2013 NAB Product Review: Batteries & Lighting

Daniel Hidalgo of Spirit Juice Studios gets some practice mounting an Anton/Bauer Dionic HD battery.

Battery makers continued to make strides in Lithium Ion battery development, providing long camera run times in a lightweight battery pack.

Anton/Bauer introduced its PowerCharger 3000 series, with dual or quad models. In addition to simultaneous, fast charging capabilities, they are also available with Wi-Fi connectivity, which allows remote monitoring.

BHV showed an updated version of its Video Ghost, a low-cost alternative to batteries that brings phantom power to digital video. The new Ghost provides 65W of power at 12 volts for camera headends and remote monitors using existing serial digital video coaxial cable.

Boxx TV introduced their 26-volt camera battery for high-current cameras such as the ARRI Alexa and the Vision Research Phantom.

Frezzi debuted its PB-65 14.8-volt Lithium Ion battery, designed for Sony EX1 and EX3 camcorders. It provides power-remaining metering and a built-in Power Tap connector to power a light and camera simultaneously.

IDX introduced its DUO-95 and the DUO-150 lithium battery packs, which include a pair of D-taps and a USB power port.

Zachary Shannon (R) shows Torbjorn Pederson from TV2 Norway the connectors on the side of the DUO-95 battery. The DUO-95 and DUO-150 are new IDX products. PAG USA demonstrated its PAGlink Lithium Ion battery and charger products. Up to eight PAGlink batteries can be linked together, combining capacities for longer camera run time. The PL 16 charger allows up to 16 PAGlink batteries to be charged at the same time.

LIGHTING
With few exceptions, the new product news continued to be dominated by LED technology.

Aadyn Tech presented its JAB Hurricane LED fixture, which draws its name from its weatherproof design. It is available in daylight, tungsten and variable models.

ARRI premiered a new 9 kW HMI, filling a slot in the company’s HMI range. Also from ARRI is the L7-TT (tuneable tungsten) LED fixture, 20 percent brighter than the L7-C (color adjustable) Fresnel at the same power draw.

Chimera introduced LED Lightbanks, designed specifically for diffusing LED lighting fixtures. Also new was a collapsible litebox for on-camera LED lighting fixtures.

Nigel Gardiner with PAG attaches a PAGlink power hub to a camera battery. Dedolight showcased its range of focusable LED fixtures, utilizing the company’s aspheric optical lens design.

DeSisti unveiled a new LED Fresnel fixture design that increases the amount of light from the fixture while using the same amount of power.

Frezzi introduced its high-output HyLight LED fixture, drawing 75 W of power with the ability to fill in face shadows in bright sunlight.

HIVE showed its plasma technology lighting PAR fixtures. Plasma provides flicker-free daylight illumination with a full spectrum of light.

IKAN premiered its Feather Lights, the IFB576 and IFGD1024 LED fixtures, considerably lighter than their predecessors. They are available in bi-color or daylight.

K5600 introduced its Alpha 200, flexible to accept either HMI or quartz lamps. The drop in Fresnel lens provides a focusing range of 10–60 degrees.

Kino Flo debuted its Celeb 400 LED fixture, with twice the output of its Celeb 200. It can vary its color temperature from daylight to tungsten balance.

Litepanels unveiled its 12-inch Fresnel-lensed LED lighting fixtures, available in both daylight and tungsten color balance. Anton/Bauer’s new Dionic HD is a 183Wh battery that delivers up to 10 amps of power, has 25 percent more capacity and will run a 30 W camera, monitors and multiple accessories for more than six hours.

Beth Nardin adjusts the new K5600 Alpha 200 light. Lowel-Light debuted its Lowel Prime Power LEDs, touted as brighter than many similarly sized production LEDs, with a 50-degree beam angle. The lights are DMX controllable. Lowel also unveiled its Blender 3-Light Kit, with fixtures that can vary from daylight to tungsten color balance.

Manfrotto introduced its Spectra series 1 x 1 LED fixtures, available in daylight spot and flood versions and as a bicolor fixture for variability from daylight to tungsten color balance.

Mole Richardson unveiled its first LED Fresnel fixtures, a 100 W 4.5-inch TweenieLED, 150 W 6-inch BabyLED, and 200 W 8-inch JuniorLED. They use Mole’s Quantum Dot LEDs and are available in daylight or tungsten balance.

Nila introduced its remote phosphor technology in prototype Boxer and Varsa fixtures. The company’s NH series will be replaced with a new fixture using fewer, but more powerful LEDs.

Photoflex unveiled the NorthStar Lite, a 100 W single LED with the equivalent light output of a 1K Tungsgten source, while maintaining a standard daylight colored temperature. The light has an integrated continuous dimmer that dimes from 100 percent down to zero percent with minimal color shift.

Scott Stueckle explains features of the Kino Flo Celeb 400 DMX LED soft light to Tng Siew Moi from Tiffen. Photon Beard unveiled its Square One fluorescent lighting fixture that includes eight 5/8-inch diameter fluorescent tubes that deliver color-correct quality illumination using Osram phosphors.

Prime Time Lighting Systems showed its LED fixtures utilizing holographic spread lenses for beam angles of either 11 or 48 degrees.

Rosco presented its Miro Cube LED lighting fixture, available in tunable-white, color-mixing and ultraviolet (black light) models. The 4-inch unit uses 48 watts to produce 3,000 lumens of light.

Videssence introduced a 100 W Fresnel LED lighting fixture, with 6-inch glass lenses and available in both daylight and tungsten color balance. Also new is a 200-watt LED soft light, and a new range of LED fixtures for teleconferencing.

Zylight debuted an LED Fresnel, with an unusual design that moves the lens forward and back for beam focusing, with the fixture body expanding and contracting like a bellows. It is available in both daylight and tungsten color balance.