There are many LED fixtures on the market today from a variety of manufacturers. While they come in a wide range of quality, price, and features, most of the fixtures are not terribly different from each other. When a new LED fixture comes along I am always a bit skeptical as to how "new and different" it really is. Then along comes the Reveal CW wash light, which, because of its differences, won the "Best Debuting Product" award at the 2009 LDI lighting trade show.
Physical Traits
The first thing that you notice about the Reveal CW is that it has a body shape similar to a Century ellipsoidal unit, kind of an elongated rectangle with somewhat rounded edges. The back end of the fixture is outfitted with a fan and heat sink while the front of the unit has a rubber gasket that holds in a plastic beam-shaping lens. The bottom of the unit has rubber feet to set the unit on, while the top has the switches for setting the DMX address, operating mode, and the power input. One side of the unit has the DMX input and output as well as a clutch knob for tightening the yoke while the other side has just the clutch.
Setup
Fixture set-up is straightforward. After unpacking, you will need to add a connector of the appropriate type to the supplied power cable, add a hanging clamp, and connect it to a control console via the five-pin XLR DMX input.
The Reveal CW powers easily with a Neutrik Powercon input and output connections. The power connections are positive locking and power can be daisy-chained to eight fixtures on one 20 amp 110 volt circuit. This is a great feature considering that this fixture pulls so little power at 180 watts and the Powercon connector eliminates having to deal with the connection issues IEC cables create with loose or unconnected cables. Add to this the auto-ranging power supply allowing the Reveal CW to run on a wide range of voltages without having to change any internal wiring, and you have a fixture that can be powered in any typical lighting rig.
DMX addressing is set from the LCD display and switches on the top of the unit. You set your starting DMX address for the unit just like any other DMX device. The number of DMX channels used will depend on which mode that you are using the Reveal CW in.
Operating Modes
The Reveal CW has four primary control modes. They are Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), X/Y Coordinate, Red Green Blue (RGB), and Hue Saturation Intensity (HSI) modes. These four primary modes also have several variations each that add control options.
In addition to deciding which control mode you want to operate the fixture in, each mode offers four different color algorithms that affect how the colors mix. These algorithms allow for subtle theatrical-type color mixing, bolder "rock and roll" colors, a balance between theater and rock, and a 16-bit resolution that gives you very precise extended control of the fixture.
Additionally, there is a mode that adjusts the refresh rate of the LED dimming when using the fixture with video cameras. This mode allows you variable frequency control so you can eliminate any possible camera flicker.
While reviewing the fixture I tried almost all of the operating mode combinations and each mode did have a different operational characteristic.
With 32 different modes available, Prism Projection has tried very hard to meet every user's needs, almost to an extreme. However, they did make the fixture easy to use on almost any console because of the many choices of operating modes. Just be prepared to do some experimenting to find the mode that works best for you.
Light Output and Color Mixing
As far as an LED wash fixture, the Reveal CW has a very nice output. This is where the fixture shines and what distinguishes it from other LED fixtures. The beam has a nice flat, even field and the similar characteristics of a PC beam with the clear 27? lens. With the wider lenses, the Reveal CW acts more like a Fresnel fixture.
Unlike many other LED fixtures the colors are completely homogenous with no color banding or colored shadows. As you look at the front of the fixture the light output is one solid beam of color, which is very nice.
The Reveal CW uses a color engine with five different colored LEDs -- red, green, blue, amber, and cyan --which gives the fixture its high quality color rendering and the ability to mix a much larger range of colors than a typical three-color LED.
The Reveal CW comes with a 27?plastic lens standard and additional lens options include 37?, 50?, 70?, and 90? beam spreads. A rectangular lens for washing walls, banners, and set pieces is available as well.
Changing lenses is easy and only requires removing the rubber gasket from the front of the fixture and swapping the lens, a procedure that can easily be done on a lift or ladder in less than 30 seconds.
The color mixing is nice as the Reveal CW mixes a nice range of colors in full-color mode and an excellent range of white light from approximately 2000? to 10,000? Kelvin in correlated color temperature mode.
Using the full range Red, Green, Blue (RGB) color mixing mode I was able to get a nice range of deep to light blues, various greens, brick and fire reds, magenta, ambers, oranges, and yellows. The colors mixed very well and as I ran through them on the console the colors cross-faded and dimmed nicely.
In the fixtures CCT mode, which is the fixture's white light only mode, I was able to mix a wide range of variable color temperature white light,everything from a very warm candlelight color to a more blue daylight color. This mode was very impressive and one that makes this fixture very useful as it mixed a very good white that approximated a typical tungsten fixture and rendered very good skin tones, something most LED fixtures do not do very well.
Additionally, several of the full-color-mixing modes have the CCT control, as well. Here you could go from a mixed color to a white light at whatever color temperature you wish it to be. Think of it as using a color changer on a PAR can and going from a color to open white. Currently, however you are not able to cross fade from a color to a CCT selected white as the fixture will only snap from the mixed color to the white. This means that if you want to cross-fade from a color to white you have to mix the white light yourself in the console, which is easy to do. I am told that a future firmware update is in the works that will allow the CCT mode to cross fade.
Overall the light output and color rendering on the Reveal CW is excellent in quality but the fixture is not as bright as I would like it to be. However, brightness is always relative to what you are comparing it to and need the fixture for.
With a maximum output of 3,820 lumens, the fixture has a little more than one-third of the intensity of an ETC Source Four PAR, however it is four times more efficient than a Source Four PAR.
In a small church or youth room, this would be an excellent conventional fixture replacement for front light. The key to this would be using it in short-throw situations. Probably anything over 15 to 20 feet is going to be too far of a throw but I would urge you to get a demo and test it in your particular application.
In my measurements with a white mixed to approximate a 3,200? K lamp source I measured 120 foot candles at 10 feet, 60 foot candles at 15 feet, and 30 foot candles at 20 feet.
In a backlight or effect lighting situation I think that the Reveal CW would be an excellent addition to the lighting rig and could be used effectively in much larger rooms at much longer throw distances.
A Solid Fixture
Even though the Reveal CW has a few things that make it a bit difficult to set up, once everything is up and going the fixture is very solid and works well.
Its TrueSource closed-loop optical feedback system is designed to keep the color and output consistent from fixture to fixture with a minimum amount of maintenance over its estimated lamp life of 50,000 hours. At a price of $2,295 MSPR with an included five-year warranty, the Reveal CW is a reasonable investment.
It is definitely worth consideration in any venue and could be a PAR-can killer in a small venue.
