From The Horse's Mouth

My 17 year old son’s rock band performed at a high school “Rock Off” at the Cleveland House of Blues recently. I was standing behind the sound and light boards as that is usually the best spot for sound. The light board op had a list of cues for each group’s set when they came on. Imagine my surprise when he brought up the cue list for the lighting that my son wrote (shown below). “Red stuff? Yellow? Blue/Purple things?” Wow, now this is a kid that sat at the kitchen table, eating his Fruit Loops watching me look at and analyze gel colors for the Apollo swatchbook. He has looked at every gel color in most color filter systems as I have them all over the place from answering color recommendation questions.

We may be driving somewhere and I will ask the sons ( there are three), to tell me what colors they see in a sunset or moonrise. These conversations date back to when I taught lighting design and I wanted to push the students to open their eyes and remember details (push the record button) so that they can recreate them as designers someday. I was surprised at his simple lighting request. As I thought about this, I realized that it was very admirable. My son is a bass guitar player. His main function was to play the music (and have a good time). He kept the lighting simple and trusted the board op to do whatever. As long as the crowd could see them and the lighting somewhat matched the music, he was happy. Sometimes I think we need to step back from the complex technology, simplify the cues and not give in to the impulse to strobe, flash, fog, or visually overdrive the background visuals. Yes, music can sometimes be a bit visually boring but running the lights “unplugged” will bring the audiences attention back to what they really came to experience, the music and the artist.

I just read with great interest an article where some well known NYC designers were discussing the new lighting tools that are available. There was an interesting thread of concern that I noticed. When you dim LED sources, they loose the warmth that an incandescent source (amber or red shift) had. As I pondered this, I realized that it seems that the arts and entertainment lighting designers have very different priorities that any single current LED source unit will not solve. In the “good ol’ days” we could light just about anything with a PAR can, ellipsoidal, Fresnel, striplight or scooplight. The common denominator in these fixtures is the incandescent lamp that was in the 2300 to 2600 degree color temperature range. The rock and roll designer could crank up the lumens and be quite happy. The higher end theatrical or opera designer had the same capability but could also drop the intensity down to give the rich, warm glow that an interior scene might need. On the other hand, the low end small theatre lighting designer could buy R40 floods and clip lights to create enough light for any given scene.

I am fascinated by the melding of art and technology. Working for a manufacturer, I often ask designers what they want in fixtures. They love the “any color I can dream up” in LED fixtures. As well, the powering of an entire electric with one cable and daisy chained DMX control. BUT when they dim the lights down for a subtle warm scene, things get tricky. Apollo has a Spotlight Profile Zoom that uses a 50 watt LED source. This unit has GREAT intensity that is brighter than it’s 300 watt incandescent brother. We are offering the fixture in 3 different color temperatures, 5700, 4000, and 3000 degrees. This will give you subtle warms for matching incandescent sources and also allow you to match cooler fluorescent or daylight color temps. However, it won’t be able to match the reddening of the lamp when dimmed. These are concerns that come with the new technology along with abrupt fade outs as the LEDs don’t have cooling filaments. “Fader lag” is also something that makes a design look and feel different. Will LED sources replace incandescent sources in entertainment? YES, in some cases where brightness and flash are the goal. I truly feel that incandescent sources will still be around for many years whether it is because of the cheaper cost of the fixtures and lamps or because they have certain characteristics that are desirable in low light scenes. As we all stand back and watch the technologies evolve, we need to keep asking for the stars, the moon, and the sky until those dreams are met BUT be ready to wait a bit as these new technologies catch up to what you want.

By now, you know that we are adding more and more LED source fixtures. We feel that it is the future (and the present) in entertainment lighting. Here is a very interesting article asking leading designers from various fields about their opinions on where lighting is going. Take some time and read it.
http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20111215/leading-luminaries

The other day, I was at a Home Depot looking at the new LED lamps sources for my living room. I was amazed at all of the new information that the manufacturers include with them now. In the old days they listed wattage and voltage (12 or 110). As we moved into fluorescents, they added cool white and sometimes daylight white (full spectrum) info. Now with LED sources, we have lumen output (pretty important to know how bright they are), wattage (and comparisons to incandescent and fluorescent sources), and very important-color temperature! I really liked a 950 lumen at a color temp of 5000 “A style” lamp replacement but it was $29 then right next to it, there appeared to be the same lamp but in a different colored carton. It was an 850 lumen lamp with a color temperature of 2500 selling for $25. I consider myself fairly savvy to LED sources but I still cannot figure out the reason for the differences in the versions. Most folks will buy the cheaper one but won’t understand the differences in warm and cool sources until they place the lamp in the same room as a cool LED source.

