A look inside a VL5 moving light. TCF
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ส.ค. 2015
- This is an OLD light. One of the first moving yoke lights in the entertainment industry. When they first came out they were only available for hire, and came with a Vari-Lite technician to maintain them. It's main features are super high resolution pan and tilt due to the use of geared motors with optical encoders, a massive optical path the full width of the light and a dichroic glass colour mixing system that takes up the whole length of the body.
These lights were available as tungsten and discharge lamp versions, with the dimming and discharge ballasts mounted remotely, making the lights quite compact and light.
There is a newer version of these lights, but on some jobs the older units are just better suited due to their high resilience to brief encounters with extreme weather.
The colour changing system uses small linear actuators to push four rings that surround the whole light and make the internal "fans" of dichroic glass rotate to either end-on or side-on to the light path, or any position in-between. The colours are Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and either a frost for diffusion in the tungsten version, or a black-out shutter in the discharge version.
Dichroic filters are basically a piece of glass with metallisation deposited on it to a very specific thickness matching a wavelength of light. They pass the desired wavelength and reflect the unwanted ones. This gives a slightly psychedelic effect as a red filter will appear as red glass, but as a green mirror.
These units require a local "repeater" unit to power their circuitry and pre-process/convert the lighting data. Up to six can be run from one repeater. Although used on DMX these days, they are capable of using a proprietary communication protocol that can send target positions and speeds that allow the lights to operate at much higher positional resolutions than a standard DMX stream offers, and move linearly from one position to the next.
Definitely a classic. These lights are all veterans of showbiz history. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I remember as a stagehand seeing the VL100 and 200s coming in and being amazed by them. We were so used to fixed lighting for all of the rock shows. It was revolutionary and great to be there at the beginning. They guys who handled the Vari-Lite systems were really great people and would explain how it all worked while at the same time being very protective of the equipment. Couldn't blame them, there was nothing else like it at the time.
I worked mostly on the older Vari*lites, VL2 through the VL2K as well as Big Boy and Best Boy. I think the VL5. These lites took a lot of abuse but were very reliable. I worked at Vari*Lite from 1997-2015. Never a dull moment. Thanks for the memories 😊
LOL. Kelly - I have a collection of VL2Cs, VL4s, and VL5s... your name is on a lot of the chips as being "tested by".
@rhanemann9100 hang on to those fixtures, I heard they literally threw all of the old ones in the dumpster. That's funny that my tested by sticker is still out there. I worked on those boards for 18 years.
@@kellijohodges1208 Some of the old Las Vegas and Disney installs made it out into the market - that's how I found most of mine. I could use your services - those old 1986 PCBs on the 2s are pretty much dead!
love this, more professional lighting fixtures teardowns please :)
Bloody hell, that shutter is the coolest design I've ever seen (I'm a fan of jet engine looking things). If I ever have round windows, those shutters will go on that window :D
Wait, wait, wait... You're telling me that Vari-Lites are very light and can vary light?
I vaguely remember when the early Vari*lites (the VL5s ancestors) first came out. Being kids we didn't understand the technicalities, but I recall my schoolmate being really enthusiastic about this "light that can change to any colour!". 30-odd years later I got to play with some VL5s on Avolites' training rig, and was still amazed at the flexibility of them, despite being a more than 10 year old design at the time, there was still no colour changer out there that had that sort of efficiency. I guess LED luminaires have since surpassed these.
They still hold their own for some applications.
these are great. amazing colour output. the CYM mechanism is still inspired.
I remember years ago, I was doing a concert ( I was in my learning years ) and someone made a huge monumental cock up. Instead of contacting Vari*Lite for 20 VL5's, Someone they ordered 20 VLM's. I did come out with "We could use torches as it would lower the power consumption!", As you could probably guess, That went down like a concrete boat!
Iain Banachowicz vlm's? mirrors?
Yes the vari*lite VLM. No lamp just a X Y mirror.
