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Elation Beam Design Moving Heads: Moving and Turning Heads Like None Other

By BulbAmerica Editor

As moving head light fixtures become more popular and more ubiquitous, it is harder and harder to choose the one worth your money and that is right for your needs. In this article I will discuss Elation Professional’s Design Beam series of moving heads and what I believe makes them unique and warrants an extra look. So, let’s get started. One feature that sets the Elation Design Beam series is their versatility. The Elation Design Beam 300 and Design Beam 1200 Compact can serve as spot, wash, and beam projectors with their respective 7.5˚ and 6.7˚ beam angles and by opening and closing the head’s frost filter, which changes the hardness of the beam’s edge. This versatility allows you to change the role of your moving heads as well as the look of your lighting effect on the fly. The Design Beam moving heads silently pan 630˚or 540˚ (user selected) and tilt 265˚, allowing for lively performances. The Design Beam and 300 and 1200 Compact also share nearly identical gobo performance with the ability for dynamic gobo prism and rotation effects. The Design Beam 300 and 1200 compact, however, have some distinguishing features that are essential to highlight.

The Design Beam 300 is distinguished from the 1200 Compact foremost by their different lamps. Both moving heads feature Philips MSR HID lamps. The 300 features a 300w MSR that puts out an impressive 33,150lux at 30ft. The 1200 Compact features a 1,200w MSR which produces an extremely bright 107,500lux at 25ft. One of the key differences between the 300 and 1200 compact is obviously their power and luminosity. In selecting between the two you want to consider how much power you have available, how high your trusses will be from the stage, and how much other light is being produced by other fixtures in your system. Another important difference between the two moving heads regards their color capabilities. The Design Beam 300 and 1200 Compct both feature CMY color changing, but the 1200 Compact also offers variable color temperature orange (CTO), in order to correct colors and make their rendering precise.

Elation’s Design Beam 300 and 1200 Compact are high quality and powerful moving heads. What sets the Design Beam heads from other moving heads is their unique frost filter that allows you a great deal of flexibility in deciding how you will use them. In short the Design Beam 300 and 1200 are an outstanding choice for performance spaces of all sizes.BulbAmerica has both moving heads in stock right now, so check it out today!

By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, lasers., light, moving heads, news | 0 comments | Read more

The American DJ Galaxian: Bring Your Show to Life with Lasers

By BulbAmerica Editor

Lasers are one of the most exciting and attractive lighting effects. There is no sight like a vibrant, sharp laser cutting through fog or creating a beautiful star-field pattern on the dance floor. Even better, most lasers are now small enough, and light enough, to be carried easily by a DJ on-the-go, ensuring that his or performance will be an unforgettable one. But which laser to choose? In this article, I am going to draw attention to what I think is one of the best lasers available today, the American DJ Galaxian. 

The Galaxian’s lasers aren’t the only bright thing about this lighting effect. One of its best features is its capacity to be controlled intelligently. The Galaxian has DMX inputs and out puts for either stand alone control via a controller, or a master/slave configuration. The Galaxian can also be placed in a sound activated mode and react to the music. This laser effect needs this degree of control because it features red and green laser beams, built in macros, and rotation abilities. These features, combined with the Galaxian’s ability to create up to 500 laser beams and a 90˚ beam angle ensures that your lighting will capture the attention of your audience. Don’t forget about the Galaxian’s fast/slow strobing either! These features make the Galaxian one of the most high performing lasers in one of the smallest packages.

The Galaxian is extremely versatile. It can be mounted on a wall or a ceiling and project on either of these surfaces, thus ensuring that the Galaxian can be part of your performance regardless of the venue’s limitations. Furthermore, the Galaxian will not strain the power sources of your venue, it has a meager energy draw of 110mW.Lastly, American DJ’s Galaxian weighs only 6lbs, making it easy to transport, mount, and dismount. The Galaxian and our other strobes are mesmerizing and will add tons of excitement to your performance, check them out now!