As theatre lighting designers, specifiers, dealers it is our job to educate the consumers about the new options that are available. In entertainment lighting, we are offered warm and cool LED color temps as well as RGB, RGBAW,RGBA, RGBW (YIKES!). While having all of the colors is the ideal situation, the reality is most folks don’t have the money to purchase the top of the line gear and may never have a need for the “full color” options. You may be lighting a display or statue at a museum and the cool or warm color temp fixture would do the job perfectly for less money. One can also consider using a color correction filter (gel or dichroic) to correct and match sources. What I am saying is, be creative and use that mind that has been analyzing and blending lighting colors for years. We have been trained in our professions to adapt for this new technology! It should be fun.

My solution to the living room color temp issue, I bought the brighter and cooler color temp LED lamp and used a double socket to add it to a warmer 450 lumen LED lamp (that was on sale for $10). Total wattage of 24 watts. My family, who hates my obsession with changing over to LED sources, still hasn’t noticed the change (and I’m certainly NOT going to tell them!)

Apollo offers several different LED fixtures from an RGBAW bright flood fixture to a warm 50 watt LED Fresnel and a 50 watt cool LED framing spot. Go to the website and take a look!

Grab a swatchbook and look at the color, AP3450 Bodacious Blueberry. Anything odd about it? How about AP5430 Green Gello? Holding it up to the light probably won’t help much. Here’s another that should tip it off, AP3850 King Congo Blue. Did you see the common thread? All three colors allowed more of another color through than the main color than that they are named—huh? AP3450 allows more red through than blue wavelengths, AP5430 allows far more red through than green, and finally AP3850 has almost three more times of red in it than blue. Again, I want to repeat… don’t assume the gel name is truly the gel color. Put it into a light and make up your own mind. Apollo recently introduced a new color named “Not What You Pink” (AP3270) and as you look at it in the book, it is definitely a lav or purple but when you drop it into a light, it has a pink tone to it.

Just because a color is named after a designer, doesn’t mean that if you use it, you will design like them. I’m sure if you asked them, they would probably prefer that you find your own colors and develop your own lighting style. If you buy a set of LeBron James basketball products, you will NOT play like him. It’s the talent and skills developed by lots of practice that will get you that Tony Award. Now go look at some colors!

I was recently at LDI in Orlando and spent a lot of time showing our new LED fixtures that we were premiering there. Something that struck me was the amount of people that were caught up in the technical features of the lights but didn’t really look at the quality of the light that the fixtures produced. There are two things that seemed the most important, how bright the units were, and, of course, PRICE was a big issue. We had screens set up for the folks to look at the light but most people swung the light around and wanted to see the distance that the light would work efficiently. I find it curious that we are so caught up in comparing the standard shortcomings of LED technology but not how the light illuminates. We showed a 50 watt warm white LED Fresnel that had an amazing incandescent warm tone to the light. I had several people show surprise that it wasn’t an incandescent source. As a matter of fact, the LED version is brighter than it’s 250 watt incandescent sister. I think that it is great that the LED sources are getting to the point that they can rival the incandescent sources but we also need to think about the CRI and the warmth and quality of the light AND what it looks like as it illuminates the object that it is focused on. Yes, the process is important but the result is the priority!!!

LEDs and video projection are two new technologies that are very popular with a lot of new products being released, almost seems  daily. Everybody is waiting for the ultimate fixture that is as bright and inexpensive as a standard incandescent fixture. It will happen someday but I think we are cheating ourselves a bit. Eventually, all theatre fixtures will be LED driven but that day is WAAAAAY off. Think about it, the development costs on the LED sourced fixtures have to be paid back somehow and a new LED fixture introduced today can be old technology within 6 months to a year at the speed of the developments. We should supplement our brighter incandescent fixtures with the dimmer LED versions to save setup times and create color mixing capabilities.

