Intelligent lighting refers to
lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
that has automated or mechanical abilities beyond those of traditional, stationary illumination. Although the most advanced intelligent lights can produce extraordinarily complex effects, the intelligence lies with the human lighting designer, control system programmer, or the
lighting operator, rather than the fixture itself. For this reason, intelligent lighting (ILS) is also known as automated lighting, moving lights, moving heads, or simply movers.
More recently the term has fallen into disuse as abilities once reserved to a specific category of lighting instruments (most notably colour changing and variable focus) have become pervasive across a range of fixtures. The distinction has become more blurred with the introduction of machines that would not be considered lights but share the ability to move their orientation and are operated by the same
DMX512
DMX512 is a standard for digital communication networks that are commonly used to control lighting and effects. It was originally intended as a standardized method for controlling stage lighting dimmers, which, prior to DMX512, had employed ...
control protocol, such as moving yoke projectors.
History
There are many patents for intelligent lighting dating back from 1906, with Edmond Sohlberg of Kansas City, USA. The lantern used a
carbon-arc bulb and was operated not by motors or any form of electronics, but by cords that were operated manually to control pan, tilt and zoom.
1925 saw the first use of electrical motors to move the fixture, and with it the beam position, by Herbet F. King (US patent number: 1,680,685). In 1936 US patent number 2,054,224 was granted to a similar device, with which the pan and tilt were controlled by means of a
joystick
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
as opposed to switches. From this point on until 1969, various other inventors made similar lights and improved on the technology, but with no major breakthroughs. During this period, Century Lighting (now Strand) started retailing such units specially made to order, retrofitted onto any of their existing lanterns up to 750 W to control pan and tilt.
George Izenour made the next breakthrough in 1969 with the first ever fixture to use a mirror on the end of an
ellipsoidal
An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation.
An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the z ...
to redirect the beam of light remotely. In 1969, Jules Fisher, from Casa Mañana area theatre in Texas saw the invention and use of 12 PAR 64 lanterns with 120 W, 12 V lamps fitted, 360 degrees of pan and 270 degrees of tilt, a standard that lasted until the 1990s. This lamp was also known as the 'Mac-Spot'
In Bristol in 1968, progress was also being made, mainly for use in live music. Peter Wynne Wilson refers to the use of 1 kW profiles, with slides onto which
gobo
Gobo may refer to:
Places
* Gobō, Wakayama, a city located in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
** Gobō Station, a railway station in the city
* Gobo, Cameroon, a commune in Cameroon
Plants
* Gobō (''Arctium lappa''), a biennial plant
* Gobo (bur ...
s were printed, inserted from a reel just like on a slide projector. The fixtures also had an iris and a multiple colored gel wheel. These lights were also fitted with mirrors and made for an impressive light show for a
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
gig in London. Another fixture known as the 'Cycklops' was also used for music in the USA, although it was limited in terms of capabilities. With only pan, tilt, and color functions, and at 1.2 meters long and weighing in at 97 kilograms including the ballast, they were heavy and cumbersome. These units were designed more for replacing the ever unreliable local spotlight operators.
In 1978 a Dallas, Texas-based lighting and sound company called Showco began developing a lighting fixture that changed color by rotating dichroic filters. During its development, the designers decided to add motors to motorize pan and tilt. They demonstrated the fixture for the band
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
in a barn in England in 1980. The band decided to financially back the project. Showco spun off their lighting project into a company called
Vari-Lite
Vari-Lite is a brand of automated, variable-colour stage lighting systems. Their intelligent lighting fixtures are commonly used in theatre, concerts, television, film and corporate events.
History
Pre-history
The origins of Vari-Lite date to ...
, and the first fixture was also called the Vari-lite. It also used one of the first lighting desks with a digital core and this enabled lighting states to be programmed in.
Genesis was later to order 55 Vari-lites to use in their next chain of gigs across the UK. The lights were supplied with a Vari-Lite console which had 32 channels, five 1802 processors and a dramatic improvement of the first console which was very simple and had an external processing unit.
