Page 1 of 3 >>
Apollo Design Technology Right Arm
As a designer I always cringe when a church building is built that doesn't have a lighting catwalk. I do understand that not all buildings are suitable for catwalks, and that catwalks are expensive, but I also understand the time, effort, and expense that it will take to maintain and focus the lighting system without a catwalk.
Granted, not having catwalks isn't that bad if you are in a venue where you set the lighting once and you leave it alone until it's time to replace lamps, but if your organization makes lighting changes every week, not having that catwalk becomes more of a hassle.
I have been in churches where the lighting team has told me they would give anything not to have to spend the hours moving chairs so they can get a lift into place to access the platform lights. This is especially true when hours of work are required to refocus four or five fixtures, something that would take 20 minutes with a catwalk.
Well, for those of you that are in this situation, and would, as the old expression goes, give an arm or a leg to make your job easier, Apollo Design Technology is willing to give you their Right Arm so you don't have to give yours.
The Right Arm is a device that adds remote controlled pan and tilt positioning to most standard theatrical or studio lighting fixtures. Controlled from any DMX-capable lighting control console, the Right Arm allows you to remotely place one fixture in an unlimited number of position focuses without ever climbing a ladder or going up in a lift, making lighting focus changes quick, easy, and much safer.
Focused Functionality
Generally speaking the Right Arm is ideally suited for those fixtures that you refocus for drama or soloist spots on a regular basis, however, you could also use the Right Arm with a video camera or a small video projector, or even put one on every light you have in your lighting rig and make everything remotely focusable.
In addition to its remote focus capabilities, the Right Arm also features a 24-volt power supply and two four-pin data/power outlets that can power optional accessories such as color changers and gobo rotators. This means you could also add color changing and gobo rotation to the lights' capabilities. These additional features add a lot of functionality to the Right Arm system, especially for fixtures used for drama.
For control, the Right Arm uses two, three, or five channels of DMX depending on the mode setting of the device. Each mode optimizes the Right Arm to your setup and console type, as well as setting the limits for the range of motion that the Right Arm can move. These mode settings allow the Right Arm to work well with a wide range of lighting consoles, however, a console with submaster or cue memory is recommended, as you will want to be able to recall pre-programmed focus positions.
In the eight-bit mode with no speed channel, movement was smooth from position to position with only mild stepping noticeable with extremely long fades. This stepping went away when using eight-bit mode with the speed channel. All 16-bit modes use the speed channel so the stepping wasn't an issue in those modes. Sixteen-bit mode did increase the precision of the focuses because of the finer adjustments that could be made.
Page 1 of 3 next page >>
Greg Persinger is the owner of Vivid Illumination. He can be reached at greg@vividillumination.com.
Post a Comment
ADD NEW COMMENT