LED lighting brand, Chroma-Q® recently held summer BBQ & open day events to celebrate with the industry reaching its 15th year in LED technology.

Held at the Northern and Southern offices of the brand’s UK dealer, A.C. Entertainment Technologies, the informal gatherings were an opportunity for Chroma-Q users new and old – including lighting designers, specifiers, rental production companies and venues – to share product experience stories and gets hands-on with the latest fixtures. The sociable atmosphere was enhanced by the sipping of many G&Ts and tucking into a delicious BBQ which, with gazebos ready on standby, definitely wasn’t going to be spoiled by the typically unpredictable British summer weather!

With the event focusing on Chroma-Q’s 15 years as a producer of award-winning LED lighting innovations for the entertainment, film & TV and architectural markets, it was a chance to reflect on the how the technology as a whole has developed and re-shaped the industry since it arrived around the turn of the millennium.

LED has come a long way since then. Performance and output have steadily improved to levels which are now comparable with their tungsten and HMI equivalents. Yet over and above offering greater energy efficiency and reliability, where LED has completely changed the game is in offering much greater creative flexibility.

Ian Muir, Film & TV Development Manager for AC-ET, who attended the event at the distributor’s head office in High Wycombe, commented: “LED has the potential to offer users much greater creative scope. If you look at a product like Chroma-Q’s Brute Force, at its core it is a more efficient alternative to the traditional quarter Wendy light, with comparable output. However, unlike a Wendy, it also offers tuneable whites and saturated colour, with the additional potential to display low resolution graphics.”

Over the past 15 years, Chroma-Q has been developing and refining its proprietary LED technologies at its facility in North America. Initially focused on the stage & live events markets, big successes have included the modular Color Block DB4™, and the Color Force™ cyc, wash and effects light. In recent years the brand has shifted some of its focus towards film & broadcast, introducing well-received products such as the Space Force™ soft light, Studio Force II™ studio light, and the aforementioned Brute Force™.

What’s interesting is how these recent products have also crossed over into other totally different markets.

Jonathan Walters, UK Sales & Purchasing Director for AC-ET, who attended the Northern event at the company’s offices in Leeds, commented: “Chroma-Q’s Space Force fixture was originally designed as an alternative for the traditional space light in film studios, but its performance as a tuneable soft light has seen it adopted by TV and photographic studios, fashion shows, hospitality events, and even theatre and concert touring. The product’s all-round versatility has also led us to install them as high quality general lighting in our recently upgraded Leeds offices.”

Amongst the many products on demonstration, there was much interest in the new Space Force onebytwo™, a more compact version of the original model which recently launched at NAB.

The onebytwo and other current models feature proprietary homogenised optics, colour management and dimming technologies developed by and proprietary to, Chroma-Q.

Ian Muir commented: “I think one of the reasons Chroma-Q has been so successful is that it has focused on the quality of light output, to deliver a greater creative experience for customers. It is also focused on ensuring colour consistency between different LED engines in a fixture, or in different production batches, which can be an issue across some LED products.”

Also featured at the event was the brand’s Vista 3 by Chroma-Q® lighting & media control range of software and hardware solutions, which it launched last year subsequent to it acquiring the Vista brand.

AC-ET’s Northern event was also an opportunity for attendees to check out the entertainment technology distributor’s Leeds facilities, which recently underwent a major upgrade.

The company’s 6,000 square foot sales office and warehouse premises, and a 5,000 square foot adjacent warehouse used to house sales stock, were purpose-designed as a new single space. The redeveloped premises now accommodate a full height sales floor, numerous meeting rooms, a boardroom, a new training suite, and a full height demo facility.

Jonathan Walters, who set up the AC-ET North operation, commented: “Acquiring the adjacent building paved the way for us to completely redesign and upgrade the premises to a state-of-the-art facility, to meet the needs of our customers, suppliers and staff – both for today and well into the future.”

The new demo room and training suite facilities were used to fully demonstrate Chroma-Q’s LED product range. In addition, the facility showcased the Luminex range of ethernet networking products, which were recently the subject of fully-booked training sessions at AC-ET’s two offices.

Also featured was AC-ET’s in-house Tourflex Cabling® custom cable assembly service, and its new overmoulding and engraving services for its extensive range of power and data cable options.