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MSRP: $420
I've had a number of interesting ADJ fixtures come across my desk over the last year or so, and have been impressed with what I've seen. Most recently is the ADJ Ikon Profile fixture, designed to project gobo images to create an effect.
Overview
The Ikon Profile is a rather unusual looking fixture: long, narrow, and rectangular in profile. Is contains a single 32-watt white LED for a light engine, and consumes a total of 44 watts at full intensity. It has both power in and power out connectors on the back of the unit, making it easy to daisy-chain fixtures together.
The fixture can be controlled manually; through an IR control system; or via DMX from a lighting console. Three-pin DMX connectors for input and pass-through are available on the back of the unit.
When operating under DMX control, the fixture occupies three channels. The first controls the strobe function; the second is intensity; and the third lets you set the dimming curve.
For setup, a seven-segment LED display panel and four push buttons provide access to the fixture's menu system, allowing for setting various parameters such as DMX address and dimmer curve. It also allows for manual control of the fixture.
The fixture has a color frame on the front for installing gels, and the slot for the gobo frame is positioned about halfway along the length of the fixture on the top. It accepts 26.8mm diameter gobos, and comes with four metal pattern gobos and one multi-color glass gobo. The gobo holder is thick enough to take both glass gobos as well as metal, and these can be combined for interesting effects. The holder uses a spring wire mechanism to hold the gobos in place, and it is easy to change out the gobos.
"The Ikon Profile has an impressive amount of brightness for such a small fixture."
This fixture is a zoom fixture, with two knobs set into a long slot along the front of the fixture for adjusting beam spread and focus. The beam can be adjusted from 15 to 40 degrees.
As mentioned earlier, the fixture can also be controlled by an IR remote control, and comes with a little adapter that you can plug into your iPhone and use an ADJ app to control the fixture. However, I did not have any luck in getting this to work. I also think these feature isn't especially useful in a church environment, so it doesn't concern me, and I didn't spend a lot of time trying to make it work.
Performance
The Ikon Profile has an impressive amount of brightness for such a small fixture. With no gobo or filter in place, the fixture puts out an impressive beam of white light. ADJ states the color temperature of the lamp as being 7500K, which looks about right to me.
At a 22 foot through distance, I measured the brightness at the center of the beam at 11.5fc at its widest beam angle, and 52.6fc at its narrowest beam angle. These seem to fall in line with the stated brightness of the fixture. At this throw distance, I measured the field diameter (where the light level is at least 10% of the maximum brightness level of the beam) to be 36 degrees at its widest, and 16.3 at its narrowest. The beam angle, which is where the light level is at least 50% of the brightest part of the beam, was measured at 20 degrees at its widest and 9 degrees at its narrowest.
The gobo projection looks reasonably crisp at a normal viewing distance; up close you see that there is some chromatic aberrations at the edges of the gobo [Note from Brian: Terri – insert Chromatic aberrations.JPG here], which is pretty normal for most gobo projection systems. These weren't distracting at a normal viewing distance.
When dimming, the fixture had some amount of light flicker or stepping at the lower end of the curve, and going from 0% to 1% is a pretty noticeable jump in brightness.
Dimming curves can be set both manually as well as through DMX control; the different options available seem to simply set a minimum fade time for any transitions in intensity level, ranging from instantaneous to 6-7 seconds. While this evens out the dimming, it also prevents you from doing an instantaneous blackout. However, when programming cues, you can simply set the dimming curve to “standard” before doing a blackout, which solves that potential issue.
On video, the fixture looked pretty solid at high intensities. However, when dimmed down to a lower intensity, there were rolling lines through the beam field as viewed on my Canon C100 video camera. These could be minimized by being selective on what shutter speed you use.
The fixture does have a cooling fan, which is definitely audible. If you need to mount the fixture near the audience and plan to use it during very quiet times in your event, people will hear it. However, the fan runs continually, so people would likely get used to the sound and tune it out, just as they do HVAC noises.
The Bottom Line
This is a nice gobo projector with a lot of power behind it. For theatrical work or creating a scene, it would be a great option, especially for the price. MSRP is $420, but street price is closer to $300.
The colored glass gobo that's included with the fixture is stunningly beautiful, and combining it with the metal gobos produced some very nice effects. It would work well in your auditorium as part of scenic design, or could add interesting texture to your atrium walls and floors.
Also available are the Ikon Profile Pearl, which has a white casing, and the Ikon Profile WW with a warm white color temperature light engine.
