ultimate fixture for my 1200w par model but was having a really hard time finding it. It seems most engineers I consulted with felt that size was a problem. The smaller fixtures would be unsuitable and heat build up would shorten the bulb's life. A compromise had to be struck between size and bulb life in other words. On my search, I found a couple of other interesting products that I have decided to offer. For instance, another 575w par product which is a real gem. It has the classic design of many of the small portable 575w type models you've seen before. I call this the Cool Lights 575w SportLight Par.

It's about 17" long from front to back and includes a built-in safety lens and a set of 3 easily changeable lenses (that just slip right in front on the accessory holder) and safety cables...

Barndoors (of course)

And a hot restrike ignitor and ballast. And before you ask, yes, it's dimmable (to 50% like most that are capable of dimming). It has the ever present fan also but is silent other than that.

I like the focusing mechanism and the removable bulb / socket holder. You can see the craftsmanship in this fixture easily.

I can easily imagine a future accessory for just the bulb holder which would include a safety "beaker" to encase the bulb. You could then use it in a lantern--safely just like certain other HMI par products we know.

So, at this point, I had a "economy" model par and a "premium" par--both 575w. The pricing is still being finalized but as of this time the economy 575 should be $699 and the premium SportLight 575 should be $1999. Why the huge price difference? Well, hot restrike and dimming add quite a bit of expense, the bulb is a bit more expensive, there will be a carrying case and the level of workmanship is extremely high as you can see from the photos. Even at this price though we are creating a new semi-pro level that while not inexpensive is way under similar models such as a K5600 Joker 400 or a Cinemills or Arri 575w Par. Just look at any of those well-known models with all the similar accessories our unit has and then compare the price. Also, please note we will have special introductory pricing on the premium lines for those "early adopters" among you.

Still no solution for the 1200w economy model. However, when I found the blue line factory, along with the previously-mentioned fresnels, I also found a set of pars similar to other "classic" designs of pars. A whole range could be had there from 200w on up to 4000w. I decided that my strategic direction, at least for now, is limited to 1200w for various reasons. I may consider offering the 200w model shown below with a 150w bulb and ballast as I have the completely silent, 150w technology issues already solved. Pricing on this model is still to be announced.

These "blue line" people really do some great work, don't you agree? Here's the 1200w model I'll be offering as soon as things are finalized. Quite exciting and puts out an incredible amount of light (at least 110,000 lumens).

Ballast issues are still to be worked out. This fixture for various reasons won't be the "economy" model. I am still working on that one. This will be considered the "premium" model 1200w par (like the SportLight is the premium 575w model). I originally had a price point target of about $899 with ballast and bulb for the economy model and I am still shooting for that. I can not say just yet what the pricing will be for the 1200w premium seen above but I can say it will still be setting a new price point for this kind of technology and wattage. You won't ever feel that you're lacking in lighting tools with any of these solutions and all the accessories you would expect will be there. Once again, we're raising the bar and lowering the price of entry at the same time.

But what about our core Soft Light products and the changes coming up there? Let's look at that area too.

 

[Cool Lights]

The Fluorescent Softlight Series Models

The Fluorescent Softlight Series Models

We've been talking about adding a dimming version of our fixtures for quite a while and bragging about how we'll lower the price of dimming too. We're on the track to do that.

One thing I've been wanting for quite a while though is to have two separate lines (like most of the major "flo" manufacturers): a studio line and a portable line. I've been holding off on the portable line while the ideas cooked and now I think I've got some interesting things there to implement.

One favorite portable fixture is the "Diva". Many like its lightweight and plastic construction. I like the plastic part too but I wouldn't have chosen "Coroplast" as it's known. Corrugated plastic just doesn't seem very durable to me. Well, there's another corrugated plastic I've discovered which I like a lot. It's a PVC type material which is hard as nails and is about the same thickness as Coroplast. You can't punture this stuff and you could bang on it with a hammer and perhaps scratch it a bit but shouldn't break it unless it's a really heavy blow.

