Thematics will unveil four new Lightbox hardware products and a new Lightbox Operating System at LDI 2007. Thematics’ Lightbox, an LED and Fiber Optic Model Lighting Kit for any scaled theatre, is a tool which allows the user to actualize light in a scaled model and to design in virtually any space.
“We have a great show coming up at LDI,” declares Lightbox owner and designer, Charles Kirby. “Our Lightbox Operating System and the MSI-p24 Multi-Source Illuminator are among our newest achievements. We believe the products we’ll be introducing at the show represent our commitment to designers' pre-cueing shows with greater specificity. This will enhance the capabilities of current Lightbox users and attract new users to Lightbox.”
Lightbox Operating System is a soft console with features created for the designer who likes to create with a full palette of pre-visualization tools—sketches, little lights, software, and spreadsheets—with the goal of realizing a fully cued show that can be shared with clients and production staff before load in.
Lightbox Operating System (LBOS) was conceived as a DMX controller to add the capabilities that only rendering software can provide while working in conjunction with the Lightbox toolbox of fiber optic little lights and RGB wash light fixtures. “LBOS is the brainchild of designers who like to collaborate. Our intention at Thematics by venturing into software solutions was to address the need for designers to coordinate their ideas efficiently, using all of the tools currently available to them in the industry to pre-cue the show. Now the designer can use Lightbox to see the light they have initiated in WYG or many of the other popular software programs we all use to organize and pre-visualize,” continues Kirby.
LBOS offers software coordination with WYG, ESPVision, Capture, and offline editors from many of the major console manufacturers. Its soft console design includes features for designers who like to begin their ideas as sketches and are looking for ways to tech and have a fully cued show. It has up to 64 universes of DMX channel control, unlimited cues, groups, and fixture library. For writing looks it has an RGB color picker, a DMX interface, and a touch pad magic sheet. LBOS has a stand-alone operating feature designed to run through a variety of off the shelf USB/Ethernet devices and has a Go button for easy cue playback.
"With LBOS, designers can use the programs/tools they already enjoy, but now with the ability to send a DMX cue sequence to a Lightbox, which can be used for presentations outside the performance space. It will also share the cue sequence initiated in WYG or Capture when the designer wants to work on a moving light sequences or control full-scale stage fixtures" Kirby explains.
Other system features include a Sequencer able to fade, delay, and manage aspects of moving lights; a Sound/Light Generator to input MP3 files and output intensities to certain channels based on the frequency of the music; an expandable color palette (Rosco, Lee, Apollo, etc.) for data Magic Sheet, and DesignerFix which enables designers to create new lighting library fixture attributes.
New Hardware
Heading the roster of new hardware products is the Lightbox MSI-p24 LED, a Multi-Source Fiber Optic Illuminator featuring 24 DMX-controllable ports for controlling fiber-optic little lights in Lightbox. Using the latest LED technology available, the MSI-p24 powers each directional (10°, 19°, 26°, and 50° half inch = a foot) fixture in a Lightbox with an addressable DMX channel.
“Our customers have said that, just like in real life, the more dimmers you have, the more control you have. Therefore, the more illuminator channels we offer, the more Lightbox is like real life. Now with the Multi-Source Illuminator 24 channel configuration, designers have the opportunity to genuinely pre-cue in a truly three-dimensional environment.”
The MSI-p24 is available in different color temperatures matching 3300K incandescent fixtures or 5500K moving light and LED fixtures. The dimmers are offered in 8- or 10-bit DMX resolution.
In addition, the Lightbox MSI-p8 LED Multi-Source Fiber Optic Illuminator will make its debut. Its eight DMX-controllable illuminator light outputs are designed to act as groups in a light plot. Utilizing the new stranded fiber tube for efficient alignment, the MSI-p8 powers up to seven 3.2mm PMMA fiber optic fixtures on each DMX channel, a total of 56 little lights. The MSI-p8 is also available in different color temperatures and in 8- or 10-bit DMX resolution. For the purest of Lightbox user, the MSI-p8 Incandescent with MR lamps is still available upon request.
Lightbox is also introducing the MSC-p12, a Multi-Source LED Controller custom designed for the Color Kinetics’ iCove, G2, Flex SL, and SLX fixtures. The unit uses 8 12-pin universal outputs to control up to eight iCoves (NXT or DLE), four iMR16s (RGB G2), 16 iMR11s (on two strands SLX) and eight iMR7 individual chips on a third strand. This provides up to 106 individual DMX channels, each with RGB color-changing LED wash lightoutputs. To keep the other MR11 incandescent gooseneck wash fixtures in the DMX channel cue sequences, there are 6 edison auxiliary plugs on the side of the rugged rack mountable case.
All three of these hardware products permit Lightbox users to incorporate the three qualities of light necessary to optimize the visualization: fiber optic spot lights, RGB LEDs, and incandescent wash lights all in the same dimmable DMX-channel sequence. Each unit consists of one 19-inch aluminum case for easy rack mounting, five-pin DMX in and out for easy daisy-chain connectivity, and upgrade to connect to LBOS or any other industry standard control console.
Ben Tevelow, an associate Lightbox designer and developer of the products, adds, “We believe designers will now be able to show their ideas in an even more concise, efficient work flow method. Choosing their tools and focusing their design ideas. Together the channel/dimmer illuminator (MSI-p24) and the Operating System (LBOS) combine to give flexibility in style and design process."