When Andrew MacColl, Staging Connections’ Purchasing Officer, traveled to the Infocomm trade show in the United States earlier this year the product on top of his list to see was the Martin MAC 350 Entour™. The MAC 350 Entour™ is the entertainment lighting industry’s first LED alternative to traditional high intensity discharge (HID)-based profile fixtures.
Wondering if the MAC350 Entour™ would live up to the hype, Andrew soon realized that he wouldn’t be disappointed.
“We were so blown away by the MAC 350 Entour™ on show at Infocomm we decided to buy some then and there!” he declared. “We were so keen to see this product I believe we saw them before the guys from Show Technology had even got their hands on any! In fact we ended up giving Show Technology an order before they had taken delivery of any. They didn’t seem to mind! Actually, they asked us if they could keep a few of the first batch for demonstration purposes and we were fine with that.”
The MAC 350 Entour™ is a cutting edge LED profile fixture with no peers. It surpasses what has previously been possible in terms of brightness, efficiency and compactness in a hard edge LED fixture. It marks a radical advancement in light output and quality compared to other LED profiles on the market. Featuring proprietary LED technology, it is the market’s first real alternative to traditional HID-based profile fixtures.
The MAC 350 Entour™ is powerful and bright with the industry’s only big-chip LED architecture. Combine that with its energy-efficiency and the industry has an affordable and long-lasting alternative to HID-based fixtures still in wide use in touring and entertainment environments. Plus there are significant environmental benefits to using the MAC 350 Entour™.
“We were first attracted to them because of their LED lamps which have a source life of about 60,000 hours,” said Andrew. “It means that you don’t risk any downtime on a show due to a blown globe – in fact the lamp source will probably last longer than the mechanics of the fixture! Also, the previous comparable technology of moving lights used HID lamps and with these, over time the colour and the light output degrade considerably. The result was that you’d rig a heap of them for a show and some would be brighter than others, the colours wouldn’t match and there were all sorts of issues.”
Until now, profile lights have used traditional HID lamps that are costly to replace, contain mercury and have a life span of only 3,000 hours, necessitating frequent replacement.
As well as a fabulous maintenance proposition, the MAC 350 Entour™ offered Andrew great economics in that with a conventional fixture you’re drawing power all the time during a show where as the MAC350 only draws power when firing up.
“They’re not as heavy as the previous generation of similar technology yet for the size of them they’re very bright. It’s a big win all round. It’s a really good product for what we do and it has garnered universal approval from our guys.”
Ashley Gabriel, General Manager for Staging Connections South Australia and Northern Territories, was one of the first to use the MAC350 Entour™ on an event.
“The MAC 350 Entour™ is awesome,” he remarked. “They have been brilliant and our guys have loved their brightness in fact they’re brighter than our MAC500’s. Not only are they light and easy to use, their gobo range is simple but effective plus they are really nice and crisp. You also get really nice beams and colours out of them.”
The crew from Staging Connections Adelaide has commented on how nice, small, quick and easy to use the MAC 350 Entours™ are. According to Ashley they are very punchy and can hold their own in an entertainment centre environment against a MAC700.
“We want to get some more!” he concluded.
Rocco Anzellotti, Staging Connections’ chief lighting director in Sydney, is as equally enamored by the MAC 350 Entour™ praising their clear and sharp gobos as well as the variety on offer, light weight, good indexing, low power draw, ease of programming and their amazing punch.
To date Staging Connections has purchased thirty-six MAC 350 Entours™ for use in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Adelaide.
“We haven’t purchased any for Perth yet but I’m sure we will,” stated Andrew MacColl.
Photos
Wine of the Year event at the Intercontinental Adelaide.
Printing Industries Association Australia event at the Hilton Adelaide.
Nu-skin cosmetics function at Star City Casino, Sydney.
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