Wi-fi Lighting

Independent Control of each Ballast

Among the recent improvements to the motherboard, one can notably name the ability to independently control each ballast within each projector. While most lighting fixtures use one ballast for every two tubes, (or a maximum of 4 ballasts for the T5 Classic 8 tubes), certain 145 cm-tube models use one ballast per tube. Apart from the traditional adjustment of light quantity, this innovation opens the door to a new type of adjustment: that of color temperature (by differentiating per ballast both daylight and tungsten tubes within each projector). Thus, one can easily correct an ambience evolving from 3200°K (tungsten tubes only) to 5500°K (daylight tubes only) without having to resort to using color filters.

Evolution Towards Other Sources

During the last Micro Salon 2008, Softlight demonstrated the possibility of using its motherboards and Wi-Fi program to control tungsten sources placed on rheostats controlled by a DMX signal. Lucioles (lamps created by Maluna) were spread out in the basement of the Femis Cinema School and controlled directly by the visitors using a PDA present on the stand. This evolution also allows one to foresee other applications, like, for example, turning on or off at a distance huge lighting sources placed alone and far away (on cranes or parallels) without having to pull huge lengths of cable between the ballast and the source.
Another timesaver for the installation of more precise lighting on a set.

Softlight’s Wi-Fi system has already been used for several feature films:
Largo Winch, DP, Denis Rouden AFC; head gaffer, Olivier Mandrin.

Extremely Simple Network Setup

With Wi-Fi, naturally there are no cables linking the projectors. Or the console. All the information travels “through the air” like a sort of continuous virtual message ready to be rectified if the need arises. One need simply turn on the projectors, then the one or more control computers. According to the number of lighting fixtures, one can choose, for example, a PDA (10 – 12 projectors maximum) or a MacBook laptop equipped with a more comfortable screen to view all the sources and adjust them. For hundreds of projectors, one could, for example, use a big screen computer as a “console” to view and memorize all the settings, while taking a hands-on adjustment approach on the set with a PDA (Mac and Windows compatible).
Obviously, the program allows one an infinite number of combinations (grouping lighting fixtures, ballasts, memory of the settings or configuration recall according to the effect desired…) The only limit being the variations of “live” light during a take, which are not 100% reliable (nothing replaces cables and DMX for that) and the fact that one can only adjust one projector (or group of projectors) at a time with the mouse (or stylus).