Main Light Introduces the LED-Powered LightStar Fiber Optic Illuminator

Main Light Industries introduces the LED-powered LightStar fiber optic illuminator, part of DiCon Lighting's FiberLamp product line. LightStar uses a LED light engine comprised of red, green, blue, and white LEDs for a broad spectrum of color choices as well as reduced power draw and weight. The unit produces an output comparable to, or greater than, a fiber optic illuminator using a 150W metal halide light source. In a white color mix, the LightStar is equivalent to 150W metal halide powered illuminators. By using an LED light engine, there is no transmission loss with a color filter, so in deep, saturated colors, the LightStar has a greater output that is equivalent to 25W illuminators, the company says.

"By using LEDs as the light source, we have significantly decreased the power draw for the illuminator since we now only need 2A to power the unit," says Giovanni Ciranni, manager, Main Light. "The LED source also reduces the heat produced which means we have a low-noise cooling fan that is virtually silent. We have also reduced the weight to five pounds versus some illuminators that came in around 40lbs. This will significantly cut the shipping costs of fiber optic systems."

Also, because color management is done electronically, the LightStar illuminator eliminates the need for a traditional color wheel; unlike many other fiber optic illuminators, LightStar is not limited to three or four colors on the wheel, rotating at a fixed speed. "With LightStar you get a really wide selection of colors produced via the RGBW LEDs, plus you can get instant color changes as well as smooth fades," explains Ciranni. "The unit also has one DMX channel that brings up a pre-mixed cool white color so you don't have to take the time to mix to a white for a strong star effect."

With the LightStar's separate dimming channel you can dim down and not lose your color mix; in addition, it is equipped with a built-in strobe function and a twinkle wheel for sparkling effects with star drops. The fiber port has a 30mm aperture, which can handle 900 points of fiber, enough to light one circuit of a 20' x 30' Main Light LightScape fiber optic drapery.

The LightStar illuminator has full DMX capability for remote control; up to 30 units can be daisy chained via DMX control using five-pin XLR or Ethernet RJ-45 in-and-out connectors. Built-in DMX-based master-slave functionality allows one unit to control and synchronize the behavior of the other units, such as dimming and twinkling. LightStar can also operate in standalone mode as well as be controlled locally at the illuminator. The unit has a DIP switch to set the DMX address and it requires eight DMX channels for control-one per color and one each for the twinkle wheel; the strobe; the dimmer and a pre-mixed white color. The 5 b LightStar measures a compact 12"L x 6"W x 5"H.

DiCon Lighting manufactures the LightStar illuminator under the FiberLamp brand and finalized the product design based on feedback from Main Light, which is the primary distributor for the LightStar illuminator to entertainment markets. "We've been working closely with DiCon on the specifications for LightStar for the past two years," says Ciranni. "It has been a great collaboration and I think that our clients are really going to enjoy the design possibilities that the LightStar illuminator affords them."