Yet another example of very clever people putting in a lot of work so us simple commoners can be entertained. Such is life! Funny old world! etc. etc.
that's a cool light fixture, you have a pretty neat job!
VL5 what a machine and this is an old light! Indeed, thanks for the reveal my friend, I first saw these yes Marc Brickman and the PF lighting how could we forget Mr.Screen which I think were VL3's originally. I love this light the colour variation, (yes that's how I spell colour)are awesome. The lighting on David Gilmours 'On an Island' tour was just as awesome. the cyan aquatic colur on Speak to Me is beautiful. So would love to have a row of these guys above. Yes, we musicians do like lighting to!
The response time of the VL3's on Mr.Screen were very smooth, quick and sharp, nice work if you can get it. Anyway thanks again good to see the bibs and bobs of the thing cheers.
I can't believe you got your hands on a VL5, so jealous!
Thanks Clive,love your lectures.
2019 checking in. Just had a bunch of VL5s from PRG come in with a theater tour in Seattle!
Amazing fixtures
never seen one of these inside. so many thanks for posting!!!
i love how your doing more on special fx and lighting
Woooo that is a blast from the past! :-) I have faded memory of getting bashed with one of these at Leith Links in Edinburgh when a m8 dropped it off the 'artic trailer' stage.. Nice to see a wee bit of history again.. at a safe distance this time :-)
Love the video... more professional light tear downs please !!!
ive been binge watching your channel I'm looking to get into broadcast engineering or just electrical engineering im already a licensed aircraft mechanic I see all your videos and the way you present them I can only hope to get an instructor as in depth that truly has a love for what he's doing just as you do your the man !
this answers many questions for me, thanks man :D
I have rented a few of these before! Love them
I LOVE THESE LIGHTS :O
Nice to see inside the VL5, Where would we be without Vari-lite.
Would be interesting to diy something like this using LED or as daytime theatre solar light tubes (mounted through a transparent roof fixtures). Never considered that this existed!
great stuff bigclive
As as optical tech, I creamed myself.
Tore down LED flex panels and 4 large movers that was part of an outdoor show yesterday. The whole video wall+truss was blown over backwards, yikes!
Aybody remember the LSD Icon? Now there was an amazing moving head light (for its day). Also, the Icon console was hands-down the sexiest lighting desk ever built. I didn't say best or easiest to use, I said sexiest. Those programmable graphic pushbuttons!
Illuminating... :P
Far more advanced than anything I played with at the theatre, that said, far more advanced than the theatre needed, so, yeah... :P
My god, is that a moving light or a jet engine? To be fair I have to respect how heavy duty that thing looks.
Nice
So the color changing is done by rotating the louver vanes? Cool.
1st came across varilights on a Peter Gabriel tour in 1981(?). These pre-patent varilights looked like the old Strand patt 43 and came in 6 locked flight cases each with it's own security guard. All personnel had to vacate the stage whilst the Vari-Light techs rigged them. All very cloak and dagger! I always wondered how they could change colour without scrolling. Now I know how. Thanks.
my school just got dmx lighting and the teachers couldnt use it properly and all it took was some screwing around and writing down the channels and what each light and channel does. oh and if youre wondering, they got 5 moving heads and 10 static leds
Im getting jealous of the work life you've had. Working on the Tattoo must have been fabulous. Those dichroics took me back to my time in the bulk photograph processing industry as they were switched into and out of the light beam passing through the negative up to the photo paper. As a matter of interest would your nzme have ever appeared in tv or film credits ?
Only the designers get their names in the credits.
OK that was more than a bit interesting. The immediate thought that went through my head was that the mechanism works on a similar principle to the stators in the compressor of a turbojet that alter pitch with mach number. Even the "stepper/solenoid" thing is the same. I wonder which was first and if one copied the other or two engineers just came to the same conclusion independently. O bugger I'll probably be trying to figure that out all night.
