BIG LEDS GEAR.
comments: one was that the colour was really nice, and the other was that it was too bright,” says Jung. Crews would break down the Luxor into ten-pod banks to make it more practical. Some even use the single pods as bounce lights. What Luxor lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in muscle and simplicity. “It’s a basic grunt light,” Jung confirms. “There’s no dial, no onboard dimmer, it’s literally DMX and power – one channel of DMX. It’s a very simple light, but that’s why I built it.” With power levels trending constantly upward, there’s not much risk in predicting that the future will hold bigger and bigger LEDs. There’s certainly demand, as Panalux’s Amphlett confirms. “One gaffer, Ian Barwick, who’s a regular Panalux client, is grouping up lots of Creamsource Vortexes together. He’s putting 40 or 50 in an array, mounting them on a crane or Manitou and driving them into position. Then, he hasn’t committed one product to one effect – he can split them down.” Meanwhile, LED fresnels are moving swiftly along, behind other LED hard lights. “We’ve taken on a Velvet product called Kosmos,” Amphlett continues, “which is a 400W colour-changing fresnel – it’s really good. There aren’t bolt-on optics. The real problem with these, for a rental house, is that they are clumsy, with more bits to lose. There are also Fiilex products;
they’ve done a good job. Others will come along down the track. Personally, though, I think it needs a step change to get to a 10kW or 12kW LED.” POWER TRIPS The enormous Luxor reflects much the same reality, as Jung says. “You can make lights like I made Luxor, but it’s a big source. We get away with it by putting it far, far apart – once 200m away, it is a single source. To have a single source would be great, and it’s improving all the time. “We’ve got the Nanlite Forza 720. It’s now available in bicolour, but when set to single-colour mode that’s just as bright as the single- colour model. You would expect it to be half as bright, so they’re managing to squeeze more power out of the one COB. Every year, tech gets better. By this time next year, they’ll be close to making a 2.5K, but before that their intention is to make an RGBLAC version.” What everyone seems to agree on, though, is the long-term goal: somehow concentrating enough power into an LED hard light to rival the seminal 18kW HMI. “We’re a long way from an 18kW HMI as an equivalent,” Amphlett reflects. “Getting that power density off an LED chip is much more challenging. There are the usual caveats of colour quality, functionality and ergonomics. I don’t think it’ll come from the current LED tech, it’ll come from something slightly different in
terms of innovation. There’s a roll off in regards to lux per watt. I’m not sure we’re on the shoulder, but it’s definitely rolling off.” Jung agrees. “The holy grail would be a single-source 18K with LED. That is a very long way off – we’re at 1.8K, so we need ten times that sort of level. Going by computer technology advancements, every two years they double in power. I’d say LEDs will do the same. It’ll be a good five years, but someone undoubtedly will have a breakthrough!”
TAKE CREATIVE CONTROL This set-up of four Panalux Sonaras boasts precise colour temperature
Contacts CREAMSOURCE creamsource.com
“The holy grail would be a single-source 18K with LED. That is a very long way off”
LITEPANELS litepanels.com
NANLITE en.nanlite.com
PANAVISION panavision.com
PROLIGHT DIRECT prolightdirect.co.uk
ARRI arri.com
VELVET velvetlight.tv
73. OCTOBER 2022
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