Vari-Lite, the originators of the modern moving head light fixture and Signify entertainment lighting brand, have launched the VLHive 151 Digital FX – the world’s first all-digital entertainment lighting fixture. This next-generation luminaire, designed and manufactured at Vari-Lite’s Dallas, Texas, USA factory, includes a digital light engine, with 45,000 lumens of output and pixel-level control.

“While trendy new direct-view fixtures come and go every couple of years, core entertainment lighting fixtures have remained largely the same for decades,” says Martin Palmer, Vari-Lite Marketing and Product Management Leader at Signify. “LEDs have replaced lamps and additive color mixing has gained popularity, but the basic concept of shaping light using layered pieces of metal and glass remains. Because of this, there is a fundamental limitation to the looks possible in these fixtures because of the physical limitations inside the luminaire. VLHive is designed to change that.”

The VLHive’s 151-emitter LED array offers a variety of digital effects, including 360° rotating digital shutters, full-close digital iris, and a library of built-in digital gobos and multichromatic animations. Users can even create their own shapes and animations using the HiveCreator software tool. The VLHive 151’s exclusive, patented technology gives designers an endless range of unique effects, including effect smoothing, polar positioning, transition effects, and gobo keystoning—all of which can be controlled on the fly by standard DMX. And thanks to unique Vari*glass technology, designers can convert the large 12” front lens to a frosted projection surface at the press of a button, switching seamlessly from mid-air effects to direct-view animations on the fixture’s face.

Palmer explains, “The goal of VLHive is to foster better collaboration between lighting, video, and creative teams while remaining, at its heart, a light fixture. Video has seen a huge rise in production design in the past decade, and modern entertainment lighting needs to incorporate animated elements that align with these looks. At the same time, designers need to control and configure the fixtures dynamically using standard consoles and other lighting tools. In short, lighting designers need a fixture that allows them to work better with the rest of the design team, while retaining the qualities that make lighting unique amongst the rest of the stage design.”

The IP65-rated luminaire features an RGBL additive color mixing engine that provides a wide range of colors, from soft pastels to vibrant saturated hues. To improve the output and colors, the VLHive boasts exclusive technologies, such as SmartColor+ and FluxBoost®. SmartColor+ is an updated version of Vari-Lite’s color control solution for multichromatic engines that allows designers to select the perfect balance of output and CRI for their application while achieving the best-looking colors possible using familiar CMY color mixing control. And thanks to FluxBoost technology, designers get more output across the color spectrum, along with more saturation and more consistent light quality. This intelligent algorithm maximizes the output of enabled channels in multichromatic LED luminaires, for better power utilization and lumen output, whether you’re using a deep red or a cool white.