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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
Martin MAC III Profile
By RichardCadena
Charles H. Duell, the former commissioner
of the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office, said in 1899
that everything that can be invented,
has been invented. Of course, everyone
knows that wasn’t true until 2002 when
Martin introduced the animation wheel
in the MAC 2000. Then and only then
had everything been invented, at least in
terms of automated lighting. Sure, lots of
new automated lighting products were
introduced since then, but true innovation
seemed to be lacking. Not anymore.
The Martin MAC III Profile is one of
the first of the third generation of MAC
fixtures and it has been completely redesigned
from the stage floor up (or
from the batten down). It uses the new
Osram 1500W Lok-it single-ended short
1500-watt single-ended short arc lamp
with a FastFit base and the output is very
impressive. Not only can it produce an
amazingly brilliant beam, but with a 5:1
zoom ranging from 11° to 55°, it can cover
quite a bit of area and still do so with
a lot of illuminance. You can even drop
in the color mixing and effects and still
come out with a lot of light.
The lighting designer side of me
loves the quantity and quality of light,
while the geek in me is very impressed
with the engineering and design of the
fixture. There are lots of very innovative
materials, techniques and devices that
make it unique in the industry. One of
the challenges of building a light with
a lot of output is keeping its size and
weight to a manageable level. This challenge
is met, for example, in the base by
using a pressure die cast aluminum hub
on which the yoke pans. When you hold
it in your hand it feels very lightweight
yet it is very strong. The same goes for
the magnesium yoke covers, the clam
shell enclosures on the head and the fixture
handles. The color wheels are made
of magnesium coated with ceramic and
they are featherweights. You have to
hold them in your hand to believe how
light they are.
At 118 pounds with dimensions of
27.2 inches by 21.1 inches by 36 inches,
it’s still a two-person rig; the glass and the
physical size required to produce quality
projections with a wide zoom range see
to that. But it could have been much bigger
and heavier had they not used some
of these materials and techniques.
Other design features are equally impressive.
The pan and tilt encoders that
The Martin MAC III Profile is
the first of a third generation
of MAC fixtures.
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Dichroic color wedges, shown here, slip under a tab in the color wheel without the use of tools.
The lighting designer side of me loves
the quantity and quality of light while the
geek in me is very impressed with the
engineering and design of the fixture.
The color wheels are made of magnesium coated with ceramic to save weight.
58 PLSN NOVEMBER 2008