swirling led battens

[uniman1]

I saw a corporate show last week, as a punter, where a set of performers using battens, clubs and other stuff that you wave and throw. I have seen it on TV but never live. It was running to a track, and the equipment changed colours and chases as the music changed. I had assumed it was some sort of wireless DMX or bluetooth as all battens changed colour at the same time, perhaps to some time code - as one of the clubs at a point stopped changing colour.

 

However at the end, the battens seemed to be using pixel mapping, with different shapes being created as they were swirled around the performers heads. This is the sort of thing, but I don't think it was the same group. How advanced are the control engines, and could they also control other fixtures in the room? I was thinking bringing in black light or strobe for the performers costumes would be cool.

it looked great , and I had never really thought about it before, but does anyone have links to how the technology works? I imagine they are either very robust, or a lot of maintenance is required. Is it just a laptop running it,or is a desk required?

 

Cheers

 

to add: A google search seems to show pixelpoi and fishscale are brands, but these aren't RGB addressable (?), and resolution seems to be an issue. I can't believe that I hadn't really looked into this before as I am sure they will crop up more as the price drops... fake 3D, corporate logos, product launches, war of the worlds style CEO welcome address (My imagination running away) - all very visual.

[greenalien]

As an educated guess, I would think that the different light patterns, including the POV stuff, are stored locally in EPROMS in the battens, but are switched remotely. No need to use DMX, just a multi-channel RF remote transmitter plus a bunch of receivers. Quite cheap and simple to implement. Same principle as one of these : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120778526763 or one of these : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SpaceWriter-iBall-3D-LED-colour-moving-message-spatial-display-lAdvertising-sign-/300730507103