Wonder what's the smallest microprocessor nowadays you can replace these with
I am curious about the chips on that control board, that looked like a lot of old chunky DIPs there
+padathir A processor and then mainly drivers and RS485 style receiver chips.
Are these the same fittings that they used on Millionaire back in the Tarrant days? Not the actual gobo beams but the fittings in a ring directly above the hot seat? They would change colour smoothly without that obvious colour wheel 'flicker' and I always wondered how they did that
Possibly yes. It was Vince the crew chief of this job that also did that show. And now he does X-factor, Britain's got talent and many others.
Lets see the inside of a VL2C next time...
You should try and get onto an SGM G-Spot. Nothing wrong with a light that loves a good piss down.
2:28 you could even say they're - wait for it - Vari Lite (very light).
Sorry! 😅
These wash lights can produce light outputs of over 16 million colours.
OH! Do not throw those dicroid glassses out :D
as far as the processor goes, do the people who make these lights design them or are they outsourced?
The original Vari*Lite design team did all the hardware and software in house to the best of my knowledge. It's far too heavily integrated with the hardware to outsource the software.
wow thats very impressive. Thanks for the response.
bigclivedotcom Yes it was a team from showco in the USA, they were working with Genesis on their tours and knowing that they always wanted to try something new for their live shows showed them the prototype VL0 which used dichroic? lense techniques to make different colours, Genesis and their manager basically put up the capital so they could develop the idea and thus vari*lite was born (now part of Philips Lighting along with Strand)
This morphed into the VL1 which used a color filter wheel instead as they had to get the lights out quick and the VL0 design was far from ready as a mass product, although the VL0 tech ended up making it into a wash light. Naturally vari*lite did the control system/lighting desk (Acrobat?) as well.
The first users (and by golly did they use a lot of them, I believe they replaced all the standard par cans) were for the Genesis MAMA tour in 1983.
th-cam.com/video/xbO6aKayNIA/w-d-xo.html
You so need one for your electronics teardowns ... do you think they will notice one missing? :P
themaconeau I've had more than enough of VL5's over the past decade. As cute as they are, they're not really suited as a "home" light.
I know that, but bragging rights :P
You would probably need to save money on your electric bill but VL5 for fuck's sake! :P
I remember these bad boys back in the day. They were the duck's nuts... never got to play with them, just saw them in action and god they were/are sexy beasts :D
+bigclivedotcom i could make them home lights i wil trade them in for my small 24v 250W halogen moving heads anny day
Do you put them back together after the strip down?
Yes.
Big Clive, I have an three moving heads that need sorting out,don't know where to send them,can you help,they are halogen fixtures.
Try asking on the blue room technical forum. You may find a technician close to you.
Oh. I have VL2s and 4s
Looks like a jet engine lol
I would like to see somone tear down a VLM
A light with adjustable guide vanes ...
Repeter units: blowdryer.
What does TCF mean ?
dorplein62 TCF = Tattoo Cocktail Fund
dorplein62 Any videos I make at the Edinburgh Tattoo are having any advertising revenue diverted to our cocktail fund. Cocktail meaning "random blend of lurid sugary liquor" in this instance. Given what TH-cam actually pays on these videos it will probably be enough to buy a single shot of cheap vodka.
nice light although replacing a glass in these is not an easy job
How much was a unit back then?
Priceless - because they didn't sell them. They were built for in-industry use. Same as the larger PRG lights like the Best Boy I featured in another video. No price tag because you can't buy them.
@@bigclivedotcom Okay, thanks :-) I read the Production cost for the prototype was US$100,000...
Moving head
I hope that light finds a nice retirement home whenever it gets retired... if it hasn't already
Disappointing that you didn't get into more detail...
+therealnightwriter To go any further would have involved major disassembly, and that was one of our spares. I'll keep it in mind for when we get a very broken one. Like the one that was smashed clean out of its yoke when a motorbike stunt went wrong.