Clay Paky Shows New Products at Prolight + Sound 2011

	The Alpha Profile 700

Clay Paky showed a variety of new products at this year's Prolight + Sound Show in Frankfurt. Leading the pack was Sharpy, a 189W moving beam light that produces a perfectly parallel, laser-like beam with an i output of almost 60,000 lux at 65.5'. Its secret lies in its optical group, combined with the new Philips Platinum lamp and reflector. Due to the tiny arc of the source, the light emission is focused on an incredibly small area, enabling a perfectly parallel and zero-degree beam.

Sharpy is also groundbreaking for the purity of its beam, which is sharply defined and free of any halo or discoloration around the edges, the company says. It offers 14 dichroic colors and 17 gobos, allowing designers to sculpt the beam into an array of mid-air effects. Additionally the focusing system produces pristine pattern projections even at very long distances.

Weighing 35 lbs, Sharpy is small, lightweight, and incredibly fast. Its tiny size makes it easy to install and transport, occupying less space in transit and storage, and convenient to use anywhere -- trusses, on stages, in showrooms or conference rooms. Sharpy is also eco-friendly with its low energy consumption.

Sharpy is also available in shiny mirror-finish chrome, making it discreet on stage, in sets and interiors, and ideal for TV studios, showrooms, fairs, conference rooms and at industrial presentations.

With its new chrome plating, Sharpy lends an element of glamour, while preserving its optimal thermal features. (Heat dissipation deteriorates most finishes, but does not affect the Sharpy's in any way. The Chrome Sharpy also blends seamlessly into its setting, becoming less visible to the eye by reflecting the light and surrounding environment.

The Alpha Profile 700 is the only 700W automated spotlight with framing system available on the market. Fitted with a 700W Philips Mini-Fast-Fit discharge lamp, it offers an output comparable to 1,00W fixtures. Its stand-out feature is an optical group offering a 7.5- 55º zoom and perfectly even projection field, the company says.

The patent-pending say-sharp-zoom function automatically keeps images in focus while zooming in and out, even when projected effects are located on different focal planes. Focal distances have been optimized so both the edges of the beam blades and the projected image remain in simultaneous focus. The system enables projected triangles and quadrangles of all shapes and sizes. Programming is enormously simplified, thanks to the color macros and Dyna-Cue-Creator function, enabling endless sophisticated combinations of editable graphic effects, the company says.

Developed with theatres and TV studios in mind, the decibel rating has been reduced to 42dBA (40dBA in 'half power' mode); the linear CTO system provides a wide range of color shades, with a perfect simulation of halogen sources at the warm end of the spectrum, the company says.

Shotlight Wash is a totally new kind of projector that combines a 1,500W wash light with a 1,500W Xenon strobe in a single device. The most striking thing about Shotlight is how the two wash and strobe functions are perfectly integrated and can be controlled either simultaneously or separately, the company says. The Shotlight's wash section is based on the familiar Alpha Wash 1500; the luminaire incorporates two semi-circular xenon strobe lamps fitted around the fixture's front lens. These two strobe lamps work independently and can be flashed simultaneously or separately at different frequencies.

Shotlight has a combined potential power of approximately 3,000 W. Designed for powerful stage effects, the combination of wash and strobe, enables new looks including colored, motorized strobing and blinder effects with adjustable frequency.

Mirage QC, Clay Paky's new semi-transparent LED display, presents a patented mounting and connection system that makes LED walls of all sizes even safer and quicker to install, the company says.

IP65-protected for outdoor use, the Mirage QC is made for touring applications demanding the simplest possible installation. Its bayonet connection system is specifically designed to allow mechanical and electrical mounting of panels in a single, simple step -- no tools needed. Once connected, series of vertical columns can then be joined horizontally with the aid of a quick and simple locking system. Using this attachment system, it takes just minutes to mount and dismount an entire LED wall, eliminating the need for accessories such as wires, connectors, or hooks. It not only reduces labor, it also dramatically simplifies stock, reports Clay Paky.

The company's Alpha luminaires abound in powerful features. For this reason, they can be complex machines to use. Clay Paky has introduced a tool to make the user's work easier, the Dyna-Cue-Creator function. In other spotlights a macro channel only amounts to a selection of static projections, but in the Alpha Spot 1500s (and soon in the 700 Profile) it becomes a library of dynamic, often three-dimensional, animations that lighting designers find easy to use in their shows.

The Dyna-Cue-Creator is the result of meticulous artistic research: the zoom, focus, iris, and dimmer functions are combined and synchronized with each other in several ways that can be customized by lighting designers and combined with colors, gobos, speed and other effects. The Dyna-Cue-Creator is made possible due to the autofocus' extremely rapid and constant adjustments; lighting designers no longer have to program continuous focus corrections with benefits that are particularly evident in the most complex cues, where the gobo, focus and zoom angles change simultaneously. These macros can be used with individual projectors or as part of a series of projectors.

In addition, for its own moving lights, Clay Paky has designed a range of flight cases built with the same spirit of innovation and ruggedness. The new Clay Paky flight case uses modern materials and technologies to solve the complex, and often contradictory, challenges faced by touring personnel today-- the flight case had to be tough and robust yet at the same time easy to handle and lightweight.