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MiT Announces Industry-First 1000:1 Dimmable LED Fixture
Fountain Valley, California—Apr 9, 2015
Moving iMage Technologies Announces Industry-First 1000:1 Dimmable LED Light Fixture
Moving iMage Technologies, a premier manufacturer in the cinema exhibition industry announced the release of a new 8" round downlight fixture that sets a new bar for performance in this industry. The device is part of their energy-efficient product line and is called the "ALF", for Architectural LED Fixture. The preeminent feature of the product is an unprecedented dimming range of over 1000 to 1 from full on to its dimmest stable light level.
This performance was achieved through the development of a proprietary driver circuit design, specifically optimized for use in cinema auditoriums. This is in contrast to the off-the-shelf driver solutions used by other lighting manufacturers.
"About one year ago we launched a new intelligent dimmer product aimed at LED fixtures called the A-LMS, but we found out pretty quickly the state of LED fixtures really hadn't developed the features needed for use in cinema theaters," said David Richards, Sr. VP of Engineering at MiT. "For use in a cinema auditorium you need very accurate, stable dimming to extremely low levels," he added.
"Many people are trying to use fixtures in theaters that only dim to 10%, which is completely inadequate in this application," said Richards. "Several 1% dimming LED drivers are available by special order but still aren't really sufficient in this unique application."
The lack of adequate products for cinema auditoriums led MiT to develop the ALF over the last several months. Besides the industry-first 1000:1 dimming range, the other features of the fixture are:
1.0-10V DC control.
Two models available in the series, 70 Watts with 6000 lumens and 90 Watts with 8000 lumens output.
UL-rated power supply may be located in the projection booth for easy service.
All interconnection wiring is low voltage
Every ALF fixture consists of multiple LED modules for sufficient light output and also redundancy. Since there are multiple elements the decision was made to keep them separate through the driver circuitry to create even more variety in control options, and make each fixture essentially two fixtures in one.
For example one channel can use a warm color temperature LED that simulates the appearance of incandescent light, and be dimmed over various levels while an audience is present. The other channel of the fixture might use intense bright white LEDs and only used between shows by the cleaning crew.
A characteristic of LED lighting is that the color temperature remains constant as the fixture output is dimmed. This is in contrast to incandescent lighting which gradually becomes warmer as the light level is dimmed. Another version of the ALF simulates this effect by using LED elements with a slight color temperature difference between the two channels, and in conjunction with the A-LMS (or similar lighting controller), the dim rates may be adjusted to make the color temperature of the light seem to get warmer as it gets dimmer, emulating the appearance of an incandescent lamp. Richards says, "we call this feature 'Dim-Warm™.'"
Or the two lighting channels of the ALF may be used for more extreme color differences for special lighting effects. A variant of the ALF called the "Earth-light™" consists of a central yellow LED module surrounded by bluish LED modules. The overall effect simulates the yellow light of the sun with blue skylight filling in around it. It's intended to give the sensation of being outdoors under natural sunlight.