What is there to say, we often revolve around a select few manufacturers that we most often see on projects or in social media. At the same time, we forget about those who revolutionized the stage lighting market in their "light" years.
Because who among us doesn't remember the iconic JBLED A7 Wash? If you don't remember, you're too young and not interested in the history of the industry you work in, or you're not too young and not interested either, and that's very ugly! By the way, until quite recently the A7'demek set was hanging in Krakow's Żaczek club. If it is still there then give a sign!
General view
To the point, today I'd like to introduce you to an alternative to the brands we talk about non-stop in the "I'll close your eyes!" category. Because that's exactly what the M18 Profile can do, based on an LED chip having RGBYA color mixing and power as much as 1200W!
This is a device that people in the theater or television will definitely appreciate, not necessarily renters because of its size 475x755x307(SxWxG) and ultra-compact weight (I'm not lying, it says so on the brochure), only 32kg!
Optics and effects
As we've laughed at the brochure let's get down to the specifics, which is certainly the optics. The device, of course, has a motorized zoom with a range of 6.5° to 54°, which gives quite a lot of scope for use. As befits a new profile we get a system of framing knives in number - four. Of course, each frame rotates +/- 30°, and in addition we have the ability to rotate the entire module +/- 65° (a total of 130° as something). Finally, I'll mention that we'll also find a motorized focus with an autofocus option.
As for the effects, the list is so long that you wouldn't read it anyway so I'll focus on the most important ones. First of all, two gobo dials, classically indexed and rotating, but! Both dials with JB Slide-IN Technology, a kind of system from JB-Lighting for simple and quick replacement or cleaning of gobos.
Also worth noting are two frost filters, one for Soft Edge and the other for Flood Edge. To put it in peasant terms, the former is for soft edge blurring, and the latter is the kind of strong one, as if you wanted to make a washa for yourself. Later, classically, we have two prisms, one 3-frame circular, 5-frame linear, to which we add an animation dial, water, fire, you know... Finally, iris and imminently we enter the colors.
Color race
And here's where it gets interesting, because as you can see lately there's a battle among the major manufacturers in the color mixing system for the cup of being the best - for example, we wrote about Elation and their system here - JB-Lightning seems to be taking part in this race, like a white horse marching through the Podlasie steppes presenting RGBYA and a chip with the ability to adjust lilac white from 2000K to 20,000K, with 3200K giving us a CRI of 97 and a pretty wide color spectrum.
Below is the photometric data from the UPRtek MK350S Premium, which I can't afford, but I got a table for free from the manufacturer.
Summary
And just like this white horse we are marching towards the conclusion of our tour. The device offers a great deal of possibilities if one has the time to work precisely with color and cares about it.
It is not one of the compact ones, but I think it will find its audience among professionals working on large and demanding productions and in places where we have time to prepare the show in detail. Finally, I'll just mention that the declared operating volume of the device is 28dB, I don't know if this is possible, because at my home I have more with the windows closed.
For more information, of course, I refer to the distributor and manufacturer. And I wish myself to work on this device someday. Here you have the distributor's page with this device - click it.
Manufacturer: JB-LightingDistributor: P.S. Theater.
