The Birth of the Beam

In the past few years there has been one dominant image in all the ‘big lighting’ shows: beams. While dominant beams of light have been around since long before the first use of aircraft landing lights (ACLs) on a stage show (rumour has it that it was a Little Feat tour around 1973, but like most things from that period, details are foggy), recent times have seen beams taken to a new level of brightness and versatility. This trend in lighting design has primarily been driven through the development of a new class of fixture, and by one company in particular that introduced this new breed of beamlight into its range, to be followed swiftly afterward by many others.

According to Davide Barbetta, Clay Paky’s marketing production manager, the Italian luminaire manufacturer, was hoping there might be a market among contemporary lighting designers for this classic rock ’n’ roll effect and, decided to rethink the ACL and recast it in a modern role. This was how the modern Beam was born.

You only need to look at the gear list from events like Eurovision or any of the large, televised award ceremonies or arena and stadium touring acts, to get an idea of just how popular these luminaires have become. We have seen moving lights in the past that were designed to shine as a moving beam fixture, but none that combined the bright near-parallel beam output with the effects like gobos, prisms and frost. The main advantage of these fixtures is their concentrated ray of light through atmospheric effects such as haze and fog coupled with the ability to move it rapidly in mid-air to create ‘aerial effects’. These beam lights have further highlighted the need for good haze coverage throughout a venue, but that’s a topic for another day.

FIRST GLIMPSES OF THE BEAM

In 2007, off the back of the popularity of their Alpha range of moving heads, Clay Paky started to develop a new type of moving head: the Beam. This meant Clay Paky had to rethink optics which needed to be fundamentally different from any previously conceived for spots or wash lights — while still using the same light source. The team at Clay Paky knew that to achieve this ‘ACL’ type of beam they had to concentrate as much light into creating a thick, ‘almost solid’ shaft of light coming off the lens. The first fixture of this type to be developed was the Alpha 300 Beam, which first saw the light of day at the Italian ShoW-Way production technology show in June 2008. While the 300 beam didn’t take off here in Australia, it certainly had industry tongues wagging with its 8° beam angle producing a tube of light that rivalled the intensity of 1200W profile or spot movers. Clay Paky obviously knew that they were onto a winning formula because they were already five months into the development of the Alpha Beam 1500 which launched in September 2008 at the PLASA show in the UK. If people thought the 300 put out a powerful beam, the 1500 was in a whole new league, blowing away 4kW fixtures in shootouts.

By the time PLASA 2008 had wrapped up, the other lighting manufacturers were certainly paying attention to what the Italians were up to. The 1500 Beam was followed up with the launch of the Alpha Beam 700 in Germany at Prolight & Sound in April 2009. Unbeknownst to everyone, the best was still to come. While designers and production companies were still getting used to these new weapons in their design arsenal, the boffins at Clay Paky had meanwhile started work in January 2010 with the new 189W MSD Platinum 5R from Philips, an extremely short arc lamp with an integrated reflector. This development was to become one the biggest leaps forward in lighting technology since LEDs, and turned out to be the next ‘must-have’ fixture.