JUNE 2010 IN
RICK ASTER’S WORLD
Blinking, moving, and shifting lights are about to take on a more prominent place in modern life, and here are two developments I didn’t see coming.
First: LED dance floor lights. As a musician, I’ve been waiting for the day when LED stage lights will become practical. LED stage lights promise to weigh about one tenth of the weight of current stage lights, so they could shave more than an hour off the time it takes to set up a show, or load out afterward.
As of 2010, only a few stage lights are bright enough in their LED configurations. You know those blue lights on the stage that help set a softer mood in the quieter parts of a rock set? They help cool off the stage too, and they’re cooler than they were already now that they’re done with LEDs. Some specialty lights are also done in LEDs. But it is still hard to make LEDs bright enough to serve as the the main floodlights, and LED spotlights are years away.
Dance floor lights don’t have to be so bright, though, so dance floor lights are making the transition to LED ahead of stage lights. There is another financial advantage for LED dance floor lights, especially now that it is summer. Dance floor lights are mostly installed by the same business managers who pay the electric bills, including the bills for air conditioning. Colored LED dance floor lights cost much less than last year, and at this point, may pay for themselves in lower electricity bills in about two years. And they cost so little that you could put them in your own living room or dorm room. I think the dance floor lights could be as big in college dorms in August as the swine flu was last year. Here is a video of one new LED dance floor light from American DJ:
Second: Rear-projection laser television. Prysm is gearing up to launch a rear-projection television it calls LPD that uses laser-printer components to make a large-format high-definition television screen. Blue lasers reflect off moving mirrors to hit phosphors on the back of the screen. Phosphors are the same color screen technology that was used in the 20th-century cathode ray tube (CRT) video screens. In theory, at least, there is no limit to how bright such a screen could be, as the brightness can be increased by adding more lasers.
Prysm claims the technology is already cost-competitive in retail settings, and it says it is ready to move into home theater. Its initial offering won’t be the largest screen available, but should draw customers with its lower power consumption, 165° viewing angle, faster refresh, and larger color gamut. While the video industry has been discussing the technology race among LCD, LED, and plasma, Prysm describes laser-phosphor technology as “the next step in the evolution of large format displays”:
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