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    Tech Talk: Learn How to Measure the Lux

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    Mike Graham pensive in front of MVP video panels.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    LED technology brought many advancements to the lighting world. The ability to use 30 COLORado 1 units off of one 20Amp circuit is amazing and was unheard of until a few short years ago. Who would have thought that we could stop changing lamps and cutting gel for PAR cans? LED technology has left us with a few problems though, one of which is measuring the brightness of its light products.

    1. Did you know? While lux and lumen readings depend on seeing a full spectrum of visible light, LED fixtures do not produce the full spectrum. They only produce spikes of color. Those spikes reside in the red, green and blue zones of the color spectrum. This causes light meters to give inaccurate readings due to the missing information.

    2. Know how to read the lux. When comparing the lux of a PAR 56 MFL and a COLORado 1, for example, the problem becomes apparent. At full white, the PAR 56 is 17,800 lux at 1m, while the COLORado 1 with a 15-degree lens is 11,862 lux. The difference can be attributed to the missing portions of the spectrum. When you look at individual color, the truth comes out. In red, for example, the COLORado 1 is 4,045 lux. The PAR 56 is 2,560 lux. Now we can start to see the misleading lux readings. The LED fixture is going to be brighter in the red, green and blue because those are native colors to the light. The PAR 56 must have a gel added to create these colors.

    3. Conclusion. The moral of the story is to be careful when looking at the lux readings of LED fixtures. Lux readings are not the whole story and most likely were taken when the fixture had all of the LEDs on. When you have clients who demand the old PAR can because the lux is higher, let them know that it’s not all about the lux – their eyes should be the judge.

    Tech Talk: How White Is Your White?

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    Mike Graham pensive in front of MVP video panels.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    Color temperature has become a benchmark that is used to determine how bright a lamp source appears to the naked eye. In architectural lighting, the color temperature tells the lighting designer which white is right for a given application.

    This is a diagram from inside the chromaticity space. It shows the range of color temperature inside the range of white. The measurable range of white is between 1,500K and 10,000K.

    How do we measure color temperature? Color temperature is measured on the Kelvin scale (K). The Kelvin temperature number is determined by comparing the light source’s chromaticity with that of an ideal blackbody radiator. The temperature at which the heated blackbody radiator matches the color of the light source is the color temperature for that source.

    Different applications call for different color temperatures.
    •    In architectural lighting the typical range of color temperature is between 2,800K and 5,000K. These are the levels of white with which people are used to working and living.

    •    In theater, a typical stage is lit between 3,200K and 3,400K. Theatrical paints and costumes are created with this range of color temperature in mind.

    •    For the big shows. The advent of discharge lamp sources upped color temperatures to the 5,600K to 8,500K range depending on the lamp that is being used. These higher color temperatures help us create the huge light shows and make the bright looks that cut through all of the other action in a rock show.

    So, when you are working on an installation, production, corporate event, or any other kind of lighting job and the client asks for white, you are totally justified in asking, “What color temperature?”

    Tech Talk: AMX to MPX and DMX

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    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    Mike Graham pensive in front of MVP video panels.

    1. What is AMX? More commonly known as Multiplex or Analog Multiplex, AMX 192 was devised to multiplex up to 192 analog dimmer levels down a four-wire cable. There are thousands of installations that still utilize AMX protocol because the dimming systems they were plugged into were built like Mack Trucks and endured.

    2. The transition to DMX. Boxes to convert DMX into AMX were developed in order to avoid problems with the control. As technology began to become less expensive and started to filter into the lighting world, a new protocol was needed to handle larger dimming racks and moving lights. DMX-512 superseded AMX 192, but it came with its own sets of headaches. No standard existed in how DMX protocol was delivered to fixtures. Each manufacturer had its own method. This left smaller companies that made basic dimming and control in the lurch.

    3. What is MPX and why use it? Several manufacturers began to use a system called Multiplex – a touch of both DMX and AMX. Others used their versions as MPX. So here we are with all of these smaller controllers out there with Multiplex outputs sometimes sitting right along a DMX-512 output.

    When trying to answer some overwhelming questions such as, “What port do I plug into?”, or “How do I keep from ruining a fixture because multiplex puts current down the line?” follow this simple rule of thumb: if you are using like control with like dimmers, Multiplex is the way to go. If Multiplex is all your controller puts out and you want to control intelligent lights, you need to get a new controller.