Vari-Lite
The company then began to buy back the franchises it had created in previous years in favor of establishing new rental offices that offered conventional third-party lighting equipment alongside its own products.
Vari-Lite and stablemate Strand regain their stand-alone brand status, with a renewed commitment from the business to innovate and support the visions of creative artists worldwide.
Calmes countersued, claiming that his former business partners had kept the development of the Vari-Lite system from him at the time of his departure, causing him to lose money when he sold his Showco stock.
[14] In 1999, Vari-lite obtained a preliminary injunction against Danish firm Martin Gruppen A/S,[15] which barred the import, sale and lease of several lighting products within the United States.
The Series 200 system was introduced in 1987 and featured the VL2 and VL3 luminaires, controlled by the Artisan console, with power and data distributed to dumb repeater boxes by an ACS Rack.
Although this did not normally affect the playback of cues, it could cause severe problems when trying to save and backup the system data onto the 1.44Mb, 3.5 inch floppy discs that were standard at the time.
However, the high cost of renting a Vari-lite system and the fact that they could only be programmed from an Artisan console, by a specially trained operator, were barriers to full realisation of market potential.
Additionally, despite the protection afforded to Vari-lite technology through the use of patents, rival manufacturers were beginning to market competing moving lights; along with consoles which could control their functions using the DMX512 protocol.
Having identified the type of incoming control signal, the VLSR converts it into Series 300 data; which it sends to the luminaires, along with the 24V power lines required to drive the motors.
Should there be a failure of the main console, the Vari-Lite operator would have to execute the current cues and/or chases on the Mini Artisan and the technician monitoring the system backstage would have to switch control over.
[citation needed] As with all Vari-lite products, the VL2 range was subject to a rolling programme of improvements and retrofits, designed to increase the reliability of what was still, in many ways, cutting-edge technology.
Detachable, external baffles were designed to cover the ventilation grilles in the side of the luminaire's Upper Enclosure (UPE), in order to deal with this issue; but could occasionally cause overheating in warm environments, leading to lamp shutdown.
Some may still be in existence, other than any kept for exhibition / archive units; but the difficulty of sourcing spare parts means that a significant hire stock is unlikely to be maintained in the long term.
Marketed under the strapline, Smaller, Lighter, Faster, Brighter, the Vari-lite VL4 was the company's second moving head wash luminaire, designed to replace and improve upon the VL3.
These ranged from the simple placement of a blob of rubber sealant somewhere in the luminaire, to the wholesale stripping down, extensive modification and total rebuilding of the Pan and Tilt mechanisms, to combat the overshooting problem.
Increasingly bright, competing luminaires from rival manufacturers, coupled with continuing reliability issues and high maintenance costs, saw the VL4 largely replaced by the VL5 within a decade of the latter's release.
The idea works well in producing a cool beam output, but can raise the rear end of the head to flesh-searing temperatures, after just a few minutes' operation at maximum intensity.
However, this range fell short of that originally promised in the R&D stage and was not generally wide enough, to be useful for creating the kind of broad washes of soft-edged light, normally expected by users from this class of luminaire.
The VL5B featured an alternative filter set, which restored the ability to produce pale blues, but reduced the overall number of useful colours available—especially darker, more saturated shades in the blue-green range.
Its simple workings, ease of maintenance and overall reliability, have made it a favourite among lighting crews for almost twenty years and—as of 2010—it is still readily available for hire from a number of rental companies; continuing to illuminate stages around the world.
The smooth, elegant, early-1990s design—informed by the classic PAR64 Parcan lantern—has not dated appreciably and still looks "current" when used alongside more modern equipment—to the extent that the basic look of the head has been carried (along with that of the VL6), into many, post-Series 300 Vari-lite luminaires.
However, in Europe, the limitations of the C3 circuitry meant that insufficient voltage could be produced, to raise the 230 V version of the VL5 lamp to its maximum possible intensity; leaving the output looking dim and yellow.
A further, more subtle innovation, saw the use of a new, collection optics system, that guaranteed a much flatter and more even beam than had been produced by previous Vari-lite luminaires, which were prone to "hot spots" if not set up correctly.
For example: a problem in the CVF, which caused the teeth to soften and become stripped from the belts that drove the filter plates, was traced to their drive gears, which had been made of a material with a high Specific Heat Capacity.
Green was not regarded by users as a pleasant alternative to this and although a programming workaround was developed by operators, it was a time-consuming process to apply to multiple cues, that slowed down the speed of colour changes.
Its unwieldy shape, size, weight and noisiness, plus the difficulty of maintenance and early unreliability, combined to make it unpopular with lighting technicians, operators and designers alike.
Specification was the same as the VL2201 except it featured a 19-35 degree 3:1 zoom range, a faceted cold mirror reflector for a perfectly flat beam, and a MSR700 short arc lamp for higher output.
Whilst it has handles built in to the UPE, the bulbous design of the head, with the lack of pan or tilt locks makes it difficult to maneouver without a second pair of hands.
[47] They featured arrays of motor-driven mirrors, and (mostly) scanned multiple, tight beams of light over the audience; while avoiding potential hazards to vision, associated with producing such effects using high-power lasers.
Irideon, Inc. was a subsidiary company formed by Vari-lite in 1994, to target the architectural lighting market by offering colour-changing luminaires, able to dramatically illuminate buildings and outdoor structures in ways which—until then—could only be imagined.
