NEWS PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS A Multi-Brand Studio for Lighting and Video Designers WOOD DALE, IL — Lighting and video designers d<strong>on</strong>’t get a lot of opportunities to play around with and <strong>com</strong>pare gear from different manufacturers and distributors, all in <strong>on</strong>e spot. But Digital Stage Chicago is working to change that with a <strong>com</strong>mitment to gear that is brandnew without also being brand-specific. The studio owns, operates and trains <strong>on</strong> AutoCAD, VectorWorks, ESP Visi<strong>on</strong>, Wysiwyg and DL.2/DL.3 fixtures, al<strong>on</strong>g with media servers including Ax<strong>on</strong>, Green Hippo and Mbox. These devices are manipulated via grandMA, Hog III and Virtuoso c<strong>on</strong>soles. The studio has no exclusivity agreements with lighting or video vendors and wel<strong>com</strong>es all suppliers into its studio — which also happens to be open 24/7. Joe West, a designer himself, founded the studio. The basic idea was to provide designers with easy access to different tools. Al<strong>on</strong>g with the opportunity to apply a variety of equipment and software to specific design challenges, the studio gives visiting designers a way to push their ability and knowledge further than they’d be able to in a studio with a more narrow range of branded equipment. Digital Stage Chicago provides a variety of tools for designers to play with, 24/7. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR New Old Stuff I just finished reading your piece in the May, 2008 <strong>PLSN</strong>, “Looking for Some New Old Stuff.” I probably enjoyed it more than others because it hit home with me. I did not develop a new idea; all I did was take a piece of gear that needed refining and polished it. Ever hear of a reliable kabuki system, <strong>on</strong>e that does the job every single time? Well, I hadn’t, either. So I hunkered down to design and build <strong>on</strong>e that was. I named the product “Chabuki,” a spin <strong>on</strong> my name “Chuy” and “kabuki.” — Jesus Chuy Fragoso, Fragoso Inc. LED Alternatives Having worked with many historic and religious groups <strong>on</strong> lighting, I know how difficult it is for them find the m<strong>on</strong>ey even for essential services. As w<strong>on</strong>derful as LEDs are (Video Digerati, <strong>PLSN</strong>, May 2008) clients should be told that after the end of their life (possibly 10 years), the entire lighting system has to be renewed, and there may not be funds again. The structures will then be left in the dark. An even more energy-efficient source/system is glass fibre optics functi<strong>on</strong>al architectural lighting, used abroad for decades, but strangely ignored in this country. This <strong>com</strong>pletely different source/system is well developed and dependable. Unlike LEDs, these systems last as l<strong>on</strong>g as needed, with <strong>on</strong>ly a few lamp replacements necessary. — Gersil Kay Stuck at Green? “Getting to Green” (Focus <strong>on</strong> Fundamentals, <strong>PLSN</strong>, May 2008) was very interesting. Something you d<strong>on</strong>’t talk about is the maximum lumens per watt possible. It’s not an easy questi<strong>on</strong> to answer as you have to integrate under the photopic curve but, very roughly, it’s about 260 lumens per watt for 3200K black-body white light. So the 29.2 lumens per watt of the HPL 750/115 is actually about 11 percent of the theoretical maximum. (Luminous efficiency is usually expressed as a percentage of the theoretical maximum, so for our HPL and white light that is 29.2 / 260 = 11 percent). The absolute best lumens per watt you can have is for m<strong>on</strong>ochromatic green light right at the peak of the photopic curve — 555nm, and that has the familiar value of 683 lumens per watt but with that same zero CRI as the low pressure sodium you menti<strong>on</strong>. This all means that the green LED efficacy figure you quote of 58 to 79 lumens per watt is between 8.5 percent and 11 percent of its theoretical maximum — or exactly the same as the incandescent. (I’m ignoring the total lamp efficiency, which takes into effect other losses for the sake of prejudice and emphasis.) — Mike Wood Ad info:http:// www.plsn.<strong>com</strong>/instant-info Flicking the Switch I enjoyed your article in <strong>PLSN</strong> <strong>on</strong> “Getting to Green.” I have for years been following my wife around the house turning off the lights… As technical director for J<strong>on</strong>es Hall in Houst<strong>on</strong>, I follow the housekeeping staff around turning off the lights they have just turned <strong>on</strong>. Nobody knows it, but years ago while programming the house lights, I also registered all the dimmers at 95 percent. My eye cannot tell the difference. My sec<strong>on</strong>d whine has to do with how to measure light. In the old days we used to automatically know that a 1000 watt fixture was brighter than a 500 watt fixture. Now what do we do? I thought for a minute while reading your article that efficacy would work, but no luck. Lumens are good, but how and where and with what meter? — Chip Purchase, J<strong>on</strong>es Hall, Houst<strong>on</strong> 10 <strong>PLSN</strong> JUNE 2008
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