My plan was to go to a suitcase manufacturer and have them make an aluminum frame and use this corrugated hard PVC as the skin. Talk about lightweight and also durable too! My other idea was to, of course, have the barn doors fold up to protect the bulb area, just as our current fixtures do, but also to add a removable lid. The removable lid would contain some pluck foam slots for the bulbs to be stored in. Now you have a case to transport not only the fixture but the bulbs.

But what about the mounting options for this portable beauty? Many also favor the diva for the "lolipop" mounting on the back. The attraction to this is easily seen as it allows not only angle adjustment but turning horizontal or vertical as well or any combination thereof. I thought about offering this type of mounting rather than the yoke which I've thought of as mostly a studio feature anyway.

Dimming would be offered in this line too. Not the DMX variety though. Most of you won't need DMX for the portable work you're doing. You would like manual dimming however and that can be provided, a bit more expensively than the current Cool Lights models, but not as expensively as other DMX dimming types on the market today. This would manifest itself as a dial or perhaps even a small remote control device that would allow you to adjust brightness of the bulbs from zero to 10% and then continuous/smoothly from there to 100%. Yes, there will be a color temperature change, as there is with most all dimming anyway.

So those were the ideas for the portable line. Once those were firmed, I was using my normal methodology of trying to find something as close as possible and then specifying changes at the factory to be built out in large quantity to be able to pass the savings on to our customers. When we can't find what we want, then we have to resort to new models and tooling which is truly the last resort as it's an expensive route and makes it more tough to offer good pricing to customers.

On a recent trip, I finally found a product very similar to many of my criteria except for dimming--but I already have the formula for that and it can be specified as one of the changes. Here are rather interesting models which could use a bit more polishing and changes to become the Cool Lights Portable Softlight series:

It's just a matter of firming up the agreements and getting the changes I need to make this at the level of workmanship we expect for our products. Here is a view of the back of the unit. You can see some good and some bad--we'll fix the bad. The thing I don't like is the rough look of the plastic on the back which, no doubt, comes from the process used to heat form it to the shape it has now. I do like that lolipop though!

So, the status of the portable units at this point is still an early stage. The other thing this unit doesn't have from my original criteria is the closing up with a removable lid which has a foam lined bulb compartment. Can't do it with this fixture. However, we would make a carrying case for this model that would include a bulb compartment. The extra cost would be worth it to have this feature. In the beginning, I'll probably only offer a 4 x 55 portable unit until we see what the market says and wants in the way of smaller or larger versions.

While waiting for this portable line to come to reality, we can make our current studio line of fixtures manually dimmable though. The manual dimming would simply be a small dial on the back of the units and would add an average of $200 to each model type. We probably won't offer a 2 x 55w dimming model but a 4 x 55 (CL-455MD) and a 6 x 55 (CL-655MD) seem to make the most sense.

A future premium studio model would have DMX dimming and would be the CL-455DMX and CL-655DMX models. Those models would be an average of $350 to $400 higher than our current models because of not only dimming ballasts of the manual dimming units but DMX circuitry as well.

No price changes are anticipated for the current non-dimming series.

 

[siniarch]

Well Richard,

Let me be the first to congratulate you in all your undertakings, ingenuity, and efforts.

And also to thank you for wanting to provide the tools that many of us require, but can't afford, at a reasonable price. It is people like you, who can turn a profit without being greedy, that allow creative individuals like the ones on this forum to be able to achieve their vision.

I thank you deeply and wish you and your family luck in the future.

Sincerely,

Luis Sinibaldi

 

[Cool Lights]

My pleasure Luis "Siniarch". I'm sure we'll be looking for some developments from you in the near future too. Good luck to you also!

 

[Cool Lights]

Apparently the Blue Line 650W have a flicker problem which seems to be attributable to the wiring... I guess Richards lights will have his own wiring so this problem will not carry over. Right Richard?

