Remote control mechanisms for changing color filters enable a single luminaire to provide different colored light in the course of a show, flexibly and efficiently. Most
remote control
mechanisms are versatile and can be attached to almost any luminaire.
Early mechanisms such as the
color wheel
, or the semaphore
color changer
, were limited in the number of colors they could hold. In recent years, these mechanisms have been replaced by color scrollers . Like the early mechanisms, scrollers are inserted into the luminaire's color frame runners.
Whisper color changers by Compulite.
A fresnel luminaire with a color whel by CCT.
A semaphoer magazine by CCT
A Mole luminaire with a
Whisper
scroller
by
Compulite.
The mechanism of the
scroller
is similar to that which rolls the film in an automatic camera. Using one or two motors, the
scroller
winds a scroll of filters of about four meters long, divided into eleven frames or more. The
scroller
is connected by
control signal
lines to the
control board
which controls the speed of scroll and the frame position. Scrolling between colors can be very fast and a full scroll from the first frame to the last frame can take as little as two seconds.
The simplest way to control scrollers is by running them through the theatre's regular
lighting control
board, dedicating a certain number of control channels for this purpose.
When using analogue control boards, different numeric values are allotted to different color frames so that the
potentiometer
connected to the
scroller
indicates and
A profile spot with a Whisper
scroller
by Compulit.
monitors the choice of color. For example, 10% on the intensity light
level
register could be equated with the color blue and 20% with the color red.
Digital control enables scrollers to be controlled by the same
lighting board
controlling the dimmers and/or the moving lights. Each
scroller
is given a specific numeric address which identifies the specific
scroller
to the control board. The board refers to the scrollers as channels, so that each
scroller
can be patched to the channel of the luminaire on which it is mounted. In this manner, the board operator can simultaneously control the intensity of the
lamp
and its color.
