Page 37 - Zone Magazine Issue 021

Actually, the screen technology got better and better and sometimes even interactive. Last year I already reported of some uses with touch capability. This time this technology has improved in a way, that if you build a dancefloor with it you do not need any other light. The dancing guests create the show with their feet interacting to the LED floor. The single LED units come in 25x25cm tiles that can be combined in every way imaginable. A simple straight floor or mounting to wall and ceiling or even building stairs and furniture with them is possible. Your imagination is the only limit and of course the money on your bank account... But for that problem there are some offers with leasing or pay-per-use rentals, for example. A new invention this year seems to be semi-transparent LED screens. This is realized through cutting the screen to small stripes and joining those stripes with a small distance again. Quite an interesting effect but not fully developed yet...
Light is nothing without control. The standards still have not changed. There is still Artnet and DMX for Lamps and LED or Matrix and ILDA for Lasers. But the control devices to work with have improved. Madrix showed the new version 5 of their software. By the way, they skipped version 4 because the number 4 is a “bad luck number” in parts of Asia. MA lighting introduced the new Grand MA 3 console. Both will surely set standards again. Both had 1-2 hour presentation at the fair and it will be too much to write that here so if you want to know more, refer to their homepages. (http://www.malighting.com/ and https:// www.madrix.com/)
Some of the exhibitors have grown to be standards over the years and are worth a visit every time. So is Ayrton together with Vision Stage who had set up a great lightshow on their booth again. This setup was made with 300 Ayrton fixtures – 75
brandnew Mistral-TC, 40 Ghibli, 38 Merak, 24 MagicPanel-FX, 24 MagicBlade-FX, 63 MiniPanel-FX, 33 MiniBurst and 9 WildSun K25- TC.
Well, there was a little special side-story with Ayrton. As you might remember, Ayrton had a roadshow last year where I´ve talked to some of the guys and they had a moving-head Strobe called Magicburst and had introduced the Minipanel, which is a smaller version of the Magicpanel. I asked them if there will be a smaller version of the Magicburst too and they answered, that they had never thought of that before. And guess what: at Pro light and sound they presented the Miniburst which is exactly what I had in mind. Maybe I´ll get some reward for that idea? Sometimes a good idea comes to reality...Others are Robe, Stagetec, who had their 25th anniversary this year, ETC, DTS, Panasonic, Chromateq and Laserworld. They all have at least one new item in show that no other company has.
ETC had given an interesting preview of what to see at the fair: Visitors can get a first look at the soon-to-be-launched Element 2 console – a revamp of the original Element desk – which offers the award-winning Eos software with an interface and price point that is accessible to a broad range of users and venues. Also making its regional premiere will be the ETCpad, a tablet accessory providing dedicated, touchscreen-based wireless or wired remote control for all Eos family consoles and controllers.
Several new additions to the successful ColorSource family will be previewed at the show. ColorSource Pearl fixtures feature cold and warm white LEDs for a seamless colour temperature range, from 2,700K to 6,500K. Available in PAR, Spot and Linear (1, 2, 4) configurations, they boast the same user-friendly interface as their established ColorSource siblings.
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