I know the popular theory is wiring but knowing this model like I do, I think the more likely explanation may be just cheap chinese bulbs. The wiring in these units is so simple that its hard to believe that is the problem. The bulb is the only active component really. I bet if they switch out the bulbs for some better ones the problem goes away. In any case, we'll investigate this over here and get to the bottom of it if I can duplicate the problem.

Also, can you explain again, possibly in simpler terms, what type of lights these will be? Also their tungsten-equivalent outputs and anything else you can share to give us an idea of what the specs you are considering?

To sum up this super long winded post above and to answer your question:

150w metal halide at 85 lumens per watt = 13,000 lumens
575w metal halide at 85 lumens per watt = 49,000 lumens
1200w metal halide at 91 lumens per watt = 110,000 lumens

650w tungsten at 20 lumens per watt = 13,000 lumens
2500w tungsten at 20 lumens per watt = 50,000 lumens
5000w tungsten at 20 lumens per watt = 100,000 lumens

Need I say more? If you've never used an HMI / metal halide fixture before, you'll be instantly struck by how much cooler the light coming out of it is than the equivalent tungsten models but your still getting a great hard light thats available in daylight as well as tungsten--yes, many aren't aware that HMI / metal halide is capable of tungsten color and not just daylight. In the beginning we'll likely only offer daylight on the 575 and 1200 but tungsten and daylight on the 150w models. As with our other products, the units will come with bulbs and where possible you'll have your choice of color temperature. CRI's will be 85 or greater where possible.

Lumen output will be about the same regardless of fresnel or par. You just get different options and control with one or the other.

 

[cinebuddy]

OMG I can't wait!

 

[hemophilia]

Thanks for the informative post Richard. I'm certainly looking forward to this stuff.

Sorry if I missed it somewhere in the posts... but do you have any idea on timreframe to bring these to market?

-Kevin

 

[Pierre Petit]

Any street date for these new products? I think theyre end of august mentionned on your website.
Thanks,
-pierre

 

[JasonFox]

Holy cow, Richard! You've been working hard. I hope you don't take offense when I eventually sell my current Cool Lights flo to get the portable style. Not to mention a couple hard lights.

 

[Spartacus]

I didn´t understand if you were building this things from scratch or you "just" find the right chinese factory that already produces fixtures fitting your needs?
Not that it would really matter, but your descripton of the new portable flos sounded really good, but the pic of the chinese fixture was disapointing, the Diva is really sexy and sex sells;o)
Also probably my lack of english, but I didn´t get the difference between the standard and premium models...
Damn, I´m so exited and I wish you succeed with this project, at a reasonable price many used to renting HMI will switch to buying (at least enough to do small to midsized projects...)
All the best and keep us posted!

 

[USLatin]

Richard when you first posted a simple "Let me work on something" I didn't expect you to come back and post a book... thank you!!! (and thank you for the wording of your explanations, I know it takes extra time to spell things out and I appreciate it greatly!)

Wow, ok... first... looking at your plans for "HMI-Blues" I can not wait to loose my Alzo 800 on Ebay!!!! IMHO it is a relative a POS. It works yes, it is cool, yes, it is strong yes, however... it is a big source not truly hard light and I am not completely into their quality of light. Must I add the price to quality ratio? The lack of hot-restrike? The small ever-percent color shift?!?! I'll be happy to get $300 with their stand included in the bid.

I do have a question for you Richard. Sorry about all this ranting about an other product which IMO will not be able to compete or compare against what you are going to put out:

Are you planning on offering a step in between outputs, a bit down the road?

It seems you chose your outputs wisely, which I expect from someone who puts this much thought into their undertakings . You are starting the line with HMI 150W and 575W versions producing roughly 600W and 2300W tungsten-equivalent outputs. While this isn't a real inconvenience other than for small rooms, there is a bit of a jump from 1:3.8 output wise. While in most locations this wouldn't be a problem I am still curious to know about your plans. To add to the wisdom behind your choice of offerings, if you factor in a tight-budget, then these again seen to be the way to go anyway. I would want to get a beast and a few "big-fillers" which could be used as sources in tighter setups.

