Moving light
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Moving lights or automated luminaires (sometimes erroneously called intelligent fixtures, see Intelligent lighting) are stage lighting fixtures. They were originally implemented in 1972, but the first computer-controlled stage lighting fixtures began to gain widespread acceptance in the concert industry in the early 1980's. As the fixtures evolved and their capabilities became more refined, they became increasingly used in theatre, television, and almost all other entertainment lighting applications.
These fixtures usually employ compact arc lamps as light sources. They use servo motors or, more commonly, stepper motors connected to mechanical and optical internal devices to manipulate the light before it emerges from the fixture's front lens. Examples of such internal devices are:
- Mechanical dimming shutters used to vary the intensity of (dim) or 'strobe' the output.
- Color wheels with dichroic color filters used to change the color of the beam.
- Variable, incremental Cyan, Magenta and Yellow color-mixing filters to vary beam color via subtractive color mixing. Using this method, a much wider range of colors can be created versus using single color filters.
- Automated lens trains used to zoom & focus the beam; irises are used to change the size of the beam.
- Pattern wheels with gobos and gate shutters to change the shape of the beam or project images.
- Automated 4-blade framing shutters to further shape the beam and control unwanted spill.
- Prisms
These fixtures also use motors to enable physical movement of the light beam by:
- Pivoting an automated mirror which reflects the beam along X & Y axes, or
- Attaching the entire fixture lens train to a yoke with motorized pan & tilt
[edit] Control
Moving lights are controlled in many ways. Usually the fixtures are connected to a Lighting control console, which outputs a control signal. This control signal sends data to the fixture usually in one of three ways - Analogue (which has largely been phased out), DMX (which is the industry standard control protocol), or Ethernet Control (which is still in development). The fixture then takes this signal and translates it into internal signals which are sent to the many stepper motors located inside.
[edit] External links
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