Courtesy of Elektralite
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Lighting Review: Elektralite LXE700 Spot and Wash Luminaires
In December 2008, Elektralite introduced two new automated luminaires that are both technically strong while permitting you to remain conscious of your bottom line. The LXE700, available in Spot and Wash versions, was initially shown at last year’s LDI tradeshow by Farmingdale, NY-based distributor Group One Limited. Since the lights have been shipping for awhile now and will be shown at the upcoming WFX Charlotte, we thought that it was worth taking a look at the features and benefits of these lights.
Both the Spot and Wash lights offer the following features: an HSR 700 lamp which has a color temperature of 7,000K and an average rated life of 1,000 hours; eight- or 16-bit control; electronic ballast; very quiet cooling; full mechanical dimming from 0 to 100%; full color mixing; frost filter, strobe and shutter effects; on-board programmable effects; and an electronic display. The LXE Spot uses 24 channels of DMX and the Wash uses 16 channels. Both the Spot and the Wash weigh in at 75 pounds, and have a packed dimension of 29 inches by 23 inches by 25 inches. Though currently listed on the website and cutsheet as only available in a black powder-coated finish, Vinny Finnegan, vice president of Elektralite and Group One Limited, assured me that white and custom colors are available just like other Elektralite units.
The display allows you to access a menu with an assortment of options, including addressing, homing and resetting the fixture, plus you can track lamp hours as well as fixture usage hours (which are different when the lamp is doused but the unit is still running.) It also will display the DMX address, individual DMX channel values, display invert (for when the unit is hanging rather than floor-mounted), channel test without a controller, pan and tilt flip, delay lamp start, display shut off, and choice of eight- or 16-bit control.
The Spot features a pan range of 630° and a tilt range of 265°; stepped beam angles of 24°, 28° and 35° with a zoom between these fixed angles; a color wheel with eight colors plus open two rotating, bi-directional, indexable gobo wheels—six each, plus open for a total of 12 gobos; an iris with effects possible; and a three-facet, bi-directional rotating prism also with effects. The gobo wheels both have a range of standard moving light patterns, including various shapes and textures as well as some colored glass and effects glass. It has a retail price of $5,495. Manuals are fairly well-detailed and illustrated, and the text even has some humor to lighten up the reading.
The zoom function is accomplished with a wheel that has three different lenses on it to give you the three-beam spreads. “We chose to go with the multi-step zoom over a linear zoom because a linear zoom adds a lot of cost to the unit as well as dropping the output significantly,” says Norman Wright, vice president of Elektralite and Group One. Wright designed the LXE700 and has overseen it from its initial conception. “With the 35° you can get a full body shot at about 12 feet. These beam spreads are standard, but they are replaceable. We did one church, the Hillcrest Baptist church in Enterprise, Ala., where they wanted 15° beam spread, because they wanted to throw from about 100 feet.” I think that Wright chose good lenses; each lens size change only affects the output about 4 or 5 %; you don’t want to lose too much output when you zoom out. Also the lensing allows for crisp patterns projection.
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Michael S. Eddy writes about design and technology. He can be reached at mseddy2900@hotmail.com. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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