# High End releases the DL3



## soundlight (Feb 20, 2008)

High End seems to be specializing in really, really expensive stuff recently. First the DL1 and DL2, then the Showgun, now the DL3. 6500 Lumens, 2000:1 contrast. Loads of input features. Centered around an Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor with an ATI HD2900 Graphics Processor


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## porkchop (Feb 21, 2008)

Intel precessor and ATI graphics, well atleast you know High End isn't taking any favorites in the computer business. 

Admittedly I am a bit of a High End fanboy, need to find a way to LDI to see some of this stuff, that or find a REALLY killer summer gig.


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## TimMiller (Feb 21, 2008)

for any of yall wondering what the price tag is $55k and the projector is a 6500 lumen. Friend of mine said they can keep the DL3's he's staying with his DL2's... We are still waiting for them to come out with a 10 or 12k projector


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## len (Feb 21, 2008)

I guess they don't want the low end of the lighting market like Chauvet, ADJ, and the 9 billion other Pacific Rim manufacturers. Leave the mid-priced stuff to Martin, Vari, CP, Coemar, etc., and just specialize in one end of the market. The Studio Command was out in 2005 or so, and that's really the last thing they released besides a DL product. 

Robe makes a projector similar to the DL1 (or is it the DL2?), but it's not available in the U.S. due to patent restrictions. I believe Robe has licensed some of the technology from HES.


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## TimMiller (Feb 21, 2008)

Yes robe does have a very nice moving head projector. Highend is not the first company to come up with a system like a DL2. A company came out with one back in 98 if my memory serves me correctly.


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## DarSax (Feb 21, 2008)

Are you talking about the Icon M? From the LDI video I dug up on YouTube, that looked like an awesome idea as a bridge between a full-fledged projector/DL2 and a moving light (as far as, hopefuly being much cheaper than an all out DL.2)

Barco came out with another similar product recently, too--the DML-1200.


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## soundlight (Feb 21, 2008)

Then again, the Icon M is always described as "ill-fated".


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## DarSax (Feb 21, 2008)

Well, yes. I even think that's in the description of the youtubes video. Oh well.


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## soundlight (Feb 21, 2008)

For those oblivious souls who are too lazy to go look up the video, here's the link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=k4MaZoUw4GA


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## derekleffew (Feb 21, 2008)

As with many potential innovations in our industry, the Icon M suffered and eventually died due to lack of funds. LSD did not have the capital necessary to further advance the product, or it would have been huge! Its name would have been up in lights on Broadway! Oh wait, its name would have been up in itself on Broadway! The production run was only about 20 units and they were too dim to be useful. I saw them on the Shakira tour in 2000. The extant units, now owned by PRG, belong in a lighting museum somewhere. 

As for bright video projectors, I never understood why the "moving mirror on the lens" concept never became more popular. 

As for High End Systems' marketing strategy, look at the name of the company! Why compete with global manufacturers building CMY and rotating gobo moving heads?


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## Footer (Feb 21, 2008)

Also, people are buying them, and renting them. You can afford to spend 5-10k a week rental when you are saving a huge amount in scenery construction and settup time. In my mind, HES is leaving the profile/wash fixture game behind and focusing their energy on control products on large technology pieces. They have some of the best controls and media servers out there.


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## derekleffew (Feb 21, 2008)

Footer4321 said:


> ...In my mind, HES is leaving the profile/wash fixture game behind and focusing their energy on control products on large technology pieces. They have some of the best controls and media servers out there.


Yeah, except for the Hog3 (family).


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## len (Feb 21, 2008)

No argument here. There are Bentleys, and Mercedes, and Hyundai. All serve their niche. As for the icon, I would guess that part of the problem is the size of the desk (and I mean desk) needed to run it. IIRC, it was proprietary technology also. That might have been part of its downfall.


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## TimMiller (Feb 21, 2008)

Yep thats it, it was the icon. It was way too advanced for its time.


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## tgates (Feb 21, 2008)

The Barco has some neat features. The way color works in single chip DLP video projectors is by using a spinning color wheel. So if you want the color blue, that pixel is shut off while the wheel is in red and green positions and on when it's it blue. What that means is, you lose 1/3 of the blue light you actually have available because it can only use one color at a time.

What the DML-2000 does is, when you are not doing color video, is allow you to take the color wheel out of the beam path and use a separate CMY mixing system to mix the image in a single color, so you get ALL the light you have available. 

I think it's exciting stuff. In another decade modern moving lights are going to look like Victorian clockwork curiosities. I'd love to land a job where I could get my hands on it. Of course. right now the DML-2000 is supposed to be rather huge, and I have no idea how much they even cost, so, we can only wait and see how and by who it all pans out in the industry.


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## Kelite (Feb 28, 2008)

TimMiller said:


> Yes robe does have a very nice moving head projector. Highend is not the first company to come up with a system like a DL2. A company came out with one back in 98 if my memory serves me correctly.




Sorry to be so late to the party gang, but I remember seeing a moving head video projection device from Lampo at the 1999 PLASA tradeshow. Very cool for it's time and fairly bright too. No idea why it was not distributed in the US though....


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## tomed101 (Feb 29, 2008)

derekleffew said:


> As for bright video projectors, I never understood why the "moving mirror on the lens" concept never became more popular.



Is there any reason why you couldn't stick an I-Cue on the lens? I am assuming that there would be plenty of keystone issues here...


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## icewolf08 (Feb 29, 2008)

tomed101 said:


> Is there any reason why you couldn't stick an I-Cue on the lens? I am assuming that there would be plenty of keystone issues here...


It isn't the mirror that causes the keystone issues, it is the angle of incidence of the light from the projector hitting the surface. A moving projector or a projector with a mirror would have the same keystone issues, biggest difference being that the one with the mirror you would need to flip the image on.


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## TimMiller (Feb 29, 2008)

Look at highends orbital head. Its a moving mirror head that goes onto the front of a projector.


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## Kelite (Feb 29, 2008)

TimMiller said:


> Look at highends orbital head. Its a moving mirror head that goes onto the front of a projector.




Yes, from our friends at WWG-


http://www.wwg.co.uk/prod-beam.htm


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## derekleffew (Feb 29, 2008)

Kelite said:


> Yes, from our friends at WWG-
> 
> 
> http://www.wwg.co.uk/prod-beam.htm


Did anyone ever tell WWG that the name "Beam Bender" has been in use by CityTheatrical since the late 1980s?


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## Kelite (Feb 29, 2008)

Uh, I didn't want to meddle....


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## derekleffew (Jun 6, 2008)

HES has announced that the DL.2 and IPC will be discontinued in July. The DL.2's projector has been discontinued. As for the IPC, I think they just want to eliminate any trace of the HogII.


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