In 1986 Vari-Lite introduced a new series of lighting fixtures and control consoles. They referred to the new system as their Series 200, with the new lights designated "VL-2 Spot Luminaire", and "VL-3 Wash Luminaire". The Series 200 system was controlled by the Artisan console. Vari-Lite retroactively named the original system "series-100". The Original Vari-Lite console was retroactively named the "series 100 console" and the original Vari-Lite was retroactively named the "VL-1 Spot Luminaire". The prototype fixture shown to Genesis in 1980 was re-designated the "VL-zero" in the mid-1990s to keep the naming consistent.
In 1985, the first moving head to use the DMX protocol was produced by Summa Technologies. Up until that time, moving lights were using other communication protocols, such as DIN8, AMX, D54 and the proprietary protocols of other companies, such as VariLite, Tasco, High End and Coemar. The Summa HTI had a 250 W HTI bulb, two colour wheels, a gobo wheel, a mechanical dimmer and zoom functions.
The first purchasable/mass-produced scanner was the Coemar Robot, first produced in 1986. Initially produced with either the GE MARC350 lamp, or the Philips SN250. Later versions were factory equipped with the Osram HTI400, a modification that High End Systems had been doing since 1987. The Robot used model aircraft servo motors to control Pan, Tilt, Color and Gobo, with the gobo wheel providing the shutter function as well. The Color wheel had 4 dichroic color filters (red, blue, yellow, and green), and the gobo wheel contained four stamped patterns (non-replaceable). The Robot communicated with a proprietary 8-bit protocol, yet had no microprocessors/pal's/pics/ram, O/S or other modern logic device.
In 1987,
Clay Paky
Claypaky S.p.A. is a developer of professional lighting systems for the entertainment sector (theatre, television, concerts, nightclubs and outdoor events ) and for architectural applications. The company is based in Seriate, near Bergamo, about ...
began producing their first scanners, the Golden Scan 1 & Crystal Scan. They utilized stepper motors instead of servos and used a HMI 575 lamp, bright and with a far more uniform beam brightness. This was followed by the Intellabeam in 1989, released by High End, who at the time were the distributors for Clay Paky.
In the 1990s, the future came closer with Martin, a Danish Company that produced
fog machines. They began to manufacture a line of scanners known as Roboscans, with a variety of different specifications for different users. They were named for their wattages, with a range starting with 1004 and 1016. Later came the 804 and 805, designed for small venues. Other models were the 218, 518, 812, 918 and 1200Pro units. Martin also produced a whole new range of Moving Heads called the Martin MAC Series. This series is still popular today, with new fixtures such as the MAC III and MAC Viper, which are among the highest quality moving lights.
The most recent development in intelligent lighting is digital lighting, with fixtures such as High End Systems' DL3. These fixtures consist of a bright LCD or
DLP projector
Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a set of chipsets based on optical micro-electro-mechanical technology that uses a digital micromirror device. It was originally developed in 1987 by Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments. While the DLP imaging ...
mounted on a moving yoke, much like that of an ordinary moving head. These fixtures also contain an integrated media server, which allows for millions of colour choices, endless libraries of gobo-like images, and projection of images and video.
Features
An automated light, properly called a
luminaire
A light fixture (US English), light fitting (UK English), or luminaire is an electrical device containing an electric lamp that provides illumination. All light fixtures have a fixture body and one or more lamps. The lamps may be in sockets fo ...
, fixture (or sometimes moving head), is a versatile and multi-function instrument designed to replace multiple conventional, non-moving lights. Depending on the venue and application, automated luminaires can be a versatile and economical addition to a stock of traditional lights because, with proper programming, they can swiftly alter many aspects of their optics, changing the “personality” of the light very quickly. Lighting is typically pre-programmed and played back using only simple commands, although moving heads can be controlled “live” if the
operator is sufficiently experienced.
Most moving heads have all or some of the following features. Each one is set to a channel number.
*
Panning
*
Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
* Fine Pan
* Fine Tilt
* Pan/Tilt Speed
*
Dimmer
A dimmer is a device connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of the lighting, light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the luminous intensity, intensity of the light output. Alt ...
