As a lighting designer and consultant, part of my job is to stay on top of new fixtures that various companies release. One way I do this by doing a lot of reading. Recently a press release from American DJ came across my desk for their Inno Color Beam Z7 and Inno Color Beam Z19. While they weren't yet available when I received the announcement, I was rather intrigued with the feature sets of these two lights.
The Inno Color Beam Z7 and Inno Color Beam Z19 are moving head LED wash lights that use the latest 10-watt Osram Ostar high brightness red, green, blue, white (RGBW) LED's. The Z7 uses seven of the Osram LED elements while the Z19 uses nineteen of the elements. This means that the Z7 has 70 watts of LED power and the Z19 has 190 watts, which from a pure specification standpoint is not shabby. I think that both of these fixtures will be fairly bright.
From a color standpoint I personally would rather have had amber instead of white as the fourth color in my color mixing system. I prefer the saturation that amber provides over the color desaturation that white provides, however, without actually seeing the mixing system in action, I can't totally dismiss it as a poor choice as it might work very well.
One of the big things that jumped out at me was the fact that these are LED wash fixtures with a 10- to 60-degree motorized zoom. This fact alone gives these fixtures a lot of versatility, and in my opinion this is what really sets the Inno Color Beam Z7 and Z19 apart. The 10- to 60-degree motorized zoom allows the unit to have a narrow intense beam one minute and a wide soft wash the next, all from a control console.
To me, having a large zoom range makes this a viable fixture for a short throw distance where you want the wide beam angle, as well as a longer throw where you want the narrower beam angle. It also makes it a good option for lighting sets and backdrops one minute and creating narrow beams the next. Add to it that they appear to be fast moving head fixtures and you have a lot of possibility for some cool movement effects.
Both units can be DMX-controlled, sound-activated, or will run in show mode where they will play back one of four built-in light shows. In DMX mode, both units use 14 channels of DMX, have 64 built-in color macros, full electronic dimming with five user-selectable dimmer curves, electronic strobe, a pan/tilt inverse mode so floor- and truss-mounted fixtures move the same way, and fast pan movement.
Setup is done through the four-button LCD menu, the units come with omega brackets for mounting, can run on 100-230-volt power, have approximately 50,000-hour lamp life, and are fan-cooled.
The Inno Color Beam Z7 has IEC power in and outs so up to four units can be daisy chained at 120Volts. It also has three-pin XLR in and outs for data as well as a connector for the American DJ UC3 controller, it weighs in at 17 pounds, and consumes 104-watts of power, measures 10.5 inches wide, 6.75 inches deep, and 13.5 inches tall and has a list price is $1,499.95.
The Inno Color Beam Z19 has Powercon power inputs and outputs and five units can be daisy chained together at 120 volts. Its power consumption is 245 watts. It also has both three-pin XLR in and outs as well as five-pin XLR in and outs for data but does not have the American DJ UC3 controller connector.
The Z19 weighs in at 21 pounds and is 13 inches wide, 7.5 inches deep, and is 15.75 inches tall and has a list price of $2,499.95.
At first look it seems as though the ADJ Inno Color Beam Z7 and Inno Color Beam Z19 could add a great deal of versatility to any lighting rig because of their zoom range, pan and tilt speed, color mixing, and their brightness. I know that I am interested in seeing these units in action.
