“Throughout our history, RC4 has worked closely with Disney, Cirque du Soleil, and many others, to meet the ever changing needs of the most creative live entertainment artists of our time,” states James David Smith, president and chief product designer for the company. Like LED tape before it, intelligent pixel products have become the new product taking the industry by storm, and pixel control is something RC4 has been asked for many times.
“While developing our tiny, portable pixel driver, I encountered the very real challenges in dealing with long lengths of pixel tape: enormous numbers of DMX channels needed, unsightly variations in color, and numerous different and emerging data formats,” continues Smith. “I have addressed all three in ways that are easy to use and future-friendly as new advances appear in this evolving field. It is truly an honor to see these efforts recognized with our latest PLASA Award for Innovation.”
Patent-pending RC4 Custom Pixel Profiles conserve channels by letting designers create their own effect “key frames” using any desired length of pixels, group multiple LEDs into larger “virtual pixels” if desired, and then tailor how the key frame propagates down the pixel chain without needing additional DMX channels to do so. The matchbox-sized RC4Magic DMXpix does all of this for two separate strings up to 500 pixels long — the equivalent of 3000 DMX channels — controlled with anywhere from 9 to 510 channels within a single DMX universe, rendering the same eye-catching effects and visuals that previously demanded complex consoles, media servers, and vastly more wiring.
Patent-pending RC4 ColorMatch allows lighting designers and console operators to visually adjust white-balance for individual strings, then save the corrective offsets in the pixel driver itself. This allows multiple pixel strings of different types to be controlled with the same DMX channels and render nearly identical color for the most pleasing appearance possible.
And the icing on the cake: the RC4 CodeLoader, introduced with RC4Magic Series 3 in 2014 — and winner of a PLASA Award for Innovation in that year — makes it easy to add drivers for new string types as they appear, as well as update and add features. “As is the case for all RC4 Series 3 Harmonized Design devices,” explains Smith, “The DMXpix is a stable, powerful hardware platform with an estimated production life of 5 to 7 years. We are now focused on introducing new features over that time, ensuring every customer and user will get their money’s worth for years to come.”
PLASA London judges were wowed for the second year in a row, stating that, “Sometimes things are taken at face value because that’s ‘just the way it is’. This product, though, will make life much easier for many technicians as it solves the whole logistical problem in managing pixel control in long strings of LEDs. Regardless of the manufacturer of the LED string, this device will allow a significant reduction in channel count while still enabling individual LED control in all manner of applications, from architectural lighting to costumes.”
The award-winning RC4Magic DMXpix will debut in North America at the annual LDI Trade Show in Las Vegas. Come and see all the new innovations from RC4 in LDI booth 2211, October 23 – 25, 2015.
About RC4 Wireless
RC4 Wireless provides wireless lighting and motion technology for theatre, film, and television. From the gondola in The Phantom of the Opera, to wireless props and costumes in Cirque du Soleil productions around the world; from the heart of Iron Man, to illuminated color-changing guitars for Katy Perry; RC4 has been inside awe-inspiring entertainment for over 20 years.
RC4 Harmonized Design™ is at the core of the most versatile, reliable, small, and easy-to-use wireless dimmers in the world. With devices that are compatible with RC4Magic, Wireless Solution W-DMX, and LumenRadio CRMX, RC4 wireless dimmers fit and work wherever you need them, no matter what wireless system is on the job.
With customers large and small around the world — New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Tokyo, and beyond — RC4Magic is affordable, effective, and sold with a Lifetime Warranty.
Live Life Untethered.™
Learn more about RC4 products at dev.rc4wireless.com.
Discover the world of projects using RC4 technology at www.wirelessdimming.com.
About the PLASA Awards for Innovation
Every year, PLASA recognizes products that demonstrate progress, through attributes like a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, new technology, materials or techniques, or an improvement in safety. The Awards were assessed by a team of judges, which this year comprised of chairman James Eade, a long-time contributor to LSi magazine and an independent electrical safety consultant; Paul Franklin of theatre consultancy Charcoalblue; Steve Moles, another long-time LSi magazine contributor and a specialist in live entertainment production; lighting and set designer Ben Rogers; London-based visual designer Tupac Martir; Nick Read, an experienced lighting and electrical specialist from Howard Eaton Lighting; live sound engineer Jon Burton; Tapio Ilomaki, an acoustic consultant with Finland-based Akukon; EM Communications‘ Ed Manwaring; and Scott Burges of video solutions supplier Creative Technology.