Recently I worked on a Spiritual Twist Christian youth theater production called “Genesius,” the story of a 4th century citizen of Rome who is co-opted into discovering and betraying Christians to the emperor, but then is actually converted to Christianity and ultimately martyred. The Christians in the story meet in catacombs, and to emphasize this I wanted to make it look like the space was lit by flickering torchlight. As neither the venue nor the theater company had access to fixtures that would facilitate this, I approached the local sales rep for Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based A.C. Lighting, Lori Bennett, and they provided me some Chroma-Q Color Force Compact fixtures to try out. I was very impressed with the fixture, and have this opportunity to share my experience.
The Compacts are low-profile fixtures, approximately 8.5 inches by 7.5 inches for the face of the fixture, and with the included stand, about 6 inches deep. They are operated by a separate power supply, which helps keep the fixture size small. Full output of the fixture is rated at 1,700 lumens, with a beam spread of 14 degrees without the frosted lens installed, or 21 degrees with the frosted lens. Color rendering index (CRI) is 92.
DMX and AC power is run to the power supply unit, which supports up to 15 fixtures via three output connectors. Four-pin color scroller cable connects the power supply to the fixtures, providing both data and power. This makes for simpler and more convenient setup. Each fixture has red, green, blue and amber LED emitters, with a total of 28 emitters.
More detail & findings
The Compact has 16 different operating modes to choose from, ranging from separate hue, saturation and intensity (HSI) control over each of the fixtures (RGB also available); to grouping the fixtures by the power supply output line they are connected to; to HSI with an effects engine; to mode 16 where different looks are pre-programmed in. The variety of control modes is incredibly flexible.
"The [compact, low profile fixtures] are operated by a separate power supply, which helps keep the fixture size small."
I was especially intrigued by the built-in effects engine, because the facility we were using had an old ETC Express console that doesn't have any sort of effects engine in it. While I could probably have programmed some sort of effects chase sequence on each of the fixtures, this would have been incredibly time-consuming and tedious to get it to look like natural torchlight. And as we had about six hours of setup time from when sets are in place until the first technical rehearsal, this isn't time I had available.
For our production, I built some narrow stands that would sit on the floor in front of the stage and hold the fixtures at just the right height to project their beam up onto the people and sets as footlights. I used control mode 11, which provides one set of hue, saturation and intensity controls for all the fixtures connected to the power supply, and adds six channels of control for the effects engine. The DMX assignments for this mode are (and I present these in a more understandable order):
I used the hue control to set an orangey base color, with 100% saturation and about 75% intensity. I then set the color range control to a fairly high value, limiting the color change to only fluctuate into the yellows and reds a bit. I set the color speed to where it seemed to suggest a flickering torch, and set a color fan so that each fixture was at a different point in the color fluctuation curve.
Initially, I could not get the units to work as desired, because one was dimmed, and two were out completely. With some help from the A.C. Lighting tech support staff, we realized that I had the intensity spread control turned up, but had left fixture intensity effects at 0 (static). So, the intensity values got spread across the fixtures, but were never changing. Oops!
Closing thoughts
Through a little experimentation, we were able to achieve an excellent flickering torchlight look that was very effective, and the four fixtures we had to work with were more than enough to cover the area of the stage that represented the catacombs. The built-in effects engine made getting this look really easy.
With an MSRP for the power supply of $2,275, and a fixture price of $675, these are amazing fixtures that can add great flexibility for churches in adding color to their services and dramatic events. Not having to run AC power to each fixture is a nice plus. The color is excellent, deeply saturated, and very bright for the size. They also looked great on video, which can be an issue for some LED fixtures. They are solidly built, and their low profile helps them blend into their surroundings. And with the built-in effects engine, you can easily use these with simple lighting consoles and get great effects.
My only complaint is that the user's manual is not as concise as it could be in its explanation of the effects channels—more detail would have been helpful.
The Chroma-Q Color Force Compact fixtures made a huge impact on our theatrical production, and would be an excellent addition to any church's lighting inventory.
