Philips Lighting’s VLZ Range Sets Standard For Performance Consistency

Philips Lighting (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced the availability of the new Philips VLZ range of moving head luminaires for professional show lighting applications. Using the latest Philips LED light engine and providing advanced color and beam control, the three VLZ models together set a new benchmark for performance consistency in stage and television lighting.

Responding to feedback from leading lighting professionals, the challenge for the design team at Philips Entertainment Lighting was to improve upon the industry standard Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Series. The resulting Philips VLZ range has a smaller footprint, improved beam quality and additional features based on the latest LED technology, while maintaining the familiar Vari-Lite color performance and programming workflow.

The three fixtures – the VLZ Spot, VLZ Wash and VLZ ProfileVLZ Profile – are dedicated to their individual functions, yet designed to work in unison. All deliver fast, accurate and repeatable movement on all functions.

Philips VLZ Profile

“With the VLZ we have kept the best features of the successful VL3000 Series, and brought them up to date with our latest light source technology,” says Martin Palmer, Vari-Lite product manager at Philips Entertainment Lighting. “While each fixture is engineered for its specific role, their shared systems greatly enhance the consistency of performance across the range and, importantly, reduce the cost of on-the-road maintenance. The VLZ range’s advanced color and beam control combinations will make it the go-to choice for lighting designers.”

All three VLZ fixtures use the Philips Vari-Lite CMY-CTO color system, familiar to lighting designers worldwide for its creation of seamless mixed colors. Complementing this, dual fixed color wheels with linear control give access to all the Vari-Lite colors and split color combinations that users will expect. In addition, color shake and color wheel spin control have been added to every model, further extending the creative options available.

Using the same 620W LED engine, all Philips VLZ fixtures produce an 8000K color temperature light output with variable CTO adjustment. They can also be frequency tuned and are equipped with Gamma shift for cameras. Lighting designers and directors are assured of consistent colors, effects, programming and performance across the range, reducing time spent adjusting for variations between fixture types. ‘Standard Mode’ operation delivers another major advantage, as the VLZ sets a new standard for quiet operation.

VLZ Spot

The Philips VLZ Spot produces a 25,000 lumen output, creating striking mid-air and break-up effects from its dual rotating and indexable gobo wheels, plus a three-facet linear prism. The high contrast, flat field, 7-50˚ zoom range and iris provide beam control, while the 16-bit focus control channel allows for hard- to soft-edge focusing, with focus zoom tracking remotely selectable from the console. Beam softness can be further adjusted via the three-way frost control.

VLZ Wash

Also with 25,000 lumen output and 7-50˚ zoom range, the Philips VLZ Wash boasts a flexible array of beam-shaping options, with three different systems used independently of each other or in combination. A lenticular lens can flatten the beam shape, while a beam softening control offers four softness grades. Lastly, a set of four internal framing blades can be used to further shape the beam.

VLZ Profile

Designed for mid-air effects and crisp, defined image projection, the 24,000 lumen output Philips VLZ Profile features two gobo wheels with Philips Vari-Lite exclusive patterns. A continuously rotatable animation wheel provides further effects variety, while its iris and four-blade framing system give full beam-shaping control. Like the VLZ Spot, the VLZ Profile has 16-bit focus control for hard- to soft-edge focusing, console-selectable zoom tracking and three-way frost control.