* Shutter
* Zoom
* Focus
*
Iris
Iris most often refers to:
*Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
* Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional ent ...
*
Gobo
Gobo may refer to:
Places
* Gobō, Wakayama, a city located in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
** Gobō Station, a railway station in the city
* Gobo, Cameroon, a commune in Cameroon
Plants
* Gobō (''Arctium lappa''), a biennial plant
* Gobo (bur ...
1 Select
* Gobo 1 Rotation (Direction & Speed)
* Gobo 2 Select
* Gobo 2 Rotation (Direction & Speed)
* Gobo 3 Select
* Gobo Animation Wheel
* Colour 1
* Colour 2
* Cyan
* Magenta
* Yellow
*
CTO
* Prism (either 3,4,8, 16 facet circular or 6 facet linear)
* Prism Rotation (direction)
* Prism Rotation (speed)
* Effects Wheel
* Frost
* Lamp Shut off
* Fixture Reset
* Remote Patching
*
RDM
Control
Moving lights are controlled in many ways. Usually the fixtures are connected to a
lighting control console
A lighting control console (also called a lightboard, lighting board, or lighting desk) is an electronic device used in theatrical lighting design to control multiple stage lights at once. They are used throughout the entertainment industry and a ...
, which outputs a control signal. This control signal sends data to the fixture usually in one of three ways:
Analogue (which has largely been phased out),
DMX (which stands for "Digital Multiplex", also the industry standard control protocol), or
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
Control (such as ArtNet or sACN). The fixture then takes this signal and translates it into internal signals which are sent to the many stepper motors located inside.
The vast majority of moving heads are controlled using the
DMX protocol, usually using dedicated twisted pair, shielded cabl
with
XLR connector, 5-pin XLR connectors at the ends. Each fixture is assigned a block of DMX ''channels'' in one of the venue's DMX ''universes'' (a self-contained set of cables and fixtures which can operate a maximum of 512 individual channels). The central
lighting desk
A lighting control console (also called a lightboard, lighting board, or lighting desk) is an electronic device used in theatrical lighting design to control multiple stage lights at once. They are used throughout the entertainment industry and a ...
transmits data on these channels which the intelligent fixture interprets as value settings for each of its many variables, including
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
,
pattern
A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...
,
focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
,
prism
Prism usually refers to:
* Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light
* Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron
Prism may also refer to:
Science and mathematics
* Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...
,
pan (horizontal swing),
tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
(vertical swing),
rotation
Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...
speed, and
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
.
Since moving heads did not attain prominence until DMX's predecessor, AMX, or Analog Multiplex had passed the zenith of its popularity. Very few moving heads use analogue control, due to crippling restrictions on bandwidth, data transfer speeds and potential inaccuracy. Some of the most modern intelligent fixtures use RJ-45 or
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
cabling for data transfer, due to the increased bandwidth available to control increasingly complicated effects. Using the new Ethernet technology, control surfaces are now able to control a much larger array of automated fixtures.
The most recent development in lighting control is
RDM (lighting) {{manual, date=February 2016
Remote Device Management (RDM) is a protocol enhancement to USITT DMX512 that allows bi-directional communication between a lighting or system controller and attached RDM compliant devices over a standard DMX line. Th ...
, or Remote Device Management. This protocol allows for communication between the lighting controller and fixtures. With RDM, users can troubleshoot, address, configure, and identify fixtures from the RDM enabled lighting desk.
Moving lights are much more difficult to program than their conventional cousins because they have more attributes per fixture that must be controlled. A simple conventional lighting fixture uses only one channel of control per unit: intensity. Everything else that the light must do is pre-set by human hands (colour, position, focus, etc.) An automated lighting fixture can have as many as 30 of these control channels. A slew of products are available on the market to allow operators and programmers to easily control all of these channels on multiple fixtures.
