2011 NAB Show Product Review: Batteries & Lighting


Battery power-pack makers continue to innovate with options for quick charging and powering the high-draw HD cameras. For light makers, with few exceptions, this NAB Show was all about LEDs. Many who had not previously ventured into the LED arena have now brought LED fixtures to the market.

BATTERIES

Shinichi Minowa (R) from Anton/Bauer shows Nick Koh from A & T Audio Visual in Singapore the new QR-Hotswap-AR portable power solution for the ARRI ALEXA camera. Photo by Dawley/KovacsAnton/Bauer debuted hot-swap Gold Mount options for the ARRI ALEXA, Sony PMW-F3 and Panasonic AG-HMC80 digital cameras, allowing them to stay powered up for an infinite period of time.

Comer displayed Li-Ion battery packs in both A/B and Sony mount styles: 95, 130, 160 and 190wh models are available.

Cool-Lux extended its Smart Power battery line with its new BC4014 14Ah Shoulder Pack, which has an average continuous run time of 65 minutes, is rated at 75 watts and enhanced with an LED power gauge.

Dynacore Technology introduced a pair of 150wh Li-Ion battery packs, with A/B or V-mount. The DS-150 model does not require an external charger, just a cord to attach it to an outlet.

Farseeing Co. Ltd. showcased its Digital Li-Ion battery packs, featuring LCD displays of charge status PAG introduced the RMC4X, a rack-mountable version of its high-power, simultaneous Li-Ion charger, which can be used to simultaneously fast-charge Li-Ion batteries from PAG, Sony or IDX.

SWIT unveiled batteries for use with Canon DSLR and BP cameras, Panasonic HMC series, and the JVC GY-HM100.

LIGHTING

16x9 premiered the Bebob LUX LED-4 on-camera LED lighting fixture, which runs off of either D-tap or AA battery power.

ARRI unveiled its LED Fresnel fixture series, the L-7. It is focusable from a 15–50-degree beam angle, in daylight, tungsten and color variable models.

Brite Shot displayed its Luminator LED light, which can vary color temperature from 2800K/6800K, and generate effects such as lightning and police car lights.

Cinemills premiered a pair of new LED fixtures: the Cinemills Leaf, a focused fixture with interchangeable lenses; the CINESOFT, designed to provide a soft fill light.

Comer showcased its LED lighting series, including its CM-LED550K variable color temperature fixture, and several models of on-camera LED fixtures.

K5600 President Gilles Galerne (L), describes the features of the Joker-Bug 1600 HMI light to Rob Boltinghouse from Integrated Lighting Systems. Photo by Dawley/KovacsCool-Lux launched its LK2052 Mini-Cool Accessorized AC/DC light. It can be mounted on-camera for on-location interviews and off-camera on ceiling grids for planned sessions.

DMLite introduced its Lumos 300 series LED fixtures, available in both 3200 K and 5600 K. The fixtures are DMX controllable and utilize 50-watt maximum power.

Dynacore Technology launched its EL series of LED arrays, the ELD (daylight), ELT (tungsten) and ELD/T (color adjusting between daylight and tungsten).

Frezzi rolled out new LED replacement lamps for all of the company's Mini-Fill on-camera lighting fixtures. This allows users to switch between tungsten, HMI and LED light sources in the same fixture.

Gekko presented its OHM Light, an LED-based spacelight with output similar to a 600-watt tungsten fixture, and features preset color temperatures of 2900 K, 3200 K, 3600 K, 4300 K and 5600 K.

Hakutatz demonstrated its HF-100 seven-in-one 40-inch reflector kit. It’s a base translucent white disc, which can be used as lighting diffusion with cover reflecting colors of black, white, gold, silver, blue and green.

K5600 doubled its largest fixture by introducing the Joker-Bug 1600W and Fresnel 1600W light fixtures. Both will have the same family of accessories as their smaller siblings.

Kino Flo introduced its Tegra 4Bank portable fixture, which features half the power consumption of standard fluorescent. Also new is the Imara S10 and S6, featuring a more concentrated spread of light.

Kobold premiered a new collapsible light tube, which can be rolled up to a 20-inch tube for ease of carrying and shipping.

LEDZ showcased its Brute series of lighting fixtures: the Brute 3, 9, 16 and 30. The Brute 16 and Brute 30 are new fixtures, providing on-board dimmers for full intensity control.

Litepanels debuted its H2 Hi-Output LED lights, capable of throwing 5600K illumination over a 20–25 foot distance, providing HD-friendly light with all the advantages of Litepanels LED fixtures.

Lowel-Light unveiled its new LED Studio Series: LED Studio 250 and 450 are DMX addressable, dimmable and controllable and offer a wide range of accessories.

Ken Fisher (L), co-founder of Litepanels, lights up Richard Foresman from Comcast with the new H2 Hi-Output. Photo by Dawley/KovacsNila introduced its Nila SL, an 850-watt LED fixture touting the brute force power of a 6,000-watt tungsten space light and featuring interchangeable lenses to allow it to imitate fixtures such as the 5,000-watt senior Fresnel.

PAG unveiled a new plug-in LED Dimmer option for its widely adopted Paglight broadcast camera light. The Paglight also accepts halogen and HMI modules.

Paradime LED showcased its 12 LITE and 24 LITE LED fixtures, utilizing 12 and 24 3-watt LEDs respectively. The company touts a CRI of better than 93 from the LEDs.

Photon Beard introduced its PhotonSpot Nova 270, utilizing a light-emitting plasma (LEP) lamp with benefits of a CRI of 94, flickerless light (critical for high-speed imaging), and low energy draw.

PrimeTime (formerly KW/2) introduced a pair of LED fixtures, the LED 31 (31 W), and the LED 77 (77 W), in both 3200K or 5600K. Both lights sport an 11 degree beam spread.

Smith-Victor Corp. showed a series of lights including the 765 UM 600W focusable fixture and the 1000W 750 SG broad, capable of spreading fill light over a wide area.

Telikou displayed its daylight-to-tungsten mixed bio-color temperature LED lighting fixture. It is DMX-controllable, had a battery mounting plate or can operate off AC.

Videssence introduced its ExceLED 50, a powerful LED studio fixture for broadcast or studio general accenting, key or back lighting. The luminaire generates a concentrated beam of light with even coverage of 3200K light.

Zylight integrated its IS3 fixture with a new softbox by Chimera. The IS3 dimming and color matching is controllable via DMX through XLR connectors or remotely via the built-in ZyLink wireless link.