Like everyone else here, I too would love to get a ball-pack for release... yes, the ever haunting question... "Are we there yet Richard? Are we there yet?" lol

 

[Cool Lights]

Thanks for the informative post Richard. I'm certainly looking forward to this stuff.

Sorry if I missed it somewhere in the posts... but do you have any idea on timreframe to bring these to market?

-Kevin

You didn't miss anything. Manufacturers hate to quote time frames ;-)

You won't have to wait too long though Kevin. I'm shooting for shipping by September but it is a lot of work between now and then for both me and the different factory partners involved.

 

[Cool Lights]

I didn´t understand if you were building this things from scratch or you "just" find the right chinese factory that already produces fixtures fitting your needs?

We find something existing where possible and have it modified to our specs. This helps lower the cost. If we can't find it then we build it from scratch and that's not as cost effective but still works as long as it is going to be a popular type product with lots of demand.

Not that it would really matter, but your descripton of the new portable flos sounded really good, but the pic of the chinese fixture was disapointing, the Diva is really sexy and sex sells;o)

Well we're just at the start of that cycle. They'll either shape it up or we'll take the idea elsewhere and have it done right. You'll just have to imagine that I know what I'm doing, I know what looks good, I know what makes these things usable and this is all my full time job and responsibility. I really object to using Coroplast like they did too. I have to support these things so I want them to be tougher and take some punishment. That model I showed is a good compromise between weight and toughness. The current studio flos I'm selling are very attractive (as I've been told by my customers) and look nothing like they did originally after the mods I specified at the factory. They are perhaps a bit heavier than some would like but aluminum is more expensive and I was shooting for a particular price point.

People always hesitate to post work in progress photos because some don't realize that even when something is a mess in the beginning, a vision + a well-planned creative process + the right director / project manager behind it generally yields interesting results. And it will this time too.

Also probably my lack of english, but I didn´t get the difference between the standard and premium models...
Damn, I´m so exited and I wish you succeed with this project, at a reasonable price many used to renting HMI will switch to buying (at least enough to do small to midsized projects...)
All the best and keep us posted!

First of all, why such a huge price difference? Well let's examine that. Like I said, I try to find existing where I can--that equates to less cost usually. The economy 575w par is in a common body that many factories over here are making thus the price goes down. We're using a good ballast but it doesn't do dimming or hot restrike. The bulb would need to be a hot restrike too. That would add to the cost a bit and you'd be up to over a thousand before you know it.

The SportLight is in a totally uncommon body, as far as I can tell there isn't another product like it at this price point and the manufacturer is very "proud" of it. I've looked around a lot here in China and it's very uncommon and that factory knows it too. In addition, I wasn't planning on adding hot restrike or dimming options to the economy models.

The 1200w will follow the same progression. We'll have a economy model in a commonly available and inexpensive body and without dimming or hot restrike. Then we'll have the premium one as pictured before and it will not be cheap but certainly no where near what the equivalent par would be from Arri for example.

 

[Cool Lights]

Richard when you first posted a simple "Let me work on something" I didn't expect you to come back and post a book... thank you!!! (and thank you for the wording of your explanations, I know it takes extra time to spell things out and I appreciate it greatly!)

No problem. I've been thinking about posting a status update for a while now.

Wow, ok... first... looking at your plans for "HMI-Blues" I can not wait to loose my Alzo 800 on Ebay!!!! IMHO it is a relative a POS. It works yes, it is cool, yes, it is strong yes, however... it is a big source not truly hard light and I am not completely into their quality of light. Must I add the price to quality ratio? The lack of hot-restrike? The small ever-percent color shift?!?! I'll be happy to get $300 with their stand included in the bid.

Yes, the Alzo fixture really has only been good from a large perspective in raising awareness of this whole "HMI" scam that's been going on. As a fixture though its probably not all that usable from what people have told me.

I do have a question for you Richard. Sorry about all this ranting about an other product which IMO will not be able to compete or compare against what you are going to put out:

Are you planning on offering a step in between outputs, a bit down the road?

