Sunbelt Adds Some Alphas

Concentrating mostly on corporate productions, Temple, AZ-based Sunbelt Scenic Studios added 14 of Clay Paky’s new Alpha Spot HPE and Alpha Wash fixtures to their lighting rental inventory.

Renshaw immediately committed his new Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures to a number of large- and small-scale industrial productions. He received feedback from both his in-house lighting designers as well as freelance LDs and programmers that confirmed the additional Alpha fixtures as the right choice for Sunbelt.

"One of the things that immediately impressed me was my freelancers commenting on how quiet and fast the new Alphas were," says Renshaw. "Mostly, we do corporate shows, and it is always a concern having a bunch of moving lights on the show and hearing them ‘hum’ in general, not to mention amplified by the audio mikes."

"As for its performance, I really like…how fast the fixture moves when you’re using them in a bally-hoo, for example," he continues. "I definitely see adding more Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures to my inventory to complement my existing rental stock in the future."

Renshaw was attracted to the amount of features available in the small-size Alpha Spot HPE, such as its 10°- 40° zoom and fully electronic focusing. The CMY color mixing system is augmented by a seven position plus white color wheel and a linear CTO for gradual color temperature correction. The special effects section of the Alpha Spot HPE has a total of three gobo wheels. Two wheels of six easily interchangeable, indexable/rotating gobos, and a third, fixed wheel of eight gobos that can be swapped with other fixed wheels. In addition to its three gobo wheels, the Alpha Spot HPE also has a "fast clamping" animation disc. The "fast clamping" system allows for a quick transition to other graphic effects discs and can be used in conjunction with any or all of the gobo wheels to enliven projection effects.

Although an initial concern, Renshaw is impressed with the lumens output from Alpha’s 575 lamp technology. In addition to the brightness of the Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures, Renshaw was also impressed with the ease of using the fixtures when not powered up. "A big selling point for me is the menu access without powering the unit up," comments Renshaw. "In terms of rigging fixtures, it is one of the best things I’ve seen in ages, hands down."

According to Clay Paky America CEO PJ Turpin , Clay Paky views its Alpha Range as spearheading a "radical shake-up" of the US moving light market. "We have a 575W range of fixtures that have greater lumens output than 700W fixtures and in fact are strong against many 1200W units, and the Alphas have feature sets usually reserved for fixtures costing several thousand dollars more," he says. "The ETS-LDI show was a great success for us, and of course it did not hurt that I could point out the five major Las Vegas shows that all use Clay Paky fixtures, with more on the way."