Lighting boards are still the most common control mechanism, but many programmers use computer software to do the job. Software is now available that provides a rendered preview of the output produced by the
rig
Rig may refer to:
Objects and structures
* Rig (fishing), an arrangement of items used for fishing
* Drilling rig, a structure housing equipment used to drill or extract oil from underground
* Rig (stage lighting)
* rig, a horse-drawn carriage ...
once fixtures are connected to the program or console. This allows programmers to work on their show before ever entering the theater and know what to expect when the lights are connected to their controller. These products usually feature some method of converting a computer's
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...
output to a
DMX output.
Construction
Intelligent fixtures usually employ compact
arc lamp
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc).
The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, ...
s as light sources. They use
servo motors
A servomotor (or servo motor) is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for position feedback. It also r ...
or, more commonly,
stepper motor
A stepper motor, also known as step motor or stepping motor, is a brushless DC electric motor that divides a full rotation into a number of equal steps. The motor's position can be commanded to move and hold at one of these steps without any pos ...
s connected to mechanical and optical internal devices to manipulate the light before it emerges from the fixture's front lens. Examples of such internal devices are:
:* Mechanical dimming shutters used to vary the intensity of the light output. Mechanical dimmers are usually a specially designed disk or a mechanical shutter. Shutters with high speed stepper motors can be used to create strobe effects.
:* Color wheels with
dichroic
In optics, a dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths (colours) (not to be confused with dispersion), or one in which light rays having different polarizations are abs ...
color filters used to change the color of the beam.
:* Variable, incremental
Cyan
Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue.
In the subtractive color system, or CMYK color ...
,
Magenta
Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish-red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish-crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and blue. I ...
and
Yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
color-mixing filters to vary beam color via
subtractive color mixing. Using this method, a much wider range of colors can be created than is possible using single color filters.
:* Automated lens trains used to
zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
and
focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
the beam; irises are used to change the size of the beam. Some fixtures have as many as 10 independently controlled
prism
Prism usually refers to:
* Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light
* Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron
Prism may also refer to:
Science and mathematics
* Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...
s and
lenses
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...
to focus and shape the beam.
:* Pattern wheels with
gobos and ''gate shutters'' to change the shape of the beam or project images. Some fixtures have motors to rotate the gobo in its housing to create spinning effects, or use their complicated lens systems to achieve the same effect.
:* Automated framing shutters to further shape the beam and control unwanted spill.
These fixtures also use motors to enable physical movement of the light beam by either:
:* Pivoting an automated mirror which reflects the beam along X & Y axes, or
:* Attaching the entire fixture lens train to a
yoke
A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...
with motorized pan & tilt
Note that fixtures which use the former method are not technically “moving heads”, since the light source itself does not move. However, the term “moving head” is used interchangeably throughout this article.
On a moving head the glass gobos could have some fault caused by back-reflections of the light on the lens, to solve this defect can be used antireflections gobo.
Usage
Intelligent lights (now commonly referred to as automated or moving heads), can be used wherever there is a need for powerful lighting which must be capable of rapid and extreme changes of mood and effects. Moving heads would, therefore, be inappropriate in a setting which does not require strong lighting (such as a home) or where the “quality” of the light required does not vary excessively (although it may need to be very strong for a venue like a stadium). Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule, most notably the use of large numbers of moving heads for international sporting events, such as the
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
or
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
, where many thousands of separate automated fixtures are often used to light the opening and closing ceremonies. The
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
, in Beijing, had a rig of around 2,300 intelligent fixtures which is "the largest single automated lighting system ever assembled for a single event"
Usually, however, the use of intelligent lights is confined to
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
,
concerts
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or musical band, band. Concerts are held in a w ...
,
nightclubs
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
, and
churches where the versatility of these fixtures can be utilised to its best extent. In these applications, the uses of fixtures can be informally grouped into two categories: ''active'' and ''passive'' (although these are not standardised terms).
Passive use of automated lighting involves utilizing their versatility to perform tasks which would otherwise require many conventional lights to accomplish. For example, six to eight moving heads can create a textured blue “
night
Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...
” effect on the stage floor while applying amber light to the
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
s during one scene - this can create a sensation of dusk or night. At the flick of a switch, the fixture can change to an animated red “
fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...
