colour scollers for Birdies?

[lightingyoung]

Hi all,

 

I know this is a stupid question, but I was working the other day and someone told me that there are colour scrollers for birdes. and he was dead set on it. is this true?

 

Cheers

[the kid]

Google didn't find anything - but thinking about it logically, if you had the PCB, the fan (if you needed one), the motors ( even the small scaletrix ones), and the fascias, I think the weight would be quiet considerable to fix on a tiny birdie and not be too focusable (yes I know scrollers are quite heavy on bigger lights but tightening is far easier).

 

Unless he is thinking of MR16 battens where you can get scrollers.

[scjb]

The LSD (Light and Sound Design) Colourmag system had scrollers sized for birdies. By all acounts created more as a gag than anything else (think along the lines of the VariLite Mirror!).

 

 

EDIT: After another 10 seconds of thought (must try to do that before hitting the post button!) I wonder if they had anything to do with the Patrick Woodroffe\Steve Nolan "Four to One" project. For those unaware it was a preproduction rehearsal facility that used scaled-down lights, truss and staging (along with figures etc) to allow designers to rehearse and programme tours before the first date. Yep, before computer visualisation! The 1:4 version of the PAR64 was the... PAR16. Not certain if the colourmags were used there, but it would make sense.

[Ekij]

Birdies are dirt cheap and tiny, why not just get three of them (RGB) [or four RGBW] and have noiseless smooth fades?

[LXbydesign]

I dont think you can get scrollers for birdies because of the logisitcs as above re size (even a scaled down scroller!!) the fan and even for the XLR connectors - but id love to have them though!!! So sweet!!! Better than the colour wheel you can get.

 

Saying that , do they do LED birdies now?! Must do surely. <_<

[johnhuson]

I do remember some years ago now coming across Robo-birdies. They were motorised so they could pan and tilt and had a colour flag with three different colours plus white. All very basic and you could only control 8 units & have 8 scenes or looks which you had to preset using for each unit using a set of pots on a rack mounted unit. You then had to run an 8-pin DIN plus a 12v supply for the lamp out to each unit from the rack.

 

Had a good google but can't find any info or pictures, but I think they were a fairly unique product that didn't really gain many applications!

[Ekij]

Saying that , do they do LED birdies now?!

I've not seen any, only the expensive LED lanters (not the cheap Chinese sort) would have the necessary light output at such a small size. However I would consider using an LED_Can36 in place of a conventional MR16.

[J Pearce]

There is also the issue that RGB colour mixing struggles to produce some of the very saturated colours, especially oranges. I like using birdies to uplight in saturates, and I'd be wary of using RGB for this purpose.

 

My other concern with LEDS would be the lack of beam control, and with cheaper LED kit consistency of beam width.

[the kid]

You can get plug in mr16 and (the other form of birdie that escapes me right now) in LED ebay has tonnes of them in different colours.

[Guest lightnix]

I do remember some years ago now coming across Robo-birdies. They were motorised so they could pan and tilt and had a colour flag with three different colours plus white. All very basic and you could only control 8 units & have 8 scenes or looks which you had to preset using for each unit using a set of pots on a rack mounted unit. You then had to run an 8-pin DIN plus a 12v supply for the lamp out to each unit from the rack.

I'm sure I remember those - it was in the Summer of 1988 and they were auditioned one week on a TV show I was working on. The didn't get asked back, IIRC due to the high price of buying the system. The flag was banana shaped, right?

 

If you want a colour changing birdie, you should start looking at 3x 1W RGB LED solutions IMO. Roughly equivalent to a 30-35W halogen at full.

 

e2a...

 

There is also the issue that RGB colour mixing struggles to produce some of the very saturated colours, especially oranges. I like using birdies to uplight in saturates, and I'd be wary of using RGB for this purpose.

 

My other concern with LEDS would be the lack of beam control, and with cheaper LED kit consistency of beam width.

I'm not sure why, but the quality of the colour seems to have something to do with the quality of the dimming and modulation type used. I've managed to get some respectable 135-ish oranges out of decent LED kit, although I'm not a great fan of the RG Yellow range, on the whole.

 

As for beam control: some manufacturers, such as AVR, do supply their luminaires with a choice of lenses (8°, 25° & 8x25° IIRC) and many others offer a range of beam widths as an extra. It's just a little 3-lens cluster that sits over the LEDs.

[Roderick]

They do (did) exist! I saw them in the mid 90's at Entech in Sydney and remember it vividly, I thought it was the funniest thing ever.

 

Bit of a Google brings up this:

ELITE TECHNOLOGIES

The Microscroller MR 16 colorchange fits miniature MR 16 PAR cans. The system has an 11-frame gel string, closed-loop servo control, variable speed, real-time tracking with DMX512, and uses RJ-11 interconnects.

[johnhuson]

I'm sure I remember those - it was in the Summer of 1988 and they were auditioned one week on a TV show I was working on. The didn't get asked back, IIRC due to the high price of buying the system. The flag was banana shaped, right?

 

They're the ones, glad I wasn't the only one that saw some. The ones I used were originally part of a system at Alton Towers, remember using them to light a contemporary dance piece and them working quite well. That's apart from the deafening noise of the servo motors during changes!

[LXbydesign]

thats quite good john. Actually I think there could be a market for a "moving birdy. mabe Martin could make one and call it MAC-B 50 !! hehe.

 

id love to see this robo-birdy, and yes I agree about the LED saturate colour. I found LED good for tints and of vourse the primes, but any other deep colour is a bit dodgy.

 

has anybody tried a comparision against a swatch book? (if got the time, motivation and interest!! ?)

[peternewman]

I do remember some years ago now coming across Robo-birdies. They were motorised so they could pan and tilt and had a colour flag with three different colours plus white.

thats quite good john. Actually I think there could be a market for a "moving birdy.

There were a few similar products at this years PLASA. One of the stands in the random new bit, near Used Lighting, had arrays of 10x10 or so little movers with an MR16 in. I think they had dimming, but no colours, and were basically a few servos and the lamp in a tiny framework. I seem to remember they were going to be quite expensive, certainly I'd consider doing a DIY one with some of the Milford Instruments boards first. Someone else Eurolite/Showtec I think, also had an LED mover, which I think had RGB mixing and impressively gobos as well, you could see what the gobo was, but how it would fare in the real world I don't know.

 

Anyway its some food for thought. If anyone is interested I can probably work out what company it was from the brochure, or someone else may know.

[peternewman]

I was looking through the show plan to try and find something else, so I thought I'd find out the name of the little fixture I mentioned above (in the 10x10 arrays). It turns out they were LEDs not traditional lamps. Its not entirely clear from the website if they are colour mixing or fixed colours, I'm assuming the latter. Anyway more details here.