Meteor Lighting is an LED lighting company established in 2008. Based in Los Angeles, the company has a variety of LED house fixtures available. These include options for dimming via traditional DMX control; line-voltage dimming, where the fixture will dim on a standard 120v dimming circuit; and 10-volt dimming, where a 0-10v control signal is sent to the fixture to control its output level.
The ColorFlip physically changes the colors of LEDs to achieve different color temperatures, resulting in a more even lumen output over the color temperature range.
According to the spec sheet, the DMX version will dim down to less than 0.1%; the 0-10v system has two options: “standard,” where the fixture will dim down to 10%, and “superior,” where the fixture will dim to less than 1%; and TRIAC line-voltage phase control dimming (this is your typical theatrical dimmer system) where the unit will dim down to 1%. Here CPM takes a look at the four-inch Cylinder Series ColorFlip fixture with DMX dimming. This is a variable color temperature fixture, ranging from 2,700K through 6,500K. While most LED fixtures achieve a variable color temperature feature by using half amber and half white LEDs, the ColorFlip physically changes the colors of LEDs to achieve different color temperatures, resulting in a more even lumen output over the color temperature range. This fixture is available in beam angles of 40 and 60 degrees, and in power ratings of 15, 25, 35, 45 and 65 watts. The unit Meteor provided us for review is a 35-watt, 40-degree fixture.
Getting Acquainted
The first impression I had on unboxing the unit is that this is a nice-looking fixture. Other LED house lighting fixtures I’ve seen tend not to be that aesthetically pleasing, and in many installations like a black box theater setting, you really would never see the fixture body itself in any detail. This fixture would look pretty good in a setting with lots of ambient light that would make the body of the fixture visible. And it has multiple hang options—a traditional yoke that can take a C clamp, but also options for mounting to the end of a vertical pipe, or being hung by aircraft cable, which would give it a sleeker appearance. Surface and wall mounting is also an option. The fixture is available in both a black and a white finish.
Connecting the fixture is quite simple—there is a power connector and DMX in- and pass-through connectors. There are no external controls for setting DMX address and personality type; instead, the fixture uses remote device management (RDM) to set these attributes. If you have a lighting console that deals with RDM, you can use it to set the address and personality of each fixture. If not, you’ll need a tool like Chauvet’s RDM2Go for setting these attributes. For my testing, I used my RDM2Go, and was able to work with the fixture’s attributes without a problem.The fixture has five DMX personalities available. The default personality uses two DMX addresses—the first for intensity, the second for color temperature. This is the personality that Meteor Lighting suggests that all users employ and, therefore, we used this personality for our testing.I took some measurements of the fixture’s light output. It should be noted that depending on the exact color spectrum being emitted from an LED fixture, a traditional light meter may read lower than the light actually being emitted. With a white-light fixture, this probably isn’t as much of an issue, but these field measurements could be a little low.
Measured Attributes
With the CCT (color temperature) attribute set to 50%, I measured 70 foot-candles (fc) at beam center at a distance of 100 inches (8.3 feet) from the lens to the floor. The beam diameter (the point where the light drops to 50% of maximum) was measured to be 64 inches; the field diameter (the point where the light output drops to 10% of maximum) was 118 inches. Calculating the beam angle from these measurements, I get 36.7 degrees, which lines up well with their specifications given the informal measurement methodology I use. [Beam angle = atan (beam diameter/2)/throw distance * 2].
The fixture dims quite smoothly with no perceived flickering.
With the CCT attribute set to 2,700K, I measured 65.9 lumens at center at 100 inches; at 6,500K, I measured 74 lumens at center. The stated CRI (color rendering index) for the fixture is 85. The range of 65 to 74 lumens over the full range of color temperatures is impressive, and much more consistent than the typical two-color emitter approach, where lumen output often drops by 50% at the extremes of the CCT range.The field of light was quite nice – the fixture produces a very smooth drop off from center to the outer edge. This means that a matrix of fixtures out over the seating area of an auditorium should blend smoothly together, producing nice, even lighting for the room.
The fixture dims quite smoothly with no perceived flickering. The fixture’s light also looked fine on camera—no flickering was detected at any of the shutter speeds I tried, even at lower light output levels.I was impressed with the fixture, and believe it would work well for any church wanting to move to LED house lighting for their performance spaces. The ability to adjust the color temperature is also nice – I could see using a CCT closer to daylight for higher energy music and preaching as it would promote alertness, and using a warmer CCT for more introspective moments. Meteor does not disclose the MSRP for their fixtures—contact the Meteor Lighting representative for your area to get pricing information. My impression is that it is at least competitive with other DMX-controllable LED house lighting fixtures.
And a shout out to A.C. Lighting and Jands for a license for the Jands Vista lighting control software to assist with my lighting fixture reviews—it’s much appreciated.