” effect for the next scene. Attempting this transition with traditional lighting fixtures could require as many as thirty instruments. In this circumstance, the automated fixtures are not doing anything that could not be achieved using conventional fixtures, but they dramatically reduce the number of lights needed in a
rig
Rig may refer to:
Objects and structures
* Rig (fishing), an arrangement of items used for fishing
* Drilling rig, a structure housing equipment used to drill or extract oil from underground
* Rig (stage lighting)
* rig, a horse-drawn carriage ...
. Other features of automated fixtures, such as rotating
gobos, are also possible with conventional fixtures, but are much easier to produce with intelligent fixtures.
Active use of automated lights suggests that the luminaire is used to perform tasks which would otherwise require human involvement, or be simply impossible with conventional fixtures. For instance, a number of moving heads producing tightly focused, pure white beams straight down onto the stage will produce a fantastic effect reminiscent of
searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
s from a
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
(especially if a
smoke machine or
hazer is used to make the
beams visible). To recreate such an effect without intelligent lights would require at least one human operator seated directly above the stage with a
followspot
{{Unreferenced, date=October 2007
A spotlight (or followspot) is a powerful stage lighting instrument which projects a bright beam of light onto a performance space. Spotlights are controlled by a spotlight operator who tracks actors around the ...
, which would generally be considered to be too expensive for such a small effect.
Moving head fixtures are often divided into spot, wash lights and beam lights. They vary in use and functions, but many companies offer profile and wash versions of the same model of light. Profile lights generally contain features like gobos and prisms, whereas wash lights have simpler optics and a wider beam aperture resulting in wider beam angle, which may be altered by internal lenses or “frost effects”. Wash lights are more likely to have CMY colour mixing although it is common for high-end spot lights to have such features too.
Spot units are generally used for their beam effect (usually through smoke or haze) and the ability to project texture, whereas wash lights tend to be used for providing a
stage wash.
Beam lights are often built much like the spot in terms of functionality aside from one key difference: beam lights use a wide lens to make an even more extreme beam. A typical spot has a beam angle from 15 to 35 degrees, whereas an average spot has a beam angle of three to seven degrees with some high end companies producing lights with zero degree beams. Such beam effects are less seen in the theatre industry and more in the club and concert industry.
Debate
Not all lights that have movement can be defined as intelligent. Basic, low cost fixtures that are marketed primarily to DJ's, club venues, or for retail in novelty stores are not controllable beyond simply powering the device on or off. This lack of a feature set or remote control makes these lights only a small step above a conventional
stage lighting instrument
Stage lighting instruments (lanterns, or luminaires in Europe) are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts, and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television st ...
s.
The introduction of devices referred to as "Auto-yokes", after the original design created by the company City Theatrical, blurs the line between a "conventional" and "intelligent" fixture. Designed to replace the static mounting hardware on stage lights, an automated yoke provides the pan and tilt features built into a traditional automated fixture. When combined with an LED fixture or colour scroller, the most common features of an automated light can be readily duplicated.
[http://www.citytheatrical.com/Products/2012/02/10/autoyoke City Theatrical Auto Yoke] "Auto-yokes" are often promoted as a way to modernize and increase the flexibility of an inventory of lighting fixtures at a reduced cost to replacement with intelligent lights.
Generally, moving mirrors are faster at adjusting a lights position than moving head fixtures; however, moving-heads-style fixtures have a far larger total range of movement. The movement from mirror lights tends to be rectilinear, because the center of movement for both axes is usually in the same place (behind the centre of the mirror). Moving head fixtures have a much more concentric range of motion, owing to the separation of the axis of motion. Much smoother operation can be achieved through one axis of a moving head luminaire describing a circle (usually pan) and the other (tilt) changes the diameter of the circular movement.
In early luminaires a pseudo rotating gobo effect could be achieved by moving the tilt in line with the other axis and then moving the pan from end stop to end stop.
See also
*
Stage lighting instrument
Stage lighting instruments (lanterns, or luminaires in Europe) are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts, and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television st ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Intelligent Lighting
Stage lighting