The Association of Authors of Illumination (AAI) is proud to announce that Philips Entertainment has become a new sponsor since the beginning of 2015. A world leader in the lighting industry, including icons such as Strand Lighting, Vari*Lite, Selecon and a recent addition, Showline.
AAI is proud to have such an important company as a sponsor.
The Strand Electric Company began operating in 1914 to serve the London theatre district. In 1926 Century Lighting opened its doors in New York to serve Broadway. Today, Strand Lighting, the union of these two companies, continues as one of the world’s leading names in theatre, television, film and architectural lighting. In 2008 Strand Lighting became part of Philips.
Learn more about Strand Lighting’s long and illustrious history, 24 pages of history and photos celebrating 100 years of Strand Lighting providing lighting solutions : A Strand Century
Brief history of Vari * Lite:
In the late 1970s, engineers worked to develop a color change for a lighting projector. Finally, they came up with a solution: forget the “add-on” scheme and concentrate on the use of internal dichroic glass filters and metal halide lamps. Dichroic filters could be used to change colors almost instantaneously and create saturated colors that convex filters were not capable of reproducing.
That might have been the measure of his progress had it not been for a barbecue in the fall of 1980. At that meeting, the idea of adding two additional motors to give the projector movement was conceived. This “eureka” moment facilitated the construction of a fully automated lighting system that resulted in a prototype in December 1980.
Soon after, the engineering team flew to London to show the prototype (called “VL Zero”) to a long-time Showco customer, the rock band Genesis, who had long been at the forefront of using the technology in their shows and were rehearsing for an upcoming tour.
This was enough to convince Genesis to invest immediately in the development of this new technology. Genesis wowed the audience using the first VARI* LITE Series 100™ System consisting of 50 VL1 fixtures and a computerized control console on the opening night of their “Abacab” tour on September 25, 1981 at the Barcelona Bullring.
The original VARI* LITE system was patented in 1983 and since then Vari-Lite has patented multiple automated lighting technologies as it has continued to innovate and develop new products.
Selecon was created in 1969 by Walter Coleman, who developed a 6″ Fresnel using a P28 lamp to meet the needs of the New Zealand education market. When Jeremy Collins and Andrew Nichols bought the company in 1985 they had already decided to focus on the export market and it is still a source of pride that, since then, the brand has remained an international benchmark.
Selecon’s design team worked on finding a different heat management solution for their Pacific Series luminaires. Their solution has proven to have several advantages. The light coming out of the Pacific Series flat reflector has less color variation than that found in curved or multi-faceted reflectors. An additional benefit is that the lamp base can be kept much cooler than in other designs, thus prolonging the life of the lamp, the lamp holder and therefore the maintenance of the complete luminaire.
Philips – Showline is a range of LED luminaires designed for the entertainment industry providing robust construction combined with high performance LED sources. Setting a new industry standard, all Showline luminaires are designed to match in color, dimming and operation.
At the heart of all Showline products is Philips Harmonize calibration technology. Harmonize is a patented Advanced LED color calibration system, consisting of 3 correction modules: RGB, RGBW and cool white / warm white.
Showline luminaires are designed for a wide range of uses including concert tours, theatre, television, film, corporate shows, cruise ships and advertising.
Showline is truly revolutionizing LED lighting in the entertainment industry.
EES (www.ees.com), also one of the AAI sponsors, is the distributor in Spain for the Philips Entertainment group.
