In Broadcast - November 2013 - 42

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 25 - NOVEMBER 2013

N E W S

InSTUDIO

Sola 12 - Perfect Daylight Balancing
By
Chris Marchitelli,
Marketing VP,
Litepanels

T

42

he recently launched Sola 12
daylight balanced and Inca
12TM tungsten balanced LED
Fresnels are proving popular with
lighting technicians and gaffers
alike.
The new ﬁxtures are the perfect
choice for lighting technicians
looking for alternatives to the
traditional 2K incandescent Fresnels.
Developed as a completely new
ﬁxture, re-imagined from the ground
up by Litepanels, the Sola 12 and
Inca 12 have been designed to
take full advantage of the beneﬁts
of LED technology.
As a result of energy efﬁciency
and reduced heat, instead of heavy
traditional glass lenses, now acrylic
lenses featuring ﬁner concentric
rings can be used. These lenses
deliver a smooth, even, collimated
beam that ensures a wrap-around
soft quality while still producing a
controllable single shadow. The LED
lights feature a focus range of 54

to 15 degrees and are able to dim
smoothly from 100 percent to zero
with no colour shift. Both the Sola
12 and Inca 12 have built in control
of dimming and focus through
integrated DMX or manual controls.
Multiple Sola 12 and Inca 12
ﬁxtures can share a single 20 amp
circuit. No heavy ballasts are needed,
and the ﬁxtures are ﬂicker-free at any
frame rate or shutter angle. With one
ﬁxture drawing a maximum of 350
Watts, less than 18 percent of a 2K
lamp, only a negligible amount of
heat is generated ensuring that less
air conditioning is needed and they
have virtually no strike time.
In film making and television
production, lighting brings life,
atmosphere and personality to
scenes and assists DPs and gaffers
in telling the story.
'Wilfred', a quirky FX comedy
series, has already realised the
beneﬁts of the Sola 12.
The show is filmed in various
outdoor locations where delivering
power to the set is often challenging,
and space frequently limited. The
practical and versatile nature of
the Sola 12 (uses approximately 4
amps) ensures that the ﬁxture can be
plugged safely into any household
wall circuit, reducing the need for

Gaffer Tom Pugh with Litepanels' Sola 12 on the set of 'Wilfred'

generator trucks or panel tie-ins.
The versatility of the ﬁxtures means
that in shots where it is impossible
to hide cables, the Solar 12 lights
can be quickly plugged directly into
a wall socket and provide perfectly
balanced daylight.
The Sola 12 and Inca 12 are
now playing an important role in

enhancing the look of film and
television programming worldwide.
The innovative design of the
complete Litepanels' Sola and
Inca LED Fresnel line-up is helping
to deﬁne how this classic ﬁxture is
being adapted with today's modern
camera technology.

Square One: Being Seen In Your Best Light
Photon Beard has launched Square One - a new 1'x1' lighting fixture...
By
Peter Daffarn
Photon Beard

S

quare One is Photon Beard's
new 1'x1' lighting ﬁxture - the
ﬁrst of its kind to use ﬂuorescent
lamps and the results are even
better than we imagined.
Square One actually produces
more broadcast quality light, more
economically than similar ﬁxtures
on the market from its eight Osram
5/8" diameter ﬂuorescent tubes.
It only draws 64W of power, but
delivers the equivalent of 110W
of balanced illumination, and I
emphasise "balanced".
The difference between ﬂuorescent
and LED sources is that some LEDs
have a tendency to produce more
pronounced spectral peaks and
troughs, which can make balanced
illumination a tricky business.
Fluorescents, on the other hand,
don't suffer nearly as much from

those spectral variances and can
produce more consistent and
balanced illumination.
Because Square One uses a
ﬂuorescent light source, it produces
a comfortable, soft light that won't
dazzle the talent the way LEDs can,
which we believe gives Square One a
signiﬁcant advantage when shooting
in enclosed spaces when the light
needs to be fairly close to the talent.
It's also proven to be an excellent
lighting source for video recording
as it matches what has been the
industry-standard for ﬂuorescent
lights in TV studios for the last
15 years or so.
The Square One can run on mains
power at 90-260V 50/60Hz, or
alternatively via a V mount or Gold
mount battery pack, on which it will
run for up to 75 minutes on a 98W
hour battery. And at only a few kilos
it's more than light enough to ensure
easy portability for location-shooting.
The removable reflective barn
doors that come with the ﬁxture
allow for even more light output
(970 lux at 1.2m becomes 1,470 lux
when the barn doors are added) and

we've developed a compelling
unprecedented control over where
to direct the light from fixtures
option for those who have such
of this kind.
requirements, and it's the result of
I suppose the bottom line of what
no small amount of effort by the
I'm talking about here is consistency.
Photon Beard team.
Lighting that is consistent and However, we've been "making
just as important - predictable can
light work" for a long time and we
remove a lot of guesswork and
have a pretty good ﬁx on what it
remediation that can enable lighting
takes to be seen in your best light.
professionals
to get on with
the job rather
than concern
themselves
with whether
colours will be
re p re s e n t e d
accurately, that
the talent will
get fed up with
being blinded,
or that the
fixture won't
ﬁt into a tight
space, which is
often precisely
where it needs
to ﬁt to get the
shot required.
We t h i n k Photon Beard's Square One

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://www.litepanels.com/sola12.php http://www.photonbeard.com/square-one.html

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