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lighting technology
ate having these IP-rated fixtures when the weather takes a turn for the worse.
Cable snake nests are the unavoidable bane of location setups. Look for help with more fixtures featuring fully integrated wireless control. Some are brand specific and pro prietary, but other systems are intended to work with any DMX device. Among wireless systems that have proven interoperability, watch for fixtures that have incorporated LumenRadio CRMX and Multiverse wire less DMX/RDM enabled systems.
War Of The Led Emitters
With the high sensitivity of today’s cam eras, color quality—rather than just bright ness—has moved to center stage. Without taking too deep a dive into the science behind LED color, creating a light with a broad color spectrum enables more accurate color reproduction. Different manufacturers have taken different approaches, each with their own unique “secret sauce” mixture of LEDs and phosphors.
The engineering goal behind these varied approaches is to provide as natural a visible spectrum as possible, while still colors to smooth out the spikiness of single-frequency emitters, while others use 6 or more separate colors to stake out their broad color gamut.
Quantifying the color accuracy of lights is evolving. While everyone is familiar with CRI (Color Rendering Index), it has limitations. Companies are now posting the more specific TLCI (Total Lighting Consistency Index) numbers, and even the TM-30 scores. By these measures, the closer the score numbers are to 100, the closer they are to perfection.
Novel Designs
As virtual production continues to prove its value in the industry, look for more lighting manufacturers to develop image-based lighting solutions. For those who need it, these fixtures can integrate with real-time image content to create plausible lighting that seems to arise from the virtual environment itself.
Part of the fun of the NAB Show is getting to see the latest lighting fixtures. I’ve seen several new fixture designs that deserve recognition for their ingenuity. One novel light fixture has a liquid-cooled stalk of LEDs surrounded by a stepped reflector. Beam width is controlled by which rows of chips are reflected in selected portions of the reflector. It’s innovative and a great conversation
Time will tell the utility of such novel designs. Some will remain curiosities of limited application, while another may turn out to be the new “workhorse” of the
Our industry is filled with some of the most creative people on earth, and this year’s NAB Show is your chance to meet them and see their latest creations for yourself. Enjoy the adventure! l