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Occasionally, we are asked if we can match Pantone® colors. First of all, what is a Pantone color? A Pantone color is a set color guide created by Pantone LLC. It sets a color matching standard of colors and the various primary colors that make up that color. Simple enough but here’s the rub, it started out as standardized colors used in printing inks and has expanded to fabric, household items, and plastic colors. Mixing dyes to create color is done on the subtractive color system (primaries are red, yellow, blue and when they are mixed equally create black) as opposed to additive color mixing (red, blue, green and when they are mixed create white) which is what we use in lighting colors and some LED fixtures. Occasionally an event designer or wedding planner will have the client choose a color theme to an event based on the Pantone Color Matching System. When asked if they can match a Pantone color, some lighting companies say that it is a completely different color system and will not do it. At Apollo, we actually have visual matches for our Apollo Color filters and Pantone colors listed on our website .

We can also match many Pantone colors on our custom glass gobos. As with all color matching, ALWAYS get a sample, place it in a light and compare it to the Pantone color. Remember! there can be a wide variety of color temperatures in the source light’s lamp and that can skew the color quite a bit. Avoid the potential last minute stress and get the creative clients together to approve the match as early as possible.
The Pantone color matching system is a wonderful source to choose colors from and should not be intimidating. There are many websites available that give a lot of information on the system. You can also call us at Apollo with any Pantone to Apollo Gel questions.

As you read specifications for the new LED fixtures, there is a new term that we rarely saw with the conventional theatre lighting fixtures of yesteryear. An IP-65 (IP stands for ingress protection) rating indicates the fixture is suitable for using outdoors and is water and dust resistant. Obviously, if you take your standard Fresnel out in the yard and run it during a rainstorm, it is not going to last very long. So, do you need an IP-65 rated fixture if the unit probably won’t be used outside? I say yes! In most cases, you won’t have a choice. The manufacturers are making these units to suit two industries, the architectural lighting field and the entertainment lighting field. The architectural lighting field use the fixtures to light features or walls on the exterior of buildings or as indoor accent lighting . The sealed feature will eliminate dust and dirt getting into the fixture and will lessen the maintenance time required. The IP-65 units are more solidly built in many instances as well. The other industry that the fixtures are targeted for is the entertainment lighting industry for use in theatres, arenas, dance clubs, and other venues. So, why would I need a water resistant and sealed fixture in my dry and clean theatre? In most cases, the IP-65 rated fixture will NOT have any cooling fans (they push moisture into the case—baaaaad) so the lack of a fan means a much quieter fixture that can be used in a smaller theatre house. It also eliminates the dreaded statement from the director, “Ummm, what’s that humming noise that I keep hearing?” These IP-65 cases usually have larger metal cases on them as they are the heat dissipation component. As fixtures get brighter, look for cases to get larger to “wick away” the dreaded heat from the electronics and LED sources. Heat is quite fatal with LED components. Another specification to look at is the usable lamp life expectancy. Sometimes manufacturers will drop the usable hours (where the LEDs maintain close to the same color temperature as when they were new) to make up for the extra heat factor. They may also list the ambient temperature with the hours as a reference. It is a delicate balance between lumen output, heat buildup, and heat dissipation styles to create today’s LED fixtures. In the old days, we would just hang a light inside or outside regardless of the temperature and run with it, soon we will have to take the environment where the lights will be hung into consideration.

I was on a panel discussion last week at a theatre conference. The questions came from all tech theatre disciplines from TDs around the country. One of the questions was where to get a theatre inspected for safety issues. The TD felt that there were some big safety issues at his theatre. One of the panelists told him that he should call the local OSHA office and have them send someone down. Two of us on the panel looked at each other in a panicked way. While I think OSHA is a very important agency in protecting workers, some inspectors write citations like crazy. I suggested getting together with other theaters in the town and hiring a safety consultant to come through to point out safety issues, give correction advice and create a report for the administration. The original panelist said that he gets along famously with his local OSHA inspector and they point out issues and give them ample time to fix them. The assumption here is that all inspectors are the same (they are not). I am not endorsing unsafe workplaces or procedures but I am saying that it is best to get all of your ducks in a row before you invite what might be a hungry fox into the duck pen! With all of that being said, be sure to get a safety inspection as theaters can certainly be very dangerous work environments!