Stage Directions: Rose Brand’s new small-scale ShowLED Classic and Chameleon LED curtains are now available, and come with a new low price thanks to a new mini-controller. The new Classic mini-controller enables 4 preset star drop chase patterns and the ability to adjust chase speed and light intensity. The Chameleon RGB mini-controller enables users to choose a single LED color from its 16 pre-programmed colors; or to create your own single color by mixing the intensity of its red, green and blue LEDs; or to use a pre-set multi-colored display. Similar to the Classic, the Chameleon enables pre-set chases at varying speeds. The small-scale curtains are configured to work with a maximum of 64 LEDs.
5 comments:
This seems really cool and I am glad Rose Brand found a way to make it cheaper. It is great that these LEDs are color changers because having plain white stars can actually kill the design of a scene. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it is totally true. White LED lights are REALLY BRIGHT and REALLY WHITE that having the ability to dim the blue in the white or maybe change the type of white completely could give the scene softer looks. A designer could even take advantage of this by pixel mapping the stars and maybe make some coll patterns or effects (now being able to play with color).
This is a pretty nifty piece of technology. LEDs have so many advantages. They're small, cheap, and cool, both temperature and they are awesome. Also they can color change, so that's a plus. A lot of people have spent a lot of time making star drops, because it used to be too expensive to get one, the LEDs were only white, and often times stock ones weren't quite right. So the fact that they can sell them at better pries with the color changing LEDs is huge for a lot of theatres that couldn't make or buy a star drop.
For something that so many people used to use, and still do, its good to know that star drop prices are on the decline. As media walls and other media based backdrops are coming into play the need for star drops has gone down significantly. Although media backdrops might be taking over, it still doesn't have the same look as a star drop. I know fiber optic star drops are still out there, but by using one light source it is much more limited, although much more cost effective now a days. Hopefully as LED prices decrease because of their availability the adaptations of media backdrops and star drops will change heavily, hopefully with prices becoming more affordable.
I think its great that rose brand has been able to cut the price on their LED drops. Just last year, i needed a star drop for a show that I was doing and we looked into Rose brand's but they were just too expensive even given our fairly large budget. I ended up having to buy strings of LED christmas lights from china and poke them through the back of an old back drop in order to achieve the same effect. I wonder with rose brands drops though, how large is the market for colored LEDS in those drops? I have seen only really use for white ones, but I'm sure they have some justification.
It's good to see companies working to provide high quality resources at affordable prices. I know people don't like hearing the word recession, but it's a fact we have to face that it happened and we're not out of it yet. Rosebrand has always been a stand-up company in my eyes and the fact that they are providing economical relief for places that want to put on quality theatre with lesser means than others. It really does strengthen your faith in humanity.
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