Photon Beard Announce CABSAT Preview

Photon Beard, a leading specialist manufacturer of lighting equipment, has announced that they will showcase Wi-Light, a new low-cost concept for studio lighting system control at CABSAT 2011.
Despite the ubiquity of wireless communications devices in everyday applications, the lighting industry continues to use multiple, wired data links to carry the universal DMX512 stage lighting and effects control standard.
This is suitable for conventional incandescent lighting, but many of the new generation of efficient, low-heat lighting fixtures work best with a direct, wireless control connection.
Photon Beard's Wi-Light system is designed as a low-cost, easy-to-install add-on to the DMX-controlled series of Photon Beard Highlight fluorescents, but can also be used to control a mixture of fluorescent and incandescent lighting systems.
This approach is not only cost-effective, it reduces or in some cases eliminates the need for traditional wired DMX-controlled systems, which are time-consuming and messy because of multiple cable requirements for each luminaire.
Wi-Light consists of one master transmit/receive module, which can be located at studio floor level; and individual receive modules or dongles added to each light source or dimmer. The master unit can also be configured as a receive for point-to-point links or as a repeater to cover wider areas. Transmitter range is generally 1-300 feet, but can be extended using repeaters.
The basic DMX512 standard sends data continuously even when nothing has changed. Wi-Light transmits only the data that has changed using a special protocol designed to make best use of wireless control in a lighting application.
Each Wi-Light unit contains a unique identity that is added to all transmissions. To close the network and eliminate interference, each receiver can be set to respond to only one transmitter.
(KMcA/GK)