USA – Volt Lites in Burbank, California has taken delivery of the first Claypaky Scenius Profiles in the US. The creative lighting solutions company, which opened in 2010, added 24 of the latest top-of-the-line luminaires to its inventory. A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Claypaky fixtures in North America.
Founded by lighting designers Harrison Lippman and Matt Shimamoto, Volt Lites offers design, rental, sales and full lighting production to live and special events, concert touring, live television and web content. The company already has a complement of Claypaky Sharpy and Mythos fixtures.
“Volt Lites’ acquisitions mark the first purchase of Scenius Profiles by an American company,” says Aaron Hubbard, Western Regional Sales at A.C.T Lighting, Inc. “We’re delighted that Volt Lites has stepped out as an early adopter of Scenius Profile. Harrison and Matt have been strong proponents of Claypaky and A.C.T and we’re pleased to support this groundbreaking purchase.”
“We’ve been very happy with the Claypaky product line. The Sharpys and Mythos perform extremely well,” says Harrison Lippman. “We’re also pleased with the support that Claypaky and A.C.T offer to their customers – that played a big part in our decision to buy Scenius Profiles, our first large-format profile fixtures.”
Shimamoto reports that the company has been closely watching the market for profile lights. “We’ve played with them all,” he says. “When A.C.T showed us Scenius Profile at LDI 2015 it was clear that Claypaky had knocked it out of the park. This was the profile light we were looking for but hadn’t seen on the market yet. We fell in love with it.”
Scenius Profile fashions uniform light beams without limits and frames scenic elements precisely with fixed or animated light. The optical reflector has been designed especially to ensure uniform projection across the whole beam opening and avoid the typical hotspot effect of many spotlights. The framing system operates on four focal planes; its exclusive “curtain effect” allows gradual total closure of the shape using any one of four independent, overlapping blades. The framing system also offers rotation on 90º.
The fixture’s advanced optical unit and new 1400W OSRAM discharge lamp provide very high light output and an amazing CRI. Scenius Profile boasts a CMY color system, linear CTO, seven fixed colors, 14 gobos (six rotating and eight fixed), a rotating prism, two variable frost filters and a very precise 0-100% dimmer. The optical reflector of Scenius Profile can be replaced with that of Scenius Spot, to obtain a higher luminous peak at the center of the beam.
“The real differences between Scenius Profile and other profiles on the market are the lamp architecture and the unprecedented, unmatched CRI,” says Lippman. “Those features alone would have attracted us to the fixture, but combine them with the continued excellence of Claypaky color mixing and their optical system and we had to add them to our inventory.”
Shimamoto cites the light’s superior color mixing as something he’s never seen before. “Scenius Profile gives you vivid, rich colors mixed – like a pure red, not orange. You can mix colors and have a nice fade into it without sacrificing any intensity.”
He also likes “the flat fieldness of the lamp. The custom-designed reflector adds a flat fieldness to the beam, a very even field across the light.” In addition, “the decibel rating is lower than most lights in studio mode, and you can drop it even further into ultra-quiet mode,” Shimamoto says. “That’s important on shows where noise can be a problem.”
He even gives kudos to the look of Scenius Profile. “The Claypaky line is always very clean and edgy. We appreciate the aesthetic.”
Volt Lites wants fixtures to be “more than a one-trick pony” and have a potentially long life cycle, Shimamoto says. “We look for products to be multi-faceted and fit a number of environments.”
He and Lippman expect television and camera-based clients to use Scenius Profile as key lights and scenery lights. “They’ll be excited by the color accuracy and the superior control of the light: The shutters, lensing and all the control parameters give a lot of control over the light produced,” Lippman explains.
Lippman believes the motion picture industry, which is still relatively new to automated lighting technology, will be drawn to the same qualities. Shimamoto adds “touring, special event, corporate and churches” to the prospective client list. “Every touring client wants nice even key lights with great color accuracy – everybody’s constantly using cameras and putting footage online so they want their artists to look good at all times.”
“We’re excited to get them out on many different projects that we do. We really believe in the Claypaky line and in this new product,” Shimamoto says.