by a Towards 2000 Senior Systems Designer Article reprinted from Nightclub & Bar - April 1997

ook around your club, paying careful attention to the lighting equipment and schemes in the dance floor area. Does your lighting look like something out of the 21st century, or is it hopelessly outdated? The lighting trends of the New Millennium are apt to arrive right on schedule, if not a little early. Manufacturers have taken off the gloves and are blazing brightly toward the year 2000 with better quality, offering more comprehensive technical services and staying dollar­conscious. From the designers' viewpoint, long­awaited tools finally have begun to hit the market. From the installers' corner, we hear sighs of relief. And from the end users, there's a lot less moaning about costs. Smaller & Brighter Common complaints about the size and weight of those nifty rotating gobo fixtures should disappear with the coming of High End's mid­priced 200 MSD fixture (due out later this year), that is, if you're not already a fan of the popular Martin Robo518. Both fixtures are up to the quality and feature level you'd expect from fixtures costing more than twice as much and weighing three times more. American DJ's Elation line also packs big features into small packages, most of which carry price tags to fit even modest budgets. We should see a definite increase in product lines from several of the larger manufacturers that use 150­watt arc lamps and 200 MSD lamps. Both have provided a big plus in sheer candlepower output, length of overall life and replacement costs. All these benefits translate into predictable maintenance and smaller fixtures with lots of brightness. Now that it is common for many fixtures to make use of these smaller discharge lamps, they also are providing a color correction filter along with the other parts of the rainbow. This aspect makes them handy for getting professional results when videotaping live performances and promotional events. Simply stated, intelligent fixtures are doing more and doing it better. What that means is that you really can get your money's worth. A Common Language DMX 512 has comfortably settled into a very generic position as far as control languages go. And hold on for DMX 1024 ­ maybe we'll finally get to use those other pins on the XLR connector after all! There are literally dozens of new controllers, compact and powerful, on the market these days, relieving designers, installers and purchasers from the mix-and-match nightmares of combining several types of fixtures in a given system. This becomes especially important when designs, programming and day-to-day function relate heavily with other aspects of audio and video playback systems in providing high­tech marketing systems. The All Star Cafe is an excellent example where all this is the case. At any given time, a "one­button" approach is all it takes to change the music, call up a video logo, animate the house lighting and operate the Roboscan 1220 with custom gobos. With software and hardware blending so much easier, a day of programming accomplishes what used to require a "rat's nest" of engineering just barely half a decade ago. Meter's Omni Controller and Elektralite's CP­10 both exemplify big control features using only two racks of hardware. NSI's MLC­16 also should become a quality generic moving light controller at a very reasonable price. You can take advantage of this technology even if you are "digitally challenged." Most the systems available are no more complicated than Windows 95 and can be handled with a little basis knowledge, the instruction manual and a few cups of coffee. If all this seems a bit overwhelming, you might be surprised to discover how cost­effective it can be to use on­site professional programming and downloading to a "one­button" playback only controller system such as the Martin 2510. Archi­tainment The art of enhancing and animating architectural features - hence "archi­tainment" - is one area in particular that is bound for a big blast in terms of the quality and quantity of projection­type fixtures. Major manufacturers have several exterior enclosures in the works, and this is a dream come true for designers. High End's Eco­Dome is the first entry into this exterior fixture enclosure market, and it makes an excellent weatherproof home for intelligent lights to blend nicely amongst the landscaping. Look for similar products from other manufacturers soon. While designers and architects should be delighted to have their work well lit, club owners should leap at the opportunity to display images and create thematic marketing for a reasonable cost. That big blank wall on your building could become a high­tech billboard! With excellent 1, 200­watt fixtures already on the market from Clay Paky, High End and Martin, LithoGobo should become a household word is decade. Martin's entry into pure projection fixtures, the Imagescan, has "marketing co­op" written all over it. By using a standard 35mm slide, you project perfect images virtually anywhere. (Hint: Club owners would do well to order one, or even two, and get their beverage distributors on the line as well.) Several well­known retailers, such as Coco­Cola, already are gearing up point-of-sale displays that use this versatile new device. Now You See It... Perhaps one of the most unusual devices seen recently is the LED Vertigo. This type of fixture is nearly indescribable until seen close up, or rather, out of the corner of your eye. Using advanced strobing technology, this two­inch­by­two­foot (or four foot) unit displays virtually any image subliminally and can be programmed for endless combinations. If you look straight at it, you'll miss it! Not inexpensive, but installation requirements are as simple as Velcro. Look for smart designers and marketing­minded club owners to have plenty of fun programming all sorts of techno messages with this unusual device. Not Just for Rock Many advances have been made with regard to the quality of manufactured servo motor goods, allowing smaller moving yoke fixtures to begin to capture the imagination of the club market, as well as stage and theater. While Vari­Lites have been commonplace for a decade or more on rock tours and on television, the cost of leasing - they aren't sold, only leased - has put them far out of reach for all but the elite, big­money clubs. With High End Studio Color and Martin's Mac 1200, at least two of the larger manufacturers have seen fit to get the costs down while keeping the quality high. Look for Martin to add a Mac 600 to its lineup for high output per dollar. If you really have to stretch your budget, even Lyte Quest has a small MR­16 moving yoke fixture that is controlled through DMX and is very suitable for small clubs. Look for the field of players to widen with regard to this type of fixture, as designers and club owners begin to appreciate the sexy robotics and overall cost­effectiveness of being able to point a wash light or gobo anywhere you want, anytime you want. Touch and Go Interactive has been a buzzword for sometime now, and with the help of better software and better fixtures, it may be very soon that even average dancers can control the visuals on your dance floor to suit their liking. This particular type of technology has been more common for large - and expensive- architectural displays, such as Freemont Street in Las Vegas, and for the automated followspot system used in many large touring rock shows. This type of system will become more common and at a reasonable cost, so that patrons in any given environment can control their own sights and sounds. Inexpensive systems, such as the Synth-A-Beam from American DJ are easy to install, simple to program and make effective use of standard MIDI technology. Martin's Lighting Director system is also a bargain at several thousand dollars, considering it combines several PC­bases digital technologies and ultrasonics to produce an excellent professional quality system capable of tracking up to four performers with intelligent light fixtures, as well as triggering DMX cues. (Hint: Forget the stage and instead spotlight those roving point­of­sale personnel as they wave their hands to highlight the show-and products-from anywhere in the room.) From professional theater performances to upscale dance clubs, look for interactive goods to proliferate. Click on 'Help' At some point, we all need at least a little assistance with all of these new toys, and many of the well­known manufacturers have gone to a great lengths to satisfy our limited memories with manuals on CD­ROM, on­line technical information on the Internet and a plethora of technical assistance 800 numbers. A surprising number of on­line catalogs is also available, as well as guided factory tours on CD­ROM. So what are you waiting for? With the equipment and services available, there's no good excuse left for missing the bus to the next century.