By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, lasers., led, light, news | 0 comments | Read more

LED Strobe Lights: An Essential Effect for the DJ on the Go

By BulbAmerica Editor

Strobe lights are one of the DJ’s go-to lighting effects. Their flashing light creates an incredible ambiance and brings the dancing and music to life. Today many of the new strobe lights being manufactured are comprised of LEDs rather than a single lamp. There are a number of reasons for this. One important reason is that LEDs stay cool and have a life hour rating of anywhere between 50,000hr and 100,000hr making them extremely durable and long lasting. Strobe lights are particularly good choice for mobile DJs, as they are usually compact, lightweight, and produce a bright and noticeable effect.

American DJ offers two LED strobes perfect for the DJ on the go. The American DJ Flash Shot DMX is a portable and powerful strobe that emits an intense white light with its 234 LEDs. The Flash shot is DMX compatible and be can be controlled using a lighting controller. It features three modes of operation: master/slave, stand alone, and sound activated. If you are not using the strobe with a controller, the Flash Shot’s strobe speed and dimming can be controlled via two knobs on the rear of the can. American DJ also offers a color strobe, if you RGB color changing in addition to your strobe effect. American DJ’s Color Shot, like the Flash Shot, is DMX compatible and features the same three modes of operation: master/slave, stand alone, and sound activated. The Color Shot’s RGB color changing can be controlled using a controller. The Color Shot is seriously light and easily portable, it only weighs 5lbs!

DJs on the road should make strobe lights one of the first acquisitions for their lighting effect systems. They are light, relatively inexpensive, and can be even operated without a controller. LED strobes have made them even more ideal for the mobile DJ because they are now even lighter and require less maintenance than before. We have even more strobes available, check them out!

By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, led, light, news | 0 comments | Read more

LED Scanners: An Illuminating Lighting Effect

By BulbAmerica Editor

Scanners are one of the latest DJ lighting effect technologies to adopt LEDs. In addition to their low energy draw, long life, and durability, LEDs are an ideal bulb technology for scanners because the light is highly directional, thus making the reflected pattern coming from the scanner bright, precise and sharp. LED scanners are available at numerous different price points and can be used in all types of venues from swanky clubs to community centers and churches.

American DJ offers one of the best lines of scanners available. American DJ’s Electra LED scanner is ideal for the mobile DJ or a smaller venue like a roller rink or community center. It is lightweight, consumes little power, and is easily mounted and dismounted, making it easy to move and store if needed. Its simple design and 100,000 life hour rating for the LED light source makes this scanner is not only low cost, but low maintenance too. The Electra LED produces a great moon-flower effect and has multiple sound-activated macros pre-programmed to get your scanner going out of the box. American’s DJ’s XScan Plus LED represents the forefront of LED scanner technology. The XScan plus is DMX intelligent and has 8 channels, giving it the capacity to be controlled with a lighting controller. The XScan Plus can be ran in either in a master/slave or stand alone configuration. One great feature that this scanner has is a pan/tilt inversion mode that, if using four scanners, will make scanners 1 and 3 sync opposite scanners 2 and four, creating a really exciting effect. The XScan features 8 colors plus a separate gobo wheel to give you nearly endless lighting options. This scanner also has an amazing degree of adjustability: between the audio sensitivity knob, the manual focus, and motors for microstepping, you can really make the XScan Plus perform exactly how you want it to.

Obviously between American DJ’s Electra LED and their Xscan Plus LED there are plenty of scanners with different combinations of features and abilities. The scanners featured in this article should give you an idea of what is out there, and what to expect with a top of the line scanner versus a more entry level scanner. You simply cannot go wrong with either; your choice should be dictated by what you need and what your preexisting lighting system can handle. Feel free to leave a question or comment on this article, our Facebook, or call us at 1-877-620-1762 for any remaining questions you may have.

By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, led, light, news | 0 comments | Read more

Out of the Fog: A Fog Machine Guide for the Perplexed

By BulbAmerica Editor

Fog machines have long been one of the most popular effects in theatre and stage lighting. Fog not only sets ambiance, but it can also be used to emphasize lighting and laser effects as they pass through it. There are many fog machines with diverse specifications and features to choose from. This article is aimed at helping you sort through some of the product information and eventually choose the fog machine right for your needs. You will immediately notice that fog machines come in a wide price range, from about $38 to $1,400. The low-end fog machines are separated from the high-end fog machines by level of fog output (cu. ft./min), heater power, rate at which the machine heats, machine quietness, and other criteria. You should note that although fog output is one of the central criteria in fog machine specifications, there is no industry standard for this measurement: different manufacturers measure this differently and thus making a decision based on this spec alone would be premature.