Yes. So why did I chose 150, 575 and 1200. That's a good question. Well the 150 being like a 650 which is one of the most commonly used wattages out there seemed a no-brainer to me for sure. Also, the 150w bulb and ballast combo is really perfected very well and "perfectly silent" is no problem at all.

Even the 250 and 400's are pretty well done too and silent is even possible up to the 400w. But I was considering a number of factors, not the least of which is me getting too spread out for our size right now. We're taking small steps here and seeing how the market reacts. I thought about the 250 but it just seemed not a big step over the 150. I also thought about 400 instead of the 575 but I thought it was more interesting to offer the 575 because its such a well-known model of par and fresnel. The truth be known, a 400 would have been a lot less trouble to work with but its harder to find inexpensive, single ended versions and those work best for most studio instruments. Double ended just doesn't cut it unless you're starting totally from scratch in fixture design. Hot restrike seemed to be hard to find too in single ended 400's.

As for the 1200w unit and why I chose that it is another issue that I couldn't find a singled ended 1000w bulb. It was kind of a catch 22. Could find the 1200w bulb no problem but the 1200w ballast was a bit harder to come up with. Seems they aren't so common yet. The 1000w ballast was easy to find but just try to find a decent, small single ended 1000w bulb in anything other than an e39 or e40 base. It's just not a pro solution.

Another thing that makes all this a bit harder is the fact you need a ballast matched to the wattage of bulbs you want and sockets get in the way too. Lots of different socket options and also the necessity of a particular wattage of ballast make it a bit more challenging to just swap out bulbs like you can sometimes with tungsten fixtures. This all filters back to the challenge of inventory and keeping lots of different stock items which can get huge with all the variations you might have.

It seems you chose your outputs wisely, which I expect from someone who puts this much thought into their undertakings . You are starting the line with HMI 150W and 575W versions producing roughly 600W and 2300W tungsten-equivalent outputs. While this isn't a real inconvenience other than for small rooms, there is a bit of a jump from 1:3.8 output wise. While in most locations this wouldn't be a problem I am still curious to know about your plans. To add to the wisdom behind your choice of offerings, if you factor in a tight-budget, then these again seen to be the way to go anyway. I would want to get a beast and a few "big-fillers" which could be used as sources in tighter setups.

Adding a 250 or 400w to the line is definitely in the plans. I just have to decide which one is more logical or whether to offer both. I need to see some demand though first. A 300w is not a common item and that would be the really logical one if it were more available. The 250w and 400w would be 17,000 and 33,000 lumens respectively or equivalents of 850 and 1600 watts of tungsten. Since we don't have the 300 available I would tend to probably chose the 250w because its about 3000 lumens shy of what a 1K instrument would do at 20,000 lumens and the 1K is a very commonly chosen fixture. The 400 overshoots the 1K equivalent by quite a bit and brings you closer to what the 575w is doing. Heck maybe we'll just offer both eventually!

We may be able to offer some of the other wattage of pars if there is enough demand as the blue line factory has all those different pars from 200w up to 4000w.

Like everyone else here, I too would love to get a ball-pack for release... yes, the ever haunting question... "Are we there yet Richard? Are we there yet?" lol

I hope September but we'll see. We may not get the portable fluorescent units in this batch of products if it takes longer to solve all the issues involved with that.

 

[Cool Lights]

Holy cow, Richard! You've been working hard. I hope you don't take offense when I eventually sell my current Cool Lights flo to get the portable style. Not to mention a couple hard lights.

No offense taken Jason. Everything is improved and updated. We'll still be offering the current models though. Everything has its own price point and reasons why its at that price point.

 

[pcascio]

If there was award for "Contributer of the Year" on this forum, Richard would certainly get my vote. I've had conversations with him and I was amazed and impressed with both his candor, and willingness to share his knowledge. Richard is truly a friend to our industry.

 

[Cool Lights]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the kind words! When you're a small company you need to search some advantages against the large competition.