New Lighting Technology

[steadicamsteel]

Hi Folks,

Just seen a demo of some new lighting technology and I have to say it was pretty impressive. I think this could blow LED's out the water. The manufacturer of this Plasma light is a US Based company called LUXIM.

ROBE have been grated a licence to manufacture moving light fixtures for Rock and Roll and the like. The model I saw at the demo was the ROBE Robin 300 Plasma. No indication on price with this particular unit but the tech specs of this Plasma Light looks pretty impressive. High CRI etc etc etc.

Was wondering if Richard Andrewski has looked at this technology and if he could maybe comment on what he thinks. Maybe develop some nice new Daylight Fixtures using this Plasma light.

Peace

Rich Steel

 

[Cool Lights]

Yes I have been looking into it actually. Luxim has a Chinese agency so we worked with them a bit. Luxim has an "entertainment" model which I was hoping would be suitable but it turns out its more meant for disco and stage lighting.

Its kind of a different idea in that its a plasma based light which is basically made by generating and concentrating radio waves (I believe its microwaves) around the bulb which then vaporizes the bulbs contents into a plasma state. So its not like an LED, nor is it like HID. But you can consider it a single high wattage point light source so it can do some of the kinds of things we like to create single shadows and give throw and projection. Like an LED though, the spot angle is pre-built in so you can't change that easily in your fixture. And there's no concept of an external mirror. You basically get whatever spot angle they build into their light engine and thats it--no changing it.

The reason I think it won't work out (yet) for film / tv use is two fold: 1). The unit is large and blocky (self contained with light and ballast in one package). That makes for a light engine that's awkward to integrate into any kind of fixture that film/tv people are used to using whether it be a flood or fresnel of some kind. You'll find it soon as a moving head spot as used in disco, stage and concert shows and the form factor is okay for that.

2). The other problem is it has a fan integrated into the unit to keep it cool. This is okay in some isolated uses where you can have the head separated from the ballast but in this case the unit is all in one package so you effectively have a fan in your light head. That won't work for our type uses.

Ironically, the street light version is closer to something we could use but even that requires some additional large and heavy heat sinking which makes the completed fixture awkward. We had this same issue with large wattage single LEDs of 30w on up to 300w which also require a heavy heat sink thats okay on street lights but not something you want to lug around between gigs.

So, we're keeping in touch with them but for now, I think they're more thinking about larger markets and they see the two major areas they cover as street/commercial lighting and the previously mentioned entertainment area. They also do projectors and medical instrumentation. I think film and television lighting is such a small market that its something that won't get their full attention for a while.