Classic, Futuristic Lighting

If you thought you saw a Vari-Lite VL5 on the High End Systems booth at LDI 2018, you're not alone.

For the uninitiated, he VL5 was a classic moving yoke color wash fixture from the last millennium (1992, to be exact) and it had a most distinctive look. Instead of a lens on the face of the head, there was this radial tilting dichroic color mixing apparatus punctuated by a small metal cover in the center that made it look like a big pupil or a jet engine. It was the closest thing to Cadillac fins that the lighting industry ever had.

But you didn't see a VL5 at LDI, you saw the retro/futuristic TurboRay, the latest innovation from High End and Richard Belliveau. The fixture takes a fresh approach to a classic idea, updating it with a four-celled RGBW LED engine, gobos, variable frost, and a zoom lens. The effects it produces are unique, and the combination of the very narrow to super wide beam, the digital breakup, and the ability to create a four-color beam emanating from the head create a looks you've never seen. But the real eye-catcher are the tilting radial dichroics. They have been updated with optical edging to creates a sort of light-pipe that enhances the trapezoidal shapes and adds color to the edges of the filters.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Roy Bennett or some other very creative LD will do with them. My guess is that he would put them on a show by the dozens but the emphasis just might be the lights themselves rather than the beams they throw. But we'll have to wait until the Spring to see any of them on any show because they aren't shipping yet. Word is that they will start shipping sometime in the first half of 2019. In the meanwhile, I hope to see you at NAMM in January.