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Lighting Review: Philips Vari-Lite VLX Wash Luminaire
The future of LED-based luminaires has only one shadow. In any color, even white, there is only one shadow, not the multi-colored shadows that LEDs are known and loathed for. The Philips Vari-Lite VLX Wash Luminaire has only one shadow by using a patent-pending method of mixing the colors from multiple LED sources to produce a bright, homogenous beam. The VLX wash marries the benefits of LED technology and the best characteristics of traditional automated luminaires. I found that the VLX offers rich colors and very good intensity. With a long-life source that considerably reduces maintenance, combined with low energy consumption and maintenance costs, the VLX wash sets a new standard for automated lighting.
The light source of the VLX consists of seven custom 120-watt RGBW LED chipsets that provide an output offering three times the efficacy of comparable tungsten sources. Each LED chipset, manufactured by Luminus, contains red, green, blue and white LEDs. The total system provides approximately 14,000 lumens of output and the manufacturer rates the source life of the LED chip at 10,000 hours. This solution ensures that lamp replacement costs are a thing of the past. The 70% lumen intensity maintenance over that time guarantees that the VLX wash will continue to work fine well into the future. If a light engine does fail, it is fairly easy to replace the bad light engine.
The VLX wash offers a dynamic Color Rendering Index (CRI) adjustment, a continuously adjustable white color temperature range between 3000K and 9000K and seamless color mixing that all combine to create a single source that behaves like familiar arc or tungsten luminaires without the associated costs and inefficiencies inherent in those systems. As mentioned, there is a single shadow; the multiple shadows of other LED units are a result of not having a point source, but multiple sources. The patent-pending internal beam homogenization system provides smooth color mixing, which is free of "color shadowing" effects associated with other LED fixtures thanks to the clever use of lenses. Each of the seven light engines has a Fresnel lens at the front of the assembly, while there is a single lens over all of the light engines. The resulting beam is very smooth and even. In white, on a screen, I did notice some artifacts of the different light engines. It was very subtle and you really had to look for it. In normal use and in color, I no longer noticed these artifacts.
The zoom is also handled in a very smart way. The patented zoom system consists of a single glass lens at the front of the light that has three motors that move the lens back and forth. It is an extremely short travel, so you can zoom from 22 degrees at the narrowest to 60 degrees at the widest very quickly. You can easily remove the zoom system for a fixed field angle of 21 degrees as well as more light output. There are accessory mounting points included, permitting the attachment of additional, aftermarket beam control devices such as a top hat.
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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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