An event in July, hosted jointly by NZCS platinum sponsors ARRI and Xytech Technologies, featured a master class in ARRI SkyPanel cutting edge LED technology.

An event in July, hosted jointly by NZCS platinum sponsors ARRI and Xytech Technologies, featured a master class in ARRI SkyPanel cutting edge LED technology.

US-based ARRI SkyPanel Product Manager Mike Wagner went into the theory and practicalities of how to exploit the new technology for maximum lighting control, and save time.

Although the SkyPanel is not itself new, Wagner explained that they are essentially computers with LED engines attached, so software updates like the recent firmware V3.0 add significant functionality.  For example, firmware V3.0 introduced convincing effects like lightning, cop cars, and paparazzi effects all of which are easily altered and cued.

Wagner ran through and demonstrated impressive control and communications built into the fixtures,  saving the best for last. 

In the source matching demo he took a simple household compact fluorescent lamp - notoriously hard to colour match - pointed a hand held spectrometer at it, loaded two CIE colour space coordinates into the fixture for a perfect match. The whole process took all of 30 seconds. For fun, he repeated the process with a rose coloured gel on the compact fluorescent lamp.

After Wagner’s demonstrations, Xytech’s Stephen Prior surprised the audience by noting hundreds of SkyPanels within Xytech inventory, a build-up that started with Ghost in the Shell.

The evening was capped off with leading gaffer Sean O’Neill relating the story of how much his thinking has changed and advanced since his attendance at ARRI’s lighting symposium held earlier this year near Munich.