First-Ever LED Ellipsoidal Shootout a Big SuccessIn mid-March, 50 lighting industry professionals pulled on their boots and overcame mounds of plowed snow to Boston to see the first ever Ellipsoidal Leko Shootout produced by USITT and hosted by High Output. Seven companies brought a total of 21 fixtures each hoping to best their competitors. High Output was happy to show off their new satellite shop and sound stage in Boston. The event was brain-child of Steven Rosen FIALD, president and creative director at Available Light; Dan Jentzen, director of education at High Output; and Anthony Phelps, assistant professor of theatre arts at UMass Boston and USITT representative. Spanning a wide spectrum of lighting professionals, the event was attended by architectural lighting designers, theatre lighting designers, film/TV lighting directors, university educators and students, sales reps and manufacturers. Event assistance was provided by Brighter Boston, an organization dedicated to providing urban teenagers with professional internships in technical theater. "Dan, Anthony, and I are dedicated to serving lighting design education," said Rosen, "because of this, we wanted the event to be a unifying experience, not a competitive one. There was no 'winner.' We all walked away knowing more about each fixture than we would in the vacuum of a sales pitch." "We know that LED lighting is significantly more efficacious than legacy halogen sources, but from color quality to dimming to mechanics, we wanted to demystify the performance and attributes of LED-driven ellipsoidal spotlights," Rosen continued. "Fixtures were separated into three groups: Tungsten, which were designed to look the most like halogen lamps; daylight with tune-able white; and color-changing. Shown one-by-one, the basics from each fixtures' cut sheet was announced before demonstrating each feature. "We started each lamp at what the manufacturer considered 'white,' reminding us all how dramatically different white light can really be. From there, we went through shutter/gobo quality, beam quality, center beam intensity, color temperature, CCI, dUV, and CRI," said Jentzen. "This shootout gave us the opportunity not only to compare fixtures to one another but also to understand real time performance vs. published data," added Phelps. Manufacturers and sales reps were more than happy to participate. "It not only gave them the opportunity to show their fixtures to 50 diverse lighting designers in one shot, it also gave them the chance to see where their fixtures stacked up against the competition," said Jessica Krometis, IALD New England Chapter coordinator and Available Light designer. "We hope to see more events like this that attract a wide-ranging group of lighting professionals. The conversations were, well, illuminating!" 
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