GEAR HEADS
ELATION PARAGON SERIES Following an award-winning debut at LDI, Matthias Hinrichs, Product Manager at Elation, lifts the lid on the company’s latest weatherproof IP54-rated moving head range of lighting fixures.
Photos: Elation
What market needs or gaps did you aim to fill with the development of PARAGON? “PARAGON was designed as a refined workhorse fixture that is at home in almost any application. You can take it from a live music show to a rave to a corporate event before lighting a theatre play. It performs perfect in any of those and many other use cases. To achieve the most versatility, we designed it from the ground up with some primary goals. Namely, to create the best light quality in its class while retaining very high output and incorporate a variable CRI engine for enhanced colour precision. We also merged the traditional spot/ profile/wash products into one single unit by using easily interchangeable front lenses and created a sealed ruggedised fixture that can withstand any weather while remaining lightweight and serviceable without any special
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tools or testing devices – all while utilising the latest materials and technologies to make the fixtures light, compact and service friendly.” What makes the TruTone variable CRI system essential for today’s lighting setups? “We felt an increasing need for higher colour accuracy, something that wasn’t addressed well by the current options in the market. Users must choose a dedicated high CRI fixture, or at worst, exchange the entire LED engine. None of this is appealing to the designer or the production houses owning the fixtures. So, we came up with a variable CRI engine concept, originally for the PROTEUS ODEON, and further refined it for the PARAGON Series, with three different performance classes. The obvious application is white light quality, and the PARAGON allows you to dial in the perfect
white light while retaining very high intensity. As a designer you get the perfect light source that allows you to tune the reproduction of colour on sets or costumes or find that perfect key light quality when you work with today’s extremely precise cameras. We also found the variable light spectrum interacts very nicely with the CMY mixing, expanding the colour range greatly. A magenta can essentially be more rock ’n’ roll or more theatrical, a yellow can have a harsh greenish tinge or a warm sunny tone. TruTone is remarkable in its ability to shape and compose colours in ways not previously possible with any fixture.“ How does the interchangeable lens system expand the versatility of PARAGON? “As with the TruTone engine, we offer a way to adapt one fixture for the intended application.