Ellipsoidal reflector spotlight

Characteristics of a typical ellipsoidal lighting unit include: The lamps are loaded from the rear (in most cases), and either mounted axially, or radially with the base either up or down (the orientation is important when mounting the instrument as using the light upside down will shorten lamp life) at a 45-degree angle or sometimes at a 90-degree angle.

Ellipsoidals are supplied with a certain size lens or lenses that determines the field angle, anywhere from five to ninety degrees.

Variable focus (zoom) instruments with two lenses that move in and out from the lamp housing are also available, allowing the user to manually adjust to the desired focal length within a certain range.

The company took advantage of advances in lamp and reflector technology to increase luminous output with less wattage.

Since the release of the Source Four, other lighting manufacturers have since revised their products to compete in the market share alongside the ETC.

The Selecon Pacific, an L-shaped ERS, has an irregular shape due to an integrated dichroic cold mirror, which effectively splits the visible wavelengths of the light beam from the infrared, allowing the heat to be drawn off by a heat sink and away from the instrument.

The motorised unit is without any forced ventilation (fans) and completely silent, making the unit ideal for acoustic critical applications (TV studios, concert halls et al.) Most recently, Philips Strand Lighting released their Lekolite ERS.

In 2011 the LED technology has also finally reached the ERS applications, with several major lighting manufacturer companies worldwide introducing an energy saving, no maintenance, modern version of the standard ETC Source Four.

On April 6, 2011, the Italian manufacturer Coemar launched Reflection LEDko at PLASA (the ProLight+Sound Association fair, one of the main tradeshows of the lighting industry, held annually in Frankfurt, Germany), a development which could lead to an average power consumption saving of 85 percent.