www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • November 2008
about gobo and color replacement.
Martin has done a very neat job here by
providing a tool-free access hatch.
Figure 9 shows you what happens: Lift a
small flap on the side of the unit and you
get direct access to both wheels. There
is a sensor to tell if the hatch has been
opened and, if the unit is powered up
when you open it, movement will stop so
you don’t have to chase them round.
Even neater, you can use the flap sensor
as a control—closing and opening the
flap quickly causes the unit to increment
through the gobos and colors so, by
flapping it up and down a few times, you
can get the gobo or color you want to
change lined up with the access point.
After you’ve changed out the gobo or
color, close the hatch again and the unit
will re-home those two wheels. It’s a very
elegant system.
Figure 10 shows you the view into the
hatch—the gobos are easily accessed
and removed, as can be seen in Figure
11; however, the gap to get your fingers
in to grasp the colors is pretty small and,
in the user manual, Martin suggests using
a padded pair of pliers to grab them.
If you need more unrestricted access
for gobo change or cleaning, then the
front cover is easily removed by
unlocking four quarter-turn fasteners and
sliding it off. This reveals the whole
system in its glory, as shown in Figure 12.
Lenses and output
The smartMAC has a pretty simple
optical system—a single fixed focal
length lens group with one motor to
move it back and forth to provide focus
control. End-to-end movement for this
focus motor was 3.4 seconds (Fig. 13).
Measured output using the open
aperture was 2,700 lumens, with a field
angle of 24.6° (Fig. 14). As mentioned
earlier, the output was a little peaky but
perfectly acceptable. The center-beam
focus quality was excellent, with almost
no color fringing or other noticeable
aberrations. The only slight flaw I noted
was some slight center/edge-focus
difference, but this is not at all
unexpected for a single group system
with such a large (relatively speaking)
light source. The output could probably
be tweaked a little higher by adjusting the
lamp carefully—however, I always try and
measure the units “as shipped,” to reflect
what most users will see in the field.
You can also fit an optional diffuser to
the front of the smartMAC to turn it into
a wash light. Figure 15 shows the
standard front cover on the left and one
fitted with the diffuser on the right.
Pan and tilt
The smartMAC has a measured pan and
tilt range of 600° and 260°, respectively.
Movement speed was good, with a full
range pan move taking five seconds, and
a more typical 180° move 2.8 seconds.
For tilt, the figures were 3.3 seconds for
the full range and 2.6 seconds for 180°.
Movement on both pan and tilt was
extremely smooth, and the slow speed
movement was some of the best I’ve
seen, with no visible glitches even when
doing an ultra-slow 15-minute move—
that lightweight unit helps here, I’m sure.
Martin has also done a good job with
hysteresis with positional repeatability
accuracy for both pan and tilt at 0.09° or
around 0.35" at a 20' throw. Settling
bounce and wobble is also minimal and
very acceptable.
Noise
With no cooling fans, this is where the
smartMAC excels. To the accuracy of my
measuring instruments (35dbA), the unit
was essentially silent when stationary. I
could just hear a slight hum from the
power supplies, but it was below the
threshold of my meter. You’d need an
anechoic chamber and a very good
sound meter to measure this unit!
Fig.12: System overview.
Fig.13: Lens.
Fig. 14: Output.
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