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Jon Edward Miller

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Everything posted by Jon Edward Miller

  1. Freddie, The bumblebees are designed to stack, they can sit on top of each other or on the floor safely or in a truck or shelves. The idea was to make them easy to stack and transport on a cart or lift etc. The other ease of use I forgot to mention is they are designed to fit inside 2K bags even though they give 6K output, so they are much smaller in circumference then you're standard 6K spacelights. Finally just cause I like to think we Californians can lift anything you boys from Oz can lift, for the record 100ft of socapex for one 6k mole space light weighs in at 60lbs (27.2 Kg) or almost 2 Hive Bumblebees. But in the spirit of Pacific friendship let's agree that both my Bumblebee and socapex are light weight! Cheers, Jon Edward Miller Director of Photography www.jonedwardmiller.com
  2. Freddie, Another good point. While Plasma is hot restrike, you don't need to wait after unplugging for the system to cool to plug right back in, but they are not instant restrike. Plasma emitters will take up to 2 minutes to hot restrike, and average 80 seconds. Certainly this is not ideal, and as a cinematographer I understand the stress that can come from somebody kicking our your power chord and then having to wait 2 minutes that may feel like an eternity for the light to turn on while the cast and crew stare at you. Having said that, compared to the time required to replace a bulb in an HMI when it pops or find and switch a breaker when the high wattage of a tungsten overdraws a circuit etc or the dozen or so other ways in which our lights can fail us on a set, I would consider it manageable. Of course that is a matter of opinion and I like Plasma technology and also have started to develop a comfort level, with any new technology there are new challenges, its up to us as DPs, Gaffers, and electricians to decide what we can and can't live with. I can tell you that working on speeding up the restrike time is something that is going on with plasma manufacturers although there is no clear timeline that has been announced. Cheers, Jon Edward Miller Director of Photography www.jonedwardmiller.com
  3. Freddie, Great point! Yes a plasma spacelight is going to be heavier than a 6K tungsten, no question, there are RFdrivers (solid state electronics) and heat sinks (silent thermal transfer) aka lots more metal then your traditional spacelight, so more weight. In fact our Bumblebee comes in around 35 pounds. Having said that where you do save is the weight of rigging very heavy socapex, banded bates or 4awg cable to bring up 6,000watts of power to each light. With an 825 watt system the amount of cable is significantly less, at roughly 7lbs per foot of 4 Awg the weight of the reduced copper alone offsets the weight difference very quickly. Also with the long bulb life compared to 6 1K tungsten globes you are saving a lot of hassle from constantly replacing bulbs. But with any new technology there are tradeoffs, we still believe the benefits of plasma greatly outweigh (excuse the pun) any downside. Cheers, Jon PS in case there is any confusion I want to repeat I am the co-founder of Hive Lighting which uses plasma emitters in our lamps, so I obviously believe in the technology, having said I aim to educate and answer questions honestly, also if you have any problem with any of our products, please dont' hesitate to tell us what went wrong or what we can improve. Jon Edward Miller Director of Photography www.jonedwardmiller.com
  4. Guy, Absolutely true, I am co-founder and creator of Hive Lighting. Sorry if there was any confusion, certainly wasn't trying to "pull a fast one". I assumed since my name is all over our website and I signed the post that was pretty clear but I apologize if that wasn't up front. In fact here is a video of me explaining more about Hive and Plasma lighting: http://wideopencamera.com/cine-gear-...hive-lighting/ so you can all put a face to my name. I started Hive because of the potential I think plasma has for film and television, so I am excited to see the conversation on these forums as the word gets out. . Cheers, Jon Edward Miller Director of Photography www.jonedwardmiller.com
  5. Guy, Thanks for this post! Some great info on Plasma lighting. Have you had a chance to check out Hive Lighting's ( www.hivelighting.com ) new lamp heads. Hive debuted part of its product line at CineGear 2011 in LA. Here is the info on Hive's fresnel head the HORNET 180 http://www.hivelighting.com/PDFs/Hornet180Fresnel.pdf. A pretty different form factor than either the Helio or Photon Beard's Nova, the hexagon shaped housing is designed to link together. Also Hive has a spacelight model which may be of interest to you as well, the BUMBLEBEE 540 http://hivelighting.com/PDFs/BumbleBee540Spacelight.pdf uses 3 emitters and gives the equivalent output of a 6,000W tungsten spacelight. There is a write up on Hive Lightings booth here: http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/Awilt/story/cine_gear_expo_la_2011/ as well as SeaChangers theatrical lamp and Multiquips fuel cell light tower. I agree with you on the potential for Plasma and on the overblown lamp life that is being promoted by the bulb manufacturers. I recommend no more than a 10,000 hour bulb life expectation since the .08 degree color shift over those 10,000 hours will take the bulb from the 5300K to 6100K which keeps it in the usable daylight range during that period for film and television production. But at the 20,000 or 30,000 range the loss of output and color shift just aren't practical. Jon Edward Miller Director of Photography www.jonedwardmiller.com
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