PALS lighting?

[tewstrose]

Having used pirouettes a few times, I was wondering if anyone has come across any other PALS lanterns. There's a tiny mention of a Cadenza in Richard Pilbrow's book and little much elsewhere.

[Mr Steve]

I believe the Cazenda was a range of 2k luminaries by Strand, also used in the automated PALS system/fixtures. The Pirouette is the same thing (2k luminare) but more modern based on the Alto. In my head that makes sense, but it is quite early...

[LXbydesign]

Yes, thats right Mr Steve. Strands 2k range.

 

PALS was Strands attempt at capturing the market in moving light technology. Suffice to say, it was a bit twonky for touring and rental apps - but didnt do too badly in fixed installs for the bigger, mainstream venues and particually rep venues. - as of course at that time most places had a Galaxy / Gemini etc.

 

My favorite gadget of the moment (although its not new) is the 'Right Arm'. So gteat just to be able to bolt on a Source 4 and be able to use one profile to do the job of multiple specials!

[Neil Hampson]

I have certainly seen a Cadenza PC on a PALS yoke with a colour-call scroller on the front, to be honest I don't recall seeing any other lanterns using the system.

As Mr Steve says, the Cadenza was the predecessor to the Alto 2KW Range, visually similar to the Harmony range (1KW) The Strand archive seems oddly lacking in any info on the PALS.

[gareth]

When I worked at Glyndebourne in the late 90s, we had some Cantata profiles in PALS yokes, and also, if I remember correctly, a couple of Quartzcolor 5k fresnels (although these latter may have been custom-built rather than catalogue items - memory is hazy!). Their reliability at that stage left much to be desired - I remember having to 'calibrate' them on each turn-around by setting them to a known position, which was measured on the floor using the Glyndebourne-standard focus tapes, and grabbing hold of the lanterns and manually putting them correctly onto their marks. If you could then send them to another position, swing them back to their plotted mark and they hit it correctly, they were 'calibrated'!

 

Our Galaxy had the optional motion control panel which enabled control of pan and tilt on PALS yokes, as well as control of Strand's Color Call scrollers (of which the rep rig had many - somewhere around the 70 mark, if memory serves). A bit tricky to get the hang of at first, but surprisingly intuitive to program once you got the hang of it.

 

The Galaxy talked to them using Strand's own unique protocol, called MRL - bonus points for anyone who knows what that stands for ;).

[themadhippy]

called MRL - bonus points for anyone who knows what that stands for

Dont think were allowed to discus religon.

Didn't martin also release a fixture called pal,think it was an early attempt at moving shutters

[gareth]

A small, virtual, hypothetical prize for Hippy, as he clearly knows ;)

 

And yes, I seem to remember the Martin PAL1200 being a very cumbersome moving mirror fixture with framing functionality. Didn't Strand rebadge it and include it in their range for a short while?

[ocfe]

A small, virtual, hypothetical prize for Hippy, as he clearly knows ;)

 

And yes, I seem to remember the Martin PAL1200 being a very cumbersome moving mirror fixture with framing functionality. Didn't Strand rebadge it and include it in their range for a short while?

 

I can't recall Strand rebadging the PAL 1200, but recall they did rebadge the Roboscan 1220 as Hyperbeam which was a 1200w moving mirror unit, but no framing shutters.

[J Pearce]

Derby Uni have (had?) two Martin pal1200s. Huge and heavy beasts with enormous mirrors and mirror shrouds, not very bright for their lamp or body size, but have the bonus of framing shutters and full CMY.

 

Very basic inside and quite good for understanding the basics of a mover as everything is so well spaced out internally.

[tewstrose]

cheers guys for the responses,

 

anyone got any pictures, heck, even a beermat scrawling of any?

 

d-B-)-b

 

simon

[Ashley R]

The Galaxy talked to them using Strand's own unique protocol, called MRL - bonus points for anyone who knows what that stands for ;).

 

Hold on, What does MRL stand for? (Talking about fixtures that are possibly older than I am here!)

 

I can't recall Strand rebadging the PAL 1200, but recall they did rebadge the Roboscan 1220 as Hyperbeam which was a 1200w moving mirror unit, but no framing shutters.

 

Oh the wonderful things you learn on this forum....

 

There is a wonderful vid, of a Martin Demo in 1996, in Canada, featuring the PAL 1200.

Oh and MAC 1200's

[Kazeja]

MRL.

 

Motorised Remote Luminaire.

 

Came in a variety of fixtures.

PALS PUNCHLITE PAN/TILT

BEAMLITE 500 P/T/F

BEAMLITE 1000 P/T/F

CADENZA 12/22 P/T/I

CADENZA 9/15 P/T/I

CADENZA 19/32 P/T/I

CADENZA F P/T/F

CADENZA PC P/T/F

POLARIS P/T/F

CASTOR P/T/F

POLLUX P/T/F

POLLUX BAMBINO P/T/F

CANTATA 11/26 P/T/I

CANTATA 18/32 P/T/I

CANTATA 26/44 P/T/I

CANTATA F P/T/F

CANTATA PC P/T/F

 

As well as the dependant and independant colour changers.

 

K

[themadhippy]

Looks like I got it wrong,, sending the prize back gareth,

[musht]

As think learnt from Gareth a while back, `Mohammadean Religious Leader` on the account of them slowly turning to Mecca

[LXbydesign]

We had some PALS on either the early Riverdance or Lord of the Dance tours.I cant remember now. You can see the buggers quite clearly lined up like soldiers on the adv FOH truss.

 

The raliability of the framing system left a lot to be desired as well - much like Gareths 'calibration'. They were nicknames 'Tanks'. No guesses why.....

 

Edited for meaning PAL 1200 and not Strand PALS!!