FUTURETECH Featuring Elation - Lighting the Future: Atlas and Radius Take Center Stage

0:19 All right, welcome back to Geezers of Gear Future Tech. I'm Chris, and as ever, Lacey's here with me, ready to chase some beams into the future. Hi everyone, I got to admit Chris, this week's episode is a bit intimidating. So many specs and features it makes my brain hurt. But I love what these new lights are doing for the industry. Well, today we're talking about two proper show stoppers elations, Proteus Atlas and Radius. Let's kick off with some engine talks since that's where all the magic starts. The Atlas uses a 500 Watt solid-state phosphor converted SSPC light engine. That's not your average LED. You get razor sharp beams and honestly the outputs punched my retinas more than once.

1:03 And the radius, the name makes you think it's circular, which, OK, it spins. But the real trick is this Lily engine laser illuminated lighting, something I always forget what the I stands for Chris. Instrument Laser Illuminated Lighting Instrument Both Lily laser illumination lighting engines, the Atlas and Radius are fully FDA approved by the Center for Devices and Radiological Health CDRH. While the Atlas model requires a user variance, the Radius is user variance free thanks to its unique optical design. Due to their extreme output power, both units do require FAA clearance when used outdoors in non terminated applications. Each Lili engine utilizes high power blue laser diodes to excite phosphor panels, which are then combined to create an exceptionally bright white lighting source. The Atlas additionally features an advanced internal safety zone control system, allowing operators to define audience safe areas and prevent solid beams from entering restricted zones.

2:08 Best of all, this can be managed directly from your lighting console, no special software required. There we go. Basically you've got a super compact 100 Watt laser unit that fires off an ultra intense 0.9° beam. It's cut through more haze and daylight than any small fixture I've ever seen. It's got a lamp life of 10,000 hours too, which is honestly a gift for rental companies. No swapping lamps halfway through a tour, right? Right, and both of these are IP66 rated. So rain, dust, even salty beach air, they'll stand up to all of it. The Atlas and Radius both ship with foam inlay packaging too, which means you're not playing Tetris with cases at 2:00 AM.

2:50 Fantastic for fast load outs or when you need to throw them on a truck in a hurry. And then there's that continuous pan and tilt. Atlas does 360 pan radius does both pan and tilt non-stop. Designers can create these wild moving looks that just weren't possible back in the day, right? Absolutely, and you're not sacrificing color or effects either. You've got full CMY color mixing, a massive color wheel, 25 positions, and a ridiculous collection of gobos and prisms for both units. If you want flexible looks, these boxes deliver. Right. Let's talk about the big jobs. The Proteus Atlas made a huge splash at the National Medal of Honor Museum's opening night down in Arlington, TX.

3:33 They put out 32 Atlas fixtures lining rooftops in the Art Museum, all working In Sync with fireworks and a massive drone display. The designer Ryan Stump needed those beams to fill the Texas sky, and even in crystal clear cold air with almost no haze, those Atlas beams just didn't fade. Even when the smoke from fireworks blew away, you still saw these massive columns of light wrapping the crowd. It looked regal, honestly, like the lights were honoring the whole story of the museum. That was such a breathtaking show. I read about how they organized 4 separate events that day. The Atlas wasn't just used for the big night spectacle, but for all the parties, ribbon cutting, everything.

4:15 That versatility kind of blows my mind. It's the kind of fixture where you can do Moody wash or a straight up arena level beam effect. Exactly, and let's not forget Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World tour sooner. Ruthia was looking for a way to get Searchlight effect without all that xenon power consumption. She landed on Atlas for that reason. It does the work of A7K Xenon, but at 500 watts, so it fits the whole environmental ethos Coldplay's been known for. Plus you don't have to drag around huge auxiliary power or swap bulbs constantly. Now Radius got its own time in the spotlight too. TMS rolled it out at the Hangout festival in Alabama. You know, right on the sandy beach.

4:56 No side walls or curtains. The gear is just out there getting pounded by salt spray. Full on summer chaos. If they'd used non IP rated lights, half the rig would have been fried before the first night. But the Radius just kept doing its thing. Cutting through the sunlight and all daytime visibility was a big deal. Yeah, that's pretty much the dream for festivals. Ben from TMS said going punch for punch with daylight was a first for them, and when the sun dropped, Radius was still the brightest thing on the deck. That flexibility, beach or arena. Radius and Atlas just keep working regardless of the weather, which opens up creative options for designers and Peace of Mind for anyone worrying about repairs on Monday morning.

5:38 Can't get more legendary than that. Stadiums, museums, beaches, these are the kinds of places where lights usually fail. But this tech is making sure the show literally goes on come rain, sun or wind. Now, it's all well and good to talk about what these fixtures can do under ideal conditions, but big events rarely give you that luxury. Take the Orange Bowl halftime show, a massive live gig in Miami Gardens where you get 5 minutes to push a full set and lighting rig onto the field, and after the artist's last note, 4 minutes to strike and clear out. Used to be you'd see fireworks, but this year the team skipped pyrotechnics for a fully kinetic all lighting spectacle.

6:21 That's bananas. It's one thing to have a great concept on paper, but when you have to fit Truss cards through stadium tunnels in under 5 minutes and the weather's as unpredictable as ever. The fact that they used Proteus Radius, Maximus Hybrid Max, all those IP66 rated units, it makes a difference. You don't even flinch at the idea of a sudden downpour. Plus the light show ended up replacing the fireworks. That says a lot. Doesn't. It it really does. The radius played a starring role. Those endless rotations, ultra fast movements, A4 prism set up with gobos and frosts for washes or aerial effects, Tight CMY color mixing, a 25 position color wheel, two gobo wheels for swapping looks mid show, and the ability to layer effects all at once. That's proper flexibility.

7:12 And with remote local control of the sky motion system, Atlas and Radius can do standalone Searchlight chases or pattern sweeps. You can program dramatic sweeps or chase effects on the fly. Even if you're not a lighting person. The fact that you can use a touch panel on the fixture itself and not have to find a control desk, that's saving time in panic mode. So from fast installs to cutting through daylight to on the fly programming, these fixtures kind of redefine what's possible for live events. That's probably where we'll wrap for now. Plenty more innovations to come, so stay tuned for our next future tech episode. Cheers, Laci. Thanks, Chris, and thanks everyone for listening. We'll catch you next time.

7:52 Goodbye. Future tech is here. Come on, you make the specs so clear. Oh La La with music to your ears. Hey, hey, yay. Let's go. New gear vibes, new tech jive gearheads unite. We keep it live. Oh yeah, the leaders gear. The leaders gear. We got it here, got it here.