Intelligent Lighting - History

History

There are many patents dating back from 1806, with Edmund Sohlberg of Kansas City. The lantern used a carbon-arc bulb and was operated not by motors or any form of electronics, but by cords that were operated manually to control pan, tilt and zoom.

1925 saw the first use of electrical motors to move the fixture, and with it the beam position, by Herbet F.King (Patent number: 1,680,685). In 1936 patent number 2,054,224 was granted to a similar device, with which the pan and tilt were controlled by means of a joystick as opposed to switches. From this point on until 1969, various other inventors made similar lights and improved on the technology, but with no major breakthroughs. During this period, Century Lighting (now Strand) started retailing such units specially made to order, retrofitted onto any of their existing lanterns up to 750 watts to control pan and tilt.

George Izenour made the next breakthrough in 1969 with the first ever fixture to use a mirror on the end of an ellipsoidal to redirect the beam of light remotely. In 1969, Jules Fisher, from Casa Manana area theatre in Texas saw the invention and use of 12 PAR 64 lanterns with 120watt, 12volts lamps fitted, 360 degrees of pan and 270 degrees of tilt, a standard that lasted until the 1990s. This lamp was also known as the 'Mac-Spot'

In Bristol in 1968, progress was also being made, mainly for use in live music. Peter Wynne Wilson refers to the use of 1 kW profiles, with slides onto which gobos were printed, inserted from a reel just like on a slide projector. The fixtures also had an iris, a multiple coloured gel wheel. These lights were also fitted with mirrors and made for an impressive light show for a Pink Floyd Gig in London. Another fixture known as the 'Cycklops' was also used for music in the USA, although it was limited in terms of capabilities. With only pan, tilt, and color functions, and at 1.2meters long and weighing in at 97 kg including the ballast, they were heavy and cumbersome. These units were designed more for replacing the ever unreliable local spotlight operators.

In 1978 a Dallas, Texas based lighting and sound company called Showco began developing a lighting fixture that changed color by rotating dichroic filters. During its development, the designers decided to add motors to motorize pan and tilt. They demonstrated the fixture for the band Genesis in a barn in England in 1980. The band decided to financially back the project. Showco spun off their lighting project into a company called Vari-Lite, and the first fixture was also called the Vari-lite. It also used one of the first lighting desks with a digital core and this enabled lighting states to be programmed in.

Genesis was later to order 55 Vari-lites to use in their next chain of gigs across the UK. The lights were supplied with a Vari-Lite console which had 32 channels, five 1802 processors and a dramatic improvement of the first console which was very simple, had an external processing unit.

In 1986 Vari-Lite introduced a new series of lighting fixtures and control consoles. They referred to the new system as their Series 200, with the new lights designated "VL-2 Spot Luminaire", and "VL-3 Wash Luminaire". The Series 200 system was controlled by the Artisan console. Vari-Lite retroactively named the original system "series-100". The Original Vari-Lite console was retroactively named the "series 100 console" and the original Vari-Lite was retroactively named the "VL-1 Spot Luminaire". The prototype fixture shown to Genesis in 1980 was re-designated the "VL-zero" in the mid 1990s to keep the naming consistent.

In 1985, the first moving head to use the DMX protocol was produced by Summa Technologies. Up till that time, moving lights were using other communication protocols, such as DIN8, AMX, D54 and the proprietary protocols of other companies, such as VariLite, Tasco, High End and Coemar. The Summa HTI had a 250watt HTI bulb, 2 colour wheels, a Gobo wheel, a mechanical dimmer and zoom functions.

The first purchasable/mass produced scanner was the Coemar Robot, first produced in 1986. Initially produced with either the GE MARC350 lamp, or the Philips SN250. Later versions were factory equipped with the Osram HTI400, a modification that High End Systems had been doing since 1987. The Robot used model aircraft servo motors to control Pan, Tilt, Color and Gobo, with the gobo wheel providing the shutter function as well. The Color wheel had 4 dichroic color filters ( Red, Blue, yellow, and Green), and the gobo wheel contained 4 stamped patterns (non-replaceable). The Robot communicated with a proprietary 8bit protocol, yet had no microprocessors/pal's/pics/ram, O/S or other modern logic device.

In 1987, Clay Paky began producing their first scanners, the Golden Scan 1 & Crystal Scan. They utilised stepper motors instead of servos and used a HMI 575 lamp, bright and with a far more uniform beam brightness. This was followed by the Intellabeam in 1989, released by High End, who, at the time were the Distributors for Clay Paky.

In the 1990s, the future came closer with Martin, a Danish Company producing Fog Machines. They manufactured a line of scanners known as the Roboscans, with a variety of different specs for different users. Their range started with the 1004, 1016 later the 804, 805 for the small venue and went up in brightness and features through 218, 518, 812, 918 and 1200Pro units. Martin also invented a whole new range of Moving Heads including the Mac250, the Mac250+, Mac300, Mac500,Mac 550, Mac600, Mac700, Mac1200 and more recently the Mac2000 and MacIII. Martin Macs are popular in most rental situations and are also a great compromise between the cheaper manufactured products and the top end luminaires such as a High End DL2.

The future promises many great things as the concept of digital lighting, a bright LCD or DLP projector mounted in a yoke or moving head type fixture with an integrated media server will allow for millions of colour choices, endless libraries of gobos, image and video projections to take place.