LDI 2019 – Vegas Lights Up

by Cat Strom

This article is an abridged version of the full show report that will appear in the Dec/Jan issue of CX Magazine, due for publication Dec 1, 2019.

Another year, another action packed few days at LDI in Las Vegas. Not so many world exclusive products and maybe less attendees than previous years, but still plenty to look at.

Many products were ‘exclusive to the US market’ which usually meant they were launched at Frankfurt earlier in the year. There were, however, still a few surprises.

Informal chats with attendees resulted in the same few products being mentioned as ‘cool’, including a modern update to a true legend the Vari-Lite VL5LED WASH, a compact, high output fixture with rich colours. The retina-blasting Super Flare from TMB was highly regarded as was the SGMG·7 BeaSt (BeamStrobe), something a little different with a design based on three major features: a bright throw with full optical control, the ability to expand the beam angle while keeping the light output, and a powerful pixel strobe blinder that boosts the punch. The result is versatile fat-beams, cool aerial scenes, excellent eye-candy effects, and impressive strobe/pixel/blinder.

MA Lighting surprised everyone with the launch of the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT; a 4,096 parameter console that can be used in nearly any location – just add a touchscreen monitor, and it´s ready to go. Expect these to sell like hotcakes.

This year it seems like everyone was making their existing products IP65 rated, maybe in anticipation of climate change, with Claypaky, TMB, and most major luminaire manufacturers jumping on the band wagon.

Ayrton carried on the tradition of launching wind-named products with theShamal-LT designed for long-distance applications. A new type of beam/wash LED fixture, Shamal-LT is equipped with a 225 mm frontal lens, offering a zoom ratio of 12:1 and a zoom range of 3° to 36°. This entirely new, exclusive ultra-powerful luminaire will generate output of 50,000 lumens.

CHAUVET Professional won the Best Large Booth Design Award at LDI 2019 and also launched quite a few new products, including the most powerful mover ever in the Maverick series – the Maverick MK3 Profile. A fully featured 820W LED moving profile, it is powerful enough to handle the demands of the largest concert venues with a blistering output of over 51,000 source lumens. For outdoor reliability, the Maverick Storm 1 Spot is not just IP65 rated, but also has aluminium alloy housing, marine grade 316 stainless steel screws, M12 Gore valves, and a sunshield optical protection system.
The Rogue R2X Wash and Rogue R3X Wash are fully featured RGBW fixtures that bring a new level of brightness and color to the Rogue family and the COLORado Solo Batten 4 builds on the success of the widely acclaimed COLORado Solo Batten.

Claypaky premiered the Sharpy Plus Aqua luminaire, which is essentially a waterproof Sharpy Plus, and the ReflectXion moving mirror offering 540° pan and unique, continuous tilt movement at adjustable speeds. The ReflectXion’s mirror is the same on both sides giving you two highly reflective surfaces with which to direct light beams. Although not brand new, the Xtylos was their flagship product and certainly impressed many.

VuePix Infiled continue to produce lighter, easier to assemble and brighter screens, such as their new HR Series, but it’s their innovative automatic retractable corner protection that really impressed. These protect the LEDs from damage during installation and transportation with no manual operation required.