LDI New Technology Breakfast - Lighting & Projection

Good Morning, LDI! Another year and another New Technology Breakfast, this one is for lighting and projection.

Apparently, catering wasn't expecting a theatre crowd since as of 8:10 we are out of coffee! Calm and Zen Tazo tea aren't going to cut it!!

The breakfast is co-moderated by Bill Maiman and Marian Sandberg.

If you can't make it, I will try to give you some highlights. You should stop by the exhibitor's booths and demonstration rooms for more in-depth information. If you can't make it to LDI, I will update this post with websites.

The room is packed with 300 - 400 attendees who are here to see what's new and what they should take a longer look on the floor.

8:15 First up - Birket Specialty Lighting. Stop by their booth #844 and see some great new strobes and controllers. They now have a standalone 14W LED.

8:20 - Next is Doug Fleenor, or as most know him Dr. DMX, Doug Fleenor Design. Stop by DFDs booth 2009 for more Apathy products (Really that's the name!) They have the new Color Wheel to show off. Plus, ask for the parallel to candleabra base; you can get a smokin' deal!

8:24 - City Theatrical - Booth #1424, is showing off the Lightwright 5 to Vectorworks compatibility. Stop in and say hello to John McKernon and the CTI gang. They also have a new power supply PDS-750 TRX for Color Kinetics products.

8:30 - Interactive Technologies has the new Figment DMX software to launch at LDI. They have the new CueServer Express, which is half the cost of the previous CueServer. Now at 5.0 software version for CueServer and has a Software Developers Kit. They are in booth #1967.

8:33 - Jeremy Kumen from Enttec is up showing off the Datagate MK2. It has visual profile editing to make operations much simpler. Enttec is in booth #215.

8:38 - Pathway Connectivity. Booth #1040. Ten years of Pathport, it was launched at LDI in 2000! They are introducing the Pathport VIA a 10-port +1 Managed Gigabit Switch with PoE. Has an LCD station for addressing right at the switch. It's designed specifically for the lighting industry. You can buy cheap switches just about anywhere, but do you want to trust your lighting rig to a cheap switch? It's Vegas, come by and spin the encoder knob!

LDI Awards are at 5pm on Saturday night, right at the end of the show, on the Apex stage in booth 727. (Next to the Live Design booth) They are open to everyone, so you should stop on by and see all of the award winners.

8:44 - PRG is showing off the new OHM Light. It's an LED-based unit that draws 8-amps and replaces a 42-amp (5kW) Spacelight on a one-for-one basis. It uses Gekko Technology's kleer colour LED emitters. On-board dimming via DMX so you only need a control cable and standard cable cutting a Socapex cable and dimmers. 2,900K-6,500K. You can see it in the PRG demonstration room N113.

8:48 - A first time company to LDI is i luminate and they have products for wireless lighting costumes and set pieces. DMX and MIDI control plus an iPad/iPhone app for control. They have a product 8-channels of EL lighting. They also have some LED products. You have got to stop by and see their products. The interpretive dance demo was totally worth it! They are in Booth #944.

8:52 - Graham Likeness of LEX Products. They have a number of new products to show off. The Slim Dimmer Plus is a compact 1.8kW dimmer that has DMX and local manual control. It has a solid aluminum extrusion for use (and abuse) in the real world. The regular Slim Dimmer has no DMX. They now offer custom legend printing with their cable assemblies to ID your cable on job sites. They use hi-vis sky blue ink every two feet on the cable. You can use if for branding, information, etc. New EverGrip molded Motor Cables are being intro, both in 7 and 14 pin configurations. Booth #2020.

8:58 - Apollo Design Technology - They have introducing a new LED Zoom fixture from their partner Spotlight from Italy. It's a 100W RGBW that can zoom from 12 deg to 50 deg. Booth #1412

9:00 - Philips Entertainment - Booth #1318. Jeremy Collins of Philips Selecon presents the Philips Selecon PL1. It uses the LED light engine from the Vari*Lite VLX and has fully a columnated beam. It uses an InfraRed remote for architectural applications. There are a lot of them in the booth (that was lit by Lightswitch's John Featherstone and Austin Shapley; it looks fantastic) It has full color mixing. They have the PL3 with three LED light engines, equivalent to a 1kW, and a prototype of the PL5 with five light engines that are equivalent to a 2kW Fresnel. They have a new Strand Leko to show off; a new Selecon ellipsoidal with lockable shutters. Strand power management systems to use IGBT dimmers and relay switching packs. Between Vari*Lite, Strand, Selecon, and Horizon - there are a lot of new products to play with.

