Eight New Products Win PLASA Awards for Innovation

The eight 2015 PLASA Awards for Innovation were presented by Ed Pagett, Chairman of PLASA’s European Regional Board, in London last week.  The Gold Award went to ETC for the Eos Version 2.3 – The judges said, “This product seriously impressed the Judges who felt that it is a game-changer in the approach designers may take to colour control. It unlocks the potential of LEDs and matches the way that lighting designers think in terms of colour. It returns colour mixing and colour fading back to a conceptual level rather than maths and numbers. It allows the designer to choose the way a colour changes rather than letting the control decide.”

According to ETC, Eos v2.3 introduced new colour control tools, rebuilt from the ground up.  Unique functions include a wide variety of new colour spaces (including CIE 1931 & CIE 1976), tinting tools (to adjust colour in the context of familiar lighting terminology, irrespective of mixing system), spectrum tools (mix LED emitters in a scientifically accurate spectrum view), multiple new gel matching algorithms, and colour path (pre-determined, user modifiable colour trajectory through the colour spectrum).

The other winners were:

The LED cyclorama batten, DALIS, from Robert Juliat.

DALIS is a unique, asymmetrical 300W LED cyclorama light, consisting of 48 LED sources arranged in a double row. Each LED works in conjunction with a mini asymmetric reflector, or ‘spoon’, to deliver a perfectly smooth spread of light across any surface. Eight colours of LED are used in DALIS’ construction – red, green, blue, royal blue, amber, cyan, warm white (2200K) and cool white (6500K) – which mix to create a huge variety of pastel and saturated colours, with perfect balance. Silent, fanless operation makes DALIS ideal for both theatre and television use.

The panel of PLASA Award for Innovation judges said: “The colour rendering from this product is beautiful. The fixture is well designed and elegant with a very good uniform beam pattern and will no doubt be a feature of many stages in the future.”

Francois Juliat, Robert Juliat’s CEO, was extremely happy to receive the Innovation Award on behalf of the company at the presentation ceremony during the show: “To receive this Award from the PLASA organisation is very gratifying,” he says. “Robert Juliat is well known for its high quality lighting solutions using traditional light sources such as tungsten and HMI, but we have been developing LED products for a number of years with equal success. DALIS is the latest in our LED range and we are proud to bring it to the market.  This Award for Innovation is a recognition of Robert Juliat’s capacity to innovate using new technology, whilst maintaining the high quality of our products and services that our customers expect.”

More information on Robert Juliat can be found at robertjuliat.com

Elation Professional’s multi-functional Platinum FLX™ hybrid spot/ beam/wash moving head has been acknowledged by the lighting industry as an exceptional innovation, also winning an Award for Innovation.

The Platinum FLX was recognized for its innovative technology and new approach to hybrid lighting. The judges commended the Platinum FLX as “a versatile moving light that solves a number of problems in one fixture. The spot/beam/wash hybrid design uses clever mechanical engineering that actually delivers a useable result in a manageable size and budget.”

Unique in the industry, the Platinum FLX’s patent-pending dual optical system gives it clear advantages over traditional hybrid systems – a uniform and brighter Spot field (2.9° to 25°), a narrower beam angle and brighter central point in Beam mode (1.8° – 18°), and a higher-quality flat field Wash effect (6.0° to 42°) with an intelligent optical system that can switch between modes quickly and accurately. Housing a full set of professional design features, its 470W Philips™ MSD Platinum 20R lamp delivers up to 20,000 lumens of power while still providing an energy efficient solution.

On hand to accept the award were Elation President Toby Velazquez and Elation Sales Director Eric Loader. “We’re extremely pleased that the FLX has been recognized for its outstanding optical system and are thrilled to have won a PLASA Award for Innovation in back to back years,” stated Elation Sales Director Eric Loader. “The Platinum FLX offers unique benefits that have raised the quality level of multi-functional lights and we’re excited to see how designers will use it in their designs.”

The award-winning Platinum FLX is available for purchase now through Elation’s worldwide partner network.

Avid for the SL6 – The judges felt that this console was extremely well-engineered and thought out with improved ergonomics and workflow, coupled with scalable flexibility. This affords it versatility for different markets including broadcast and touring.

RC4 Wireless for the RC4Magic-DMXpix – the judges said, “Sometimes things are taken at face value because that’s ‘just the way it is’. This product, though, will make life much easier for many technicians as it solves the whole logistical problem in managing pixel control in long strings of LEDs. Regardless of the manufacturer of the LED string, this device will allow a significant reduction in channel count while still enabling individual LED control in all manner of applications, from architectural lighting to costumes.”

d&b audiotechnik for the V7P and V10P loudspeaker – The judges found this to be “a well-engineered small and light point source speaker that delivers exceptional levels with good directivity. Its versatility will appeal to many sectors of the audio market.”

Area Four Industries for EXE Cell – The judges said, “This rigging product gives excellent vision indication by presenting load information clearly to users. It uses a combination of software and technology built into the motor to afford the user a great deal of real-time load information.” The Judges felt that this was “well designed with some innovative features.”

Eaton – Zero 88 for the FLX Lighting Console – This console was felt by the judges to give “a revolutionary approach to colour and movement for the tablet generation as part of a well thought out-desk package aimed at an accessible price point for entry-level and more professional users.”

Gottelier Award

The Gottelier Award was introduced in 2007 to recognise those who have made sustained and significant contributions to the development of live entertainment technology.
The award is named in honour of Tony Gottelier – lighting designer, product developer, industry commentator and long-time associate editor of Lighting&Sound International magazine, who passed away in 2006.

This year’s Gottelier Award winner was David Cunningham, an early pioneer of computer lighting systems who developed a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and 80s, including the Multi-Q memory lighting system, the Micro-Q console, the Lightpalette and the CD80 dimming system. He went on to develop the Source Four profile through his own company, Entertec, before entering into a hugely successful partnership with ETC, with whom he went on to develop many other successful products, including the Sensor dimmer.

Editors Pick

My personal favourite was the Spheriscan by Clay Paky. It is a revolutionary scanner with a modern twist: its mirror goes on turning endlessly beyond 360 degrees, which creates an magnificent swirling effect that just goes on and on. Its speed may be adjusted as desired and reach a maximum of 280 rpm. Its spanking new OSRAM lamp works at 1200W.

Spheriscan is built to be used outdoors (IP54). It may be recessed into the stage floor, with only its transparent head visible, to create original gazing projections. Features: 13°-34° high speed zoom, one 6-rotating gobo wheel, one 8-fixed gobo wheel, rotating prism, fast sixteen-blade iris, linear frost filter, CMY system, 7-colour wheel.

By Julie Allen

13 Oct