Philips Vari-Lite Exhibits at PLASA Focus: Leeds

PLASA Focus: Leeds, at the Royal Armory in North of England, April 17-18, will see Philips Vari-Lite show-off its latest developments in automated lighting technology.

Entertainment professionals visiting stand S-C15 can shoot the lighting breeze while familiarizing themselves with the recently launched range of luminaires: the VL440, VL770, and VL880. In addition Vari-Lite will be showing off the VLX3 LED moving head.

Conceived from the union of Vari-Lite creative engineering vision and according to the company, their understanding of lighting designer's needs, this range of luminaires provide lighting designers with a comprehensive palette of creative lighting tools in an efficient and compact unit.

"With limitless color options, unmatched clarity of optics, exceptional zoom range, fast, smooth movement, and powerful output, the key difference between each model is the power and therefore the output," explains David March, director, European sales for Philips Vari-Lite. "The VL440 uses a 400W lamp and delivers 9,000 lumens; the VL770 uses the 700W MSR Gold 700 MiniFastFit Lamp and outputs 15,100 lumens; and the VL880 uses the 800W MSR Platinum 35 lamp and outputs 19,000 lumens. All feature eight standard colors on a fixed wheel, a coated glass dimmer wheel, and a separate dual-blade strobe system. The discerning lighting designer will therefore never be stuck for creative choice."

Each luminaire also features interchangeable independent armature with frost glass and a second, independent armature with a rotating and indexable prism. In addition there is one gobo wheel with seven rotatable and indexable positions, and a second gobo wheel with ten fixed positions. Powerful pan and tilt motors provide smooth, fast time-controlled continuous motion capable of 0.3 degree resolution with a pan range of 540 degrees and tilt of 260 degrees. All feature a zoom range from 15 to 36 degrees; a mechanical iris for continuous beam size control, plus built in mounting points on the front of the luminaire for easy attachment of accessories such as top hats.

Alongside the VL440, VL770, and VL880, Vari-Lite be demonstrating the VLX3 LED wash luminaire. Based on the award-winning VLX Wash technology, the VLX3 can replicate the color temperature of a tungsten or arc lamp source and the internal beam homogenization system creates smooth, natural looking color mixing free of any unwanted color shadow effects, the company says.

Three powerful and replaceable LED engines deliver striking color and intensity, a long life and reliability, and offer three times the efficacy of comparable tungsten sources. In fact the total system provides approximately 6,000 lumens of white light output, and a 10,000-hour chip life. The VLX3 Wash is designed to either allow all three light engines to work in synchronicity or for each to operate completely separately in terms of color, dimming, strobe rate, and fade time -- allowing for some interesting effects.