Soundsculpture has released the newest addition to its RC4 family of wireless stage lighting products: the RC4-RX4-MINI receiver. The Soundsculpture RC4 wireless dimmer system is designed to give lighting designers the freedom to put DMX-controlled lighting anywhere in the house, on or off stage. Like all RC4 receivers, the MINI features four dimmer channels that can be used individually or ganged together in any combination. It is half the physical size of the RC4-RX4 standard receiver, making it ideal for use in costumes, small props, and other small spaces.
"You could put this in a top-hat, a book, sew it into a costume, hide it just about anywhere," says James Smith, Soundsculpture's president and product designer.
To save space, the MINI has had to drop a few features of RC4’s larger models. The dimmer outputs are rated only for lamp loads, not inductive loads like motors. Overall power handling is reduced to 50W per channel, less than half the capacity of the RC4-RX4, but the MINI still has 200W of total power–over 16A at 12V.
Like the rest of the RC4 system, the MINI uses high-speed digital spread-spectrum radio similar to that used for wireless computer networking. Smith understands the frustration of using other solutions. "Twenty years ago I was one of the guys trying to use hobby airplane radio to dim lights. It was never great, and I just couldn’t let it go."
Although small, the RC4-RX4-MINI is designed to provide a robust performance show after show.