Fog machines work by heating up the ’fog juice’ (often a mix glycerin or glycol mixed with water) and thus produce fog. Higher end fog machines have heating systems that heat up at faster rate. The Elation 800w Portable Fog Machine, for example, heats up in only 100 seconds. Fog machines with fast heat up feature stainless steel or nickel-aluminum alloy to ensure rapid and efficient heat transfer. Higher end fog machines will also have DMX universes so that they can be controlled remotely by a lighting controller and integrated into a larger lighting system. In addition to rapid heating-up, higher end fog machines, will feature fine tuned fan systems that are nearly silent and are ideal for noise sensitive events.

Low end and high end fog machines are also differentiated based upon the quality of the fog they produce. High end fog machines produce fog with a perfect haze of fine-particles that is also low in residue and thus requires less cleaning than a lower end fog machine. The dense and low hanging fog of dry-ice fog machines has long been the industry standard for fog. Dry ice fog machines, due to the difficulty in handling dry ice, have been replaced with fog juice based fog machines. Therefore machines that can replicate dry ice fog, like the Elation Low Lying Fog DMX Cooler, are often more expensive because they require additional technologies to ensure that the fog is adequately cooled after it is heated so it can hang low.

There are many fog machines out there with many different capabilities and features. Check out our comprehensive range of fog machines and see for your self how they differ. BulbAmerica stocks many different fog machines at many different price points so whatever you determine you need, we have it!
By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, fog machine, led, light, news | 0 comments | Read more

Great Options for LED Lighting Effects Are Here

By BulbAmerica Editor

A DJ’s performance is a spectacle of not only of sound, but also sight. The DJ’s lighting is essential to creating an environment where the music can come alive and entertain the crowd. Derby effect lighting is one of the most popular types of lighting effects in the DJ’s arsenal, and with the application of LEDs to these lighting effects, their lights are that much more powerful. Two lighting effects fixtures are particularly exciting. Chauvet’s Kinta X and American DJ’s Shooting Star LEDs are two of the brightest stars in DJ lighting and whose features will be highlighted in this article. Both the Kinta X and the Shooting Star LED use LED bulbs, allowing these fixtures to light up and switch colors incredibly quickly while remaining cool. These lightweight and high power fixtures both provide overall great lighting performances, but they do have some key differences.

The Chauvet Kinta X features a huge beam angle of 135°, and at only a power draw of 24w, the Kinta X will make the dance floor bright while not using too much power. One of the best features of the Kinta X is its ability to be not only linked up via master/slave, but it can be directly linked to Chauvet’s LED Mushroom and Double Derby X and then mounted together in a vertical column via Chauvet’s XBRACKET. The Kinta X’s various light programs and strobing patterns make it a lively addition to your DJ lighting set up.

American DJ’s Shooting Star LED has a slightly smaller beam angle, 112°, than the Kinta X. The Shooting Star makes up for this with American DJ’s TRI Color LED technology. Fixtures outfitted with this technology feature a 1 X 10w 3-in-1 RGB LED cluster. By having the fixture’s LED consolidated in a cluster, exciting colors such as cyan, yellow, white, and purple can be created through the mixing of colors. The Shooting Star achieves amazing colors using only a maximum of 20w. Like the Kinta X, the Shooting Star features a ¼” input for optional remote control to avoid using extra wires. Remote control is especially useful for the DJ on the go who has limited space, or installing a lighting system in a room with limited space. The Shooting Star is slightly larger than the Kinta X, weighing 9-lbs and being 12”x9.25”x11” versus the Kinta X, which weighs 6-lbs and is 11.1” x 11.7” x 10.4”.

For a derby lighting fixture, either the Kinta X or Shooting Star LED is a fantastic choice. Luckily BulbAmerica has both, giving the most options and at a great price. Check it out!

By Victor Lopez | 11 November, 2014 | effects, led, light, news | 0 comments | Read more
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