The New LED Movement – Elation’s Easy Color LED Moving Head Fixture
By: David Martin Jacques
For: Church Production Magazine
June 27, 2005

Being a professional lighting designer is not an easy task. I always tell my students that a lighting designer must be both “Right-Brained” and “Left-Brained” at the same time. That is, designing lighting is an artistic endeavor using extremely sophisticated, and rapidly developing lighting technology as the tools of the art. Therefore, keeping up with the pace of technology is a very important task for the designer.

The latest technological movement in light sources is the LED (Light-Emitting Diode). At this past year’s Lighting Dimensions International Trade Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, several companies were showing off their new LED stage lighting fixtures. What was once exclusively used for electronic readouts, the LED has now reached the level of development where lighting equipment manufacturers can produce reasonably priced, high intensity lighting fixtures that incorporate this technology. Manufacturers are introducing these fixtures in several forms, including LED striplights, moving lights, LED panels, rope-lights, and large light matrix boxes for graphic lighting displays (watch the latest music videos). One company even showcased a prototype LED ellipsoidal reflector spotlight! Among these lighting manufacturers, Elation Professional has led the way with their Easy Color LED Moving Head Fixture.

First, a quick, simple explanation of what an LED is. A Light-Emitting Diode is a diode that emits light when current passes through it. The color of the diode can be visible or infrared depending on the actual material used. LED’s have many uses including visible LED’s that are used as electronic indicator lights and in text message panels, and infrared LED’s that are used in many remote control devices. For stage lighting use, we obviously use the visible type.

What are the advantages of LED sources versus the incandescent light bulb or arc lamp used in conventional stage lighting fixtures? First, LED’s have very low infrared emission and non-existent ultraviolet radiation, therefore they produce minimal heat. They also use very little power, have a high light-source life (100,000 hours), produces a very white colored light (5000K vs. 3200K for incandescent sources), have no filament (thus are much sturdier), and are extremely reliable. In addition, LED’s are very small and can be mounted in smaller housings for low-profile lighting instruments.

What does this mean to designers and church leaders? In a few years you will be able to throw away all those expensive dimmer racks cluttering up your electrical room. Low-voltage circuiting will replace those expensive 20 amp circuits distributed throughout your church. Fewer, smaller, and more efficient lighting fixtures will replace all those Lekos and Par Cans you purchased over the years, and your Pastor and Choir will be much more comfortable under the “cooler” lights of LED’s.

Due to their small size, LED’s may be grouped tightly together to create multiple color sources in the same fixture. This allows manufacturers to develop fixtures that can internally mix color. No gels, dichroic filters, or color-scrollers are required. I recently specified new LED striplight fixtures for a church consultation in Texas. The choir-loft ceiling is only a few feet above the choir members’ heads, and their old PAR fixtures were frying the pates of the choir. I replaced those fixtures with several LED striplights. Now the choir is much more comfortable, and can be lit in over a million colors by mixing the colors of the LED’s. Word has it that several men are growing back their hair!

Elation’s Easy Color LED fixture is a welcome addition to the new world of LED stage lighting. The profile of the Easy Color is small and compact (appearing more like an elegant architectural fixture). However, its power and flexibility certainly defy its diminutive appearance. The fixture is also very light (another welcome change from the larger, bulkier moving lighting fixtures we typically use).

The LED matrix in the Easy Color is contained in a very sophisticated moving head housing. This means that you can use it as a small moving light that remotely changes color. The Easy Color accomplishes this by using eighteen high-powered LED’s that have a lamp life of over 100,000 hours. The LED matrix is divided into six red, six green, and six blue LED’s. Using additive color mixing, you can instantly change the color of the light to over 16.7 million colors!

The Easy Color has a beam angle of 14 degrees. This is a very narrow beam, so you need to hang the fixture at a distance where the field of light would be acceptable. There is also a 21 degree diffuser included for wider beam angles (easily changeable with a screw-ring). Although only rated at 330 lumens, we found in our tests at California State University Long Beach, that the intensity of light from 12 – 20 feet was quite impressive.

There is a polycarbonate light diffuser on the front of the LED matrix that softens the light and enables smooth color mixing. Our testing showed the beam consistency was excellent with virtually no color-creep when changing from one color to another. This is a welcome change from low-quality red/green/blue dichroic color systems used in many inexpensive moving light fixtures in this price range.

The fixture is extremely accurate in its positioning and virtually silent in its movement. This is a direct result of the low-mass design of the LED light matrix. There is a revolutionary yoke system that uses only one arm. This allows an impressive pan range of 650 degrees and a tilt range of 280 degrees. The fixture consistently found its pre-programmed positions. It never failed one test!

The movement of the fixture is controlled by 9 DMX control channels. The channels include Pan, Fine-Pan, Tilt, Fine-Tilt, Red, Green, Blue, Rainbow (a fun effect indeed…), and Stroboscope (a high-speed white or full color strobe effect with 1-25 flash-per-second flash rate). There is also an internal electronic dimmer that offers a smooth dimming range from 0 – 100% with no color shift. We found the dimmer extremely accurate and its dimming curve very smooth with no stepping or flickering.

We tested the Easy Color both in the light lab and on a university production. The size and weight of this light was perfect for our smaller performance space. The Easy Color was faithful to its name as it is extremely “easy” to set-up and program. After setting the DMX address and plugging in the DMX and power cables, we were able to effortlessly program and control the fixture. It was virtually silent in its movement and highly effective for spotlighting actors from a modest distance. These attributes make the Easy Color ideal for low-ceiling churches with limited power.

The Easy Color can also be mounted in several positions, including sitting on its base and hung from pipes and trusses with clamps. My students and I appreciated how good it looked in its base mounted position. In fact, it would look really cool sitting on my coffee table. This was one test unit that I really had to keep my eye on to make sure that it did not end up in someone’s house.

Elation’s Easy Color is a welcome product for the church market. I have already specified it for several smaller sanctuaries where a silent moving light is required. The set up is very quick and easy for even lighting novices. Remember, since it has an internal dimmer, all you have to do is plug in the power cable and run a DMX cable from your lighting controller to the fixture. The Easy Color is a pioneer in the initial generation of LED stage lighting, and its introduction has inspired additional fixtures that incorporate this energy-saving technology. This will truly change the way we create light for our churches!

David Martin Jacques is a professional lighting designer and consultant. He has designed over 300 productions including recent engagements at Italy’s La Scala and La Fenice theatres. He heads the graduate stage design program at California State University Long Beach, and may be contacted at: djacques@csulb.edu .