9:08 - Black Tank, a new company for 2010. www.theblacktank.com. RGBW or dual white LEDs (cool and warm mix. The unit has an LCD display; you can gang units together in multiple combinations. 1,200 lumens; 20 deg native and has lenses to change out for various beam spreads. You can make it a single color unit-in the field. You can change out the LED boards. Sold in two or eight packs. Booth #2338

9:12 - PRG - Chris Conti is presenting the PRG Bad Boy CMY. You now have a choice of the Quantum Color System or now the new CMY color mixing system. 48,000 lumens; 8:1 zoom range (7 deg or 56 deg) PRG Demo Room N113.

9:14 - Prism Projection - Miles Dudgeon presents the RevEAL Studio, an LED Fresnel. Color now has a five year warrantee. 250W draw; can run on DC; zoomable via DMX; variable color temperatures; full colors since they are LEDs. They monitor the colors for color consistency, especially from light to light as well as over time; high CRI; has a prototype of a barndoor, which cuts. They are in Booth #1628.

9:18 - Robert Juliat - Aledin profile. 3500K and 5800K, lockable shutters; three zoom ranges; and cool enough to use plastic gobos. They are in Booth #1205.

9:20 - PRG - Tom Celner shows off the new V476 console, a smaller version of the V676. It has four touchscreen monitors; an Apple Mac Mini inside with a triple output so no external tower. It's designed for smaller workspaces, trade show closets, smaller theatres, etc. It is a full on programming console with all 700 universes of DMX; the same amount of faders and encoders; all the same features and capabilities of the V676 console. PRG Demo Room N113.

9:23 - Wireless Solutions is launching a new range of wireless DMX products, including adaptive frequency hopping; can operate on multiple bands, 2.4gHz and 5.8gHz, at the same time. They can sell wireless RDM software in the US. They have feedback tools and a full range of accessories. 64 universes of DMX. Here at LDI, you can find them in Booth #2062

9:26 - BCI - Rob Baxter - The Pocket Console for iPod/iPhone/iPad now with DMX NETport. (Yes, they showed it last year, but now it's done. Really! He actually controlled a light with it over a wireless network.) Much like the original Pocket Console, but does up to 36 channels. You can use it to tech moving lights with it. Six faders per page, and six pages for a total of 36 channels. Can be used both horizontally or vertically. It can act like an RFU; it has a DMX in so you can do a dimmer or channel check. Stop by Booth #412 and check it out for yourself.

9:32 - Midiator - US debut of "a new generation of visual & lighting control." It can trigger other lighting desks; it can control media servers and media playback devices; video playback devices, etc. Booth #2740 www.midiator.eu

9:36 - Light Converse - They have a new 3D view in a photo-realistic view. Can record as an .avi file; works with 3D glasses; can control digital fixtures; media servers; up to 32 full HD video streams. Connects over Art-Net or Streaming ACN. Bi-directional controls with many control consoles. Can map onto 3D objects. Can deal with overlapping and blending of projectors. Up to 96 DMX universes and 1,536 moving lights. Booth #2158

9:41 - CAST - Gil Densham - They have built a tracking system, called BlackTrax. This allows for fast and accurate performer tracking. It can be used spontaneously. While it is a stand-alone and connect with other control systems as well as CAST's BlackBox. Stop by and see it being demonstrated in Booth #805

9:45 - German Lighitng Products (GLP) - Carl Wake . Four new products - Impression Spot One, an LED spot moving head; 700W output with saturated colors. The Meisterstuck, a Fresnel; The Volks Licht Z adds zoom capabilities. G-LEC offers the Solaris+, which are LEDs on a string. They are launching the Phantom 15 with 15mm pitch SMDs. They are all in Booth 2034.

9:48 - Madrix - Introducing Madrix 2.10, LED control software from Germany. It is built for a range of applications, clubs, architecture, entertainment. There are now audio controls that can take in audio and convert to lighting outputs. MIDI Remote Editor has been added for media mapping as well as a DMX Watcher to monitor the DMX in and DMX out. It now supports Streaming ACN and deals with deinterlacing. They are working with American DJ and has the Madrix Neo in the US. Stop by Booth 2255 www.madrix.com.

That's it! A lot of new products for you to go check out. I would love to hear any feedback on these or any products that you might find on the show floor or in the demonstration rooms. You can e-mail me at [email protected] or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mseddy2900 I hope that you all have a fantastic LDI!