These things are still in use, but tend to be used in smaller theatres where they allow a single light to project several different colours. In this era of LED they are being used less and less. This video shows an existing gel roll being refitted into a scroller after it had been cleaned, and how it is loaded and then goes through its calibration and settling of the new scroll.
The scrolling gel system is also used in some discharge lights, sometimes with scrolls of HUGE sheets of gel which run in guide rails.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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The scrolling gel system is also used in some discharge lights, sometimes with scrolls of HUGE sheets of gel which run in guide rails.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
i remember them from all the shows i went to. great times!
There are times I wish I had had one of those, rather than running up a ladder between acts to change gels.
PHWARRR. ……🐻
I see a chamsys in the background
It's funny that a technology that would have been a HUGE step-up as compared to what we had back in my high school theatre class (late '70's/early '80's) is becoming obsolete. This proves 2 things… my H.S. had really old technology AND… I'm really getting old!! 😉 lol
I know some scrollers will move the gel back and forth to help it last longer though that is usually on strobes.
gels are preferable if you want to have nice colours in your venue. A red LED will just emit a few wavelengths; a high CRI light with the right red gel in front of it will have a rich light spectrum biased towards red; makes things look much better.
Really cool!
When I was a kid we had a silver Christmas tree with a spot light that had a multicolored wheel that basically did the same thing. That was long ago.
This takes me back to my primary job in college, working in the theater lighting department. Those old Apollo scrollers were terrifyingly slow to load when I started because the process involved clear packing tape, and Goo Gone to get the adhesive residue off. A couple years in we got a dedicated master electrician who convinced the A/V supervisor that we should just use gaff tape. It must have cut our scroll changing time by at least 60%, and as a bonus we didn't leave work with fingers smelling of citrus and chemicals.
But for the whole time I was there, we rolled scrolls without power, by hand. Doesn't look like your scrollers have easily removable drums, Clive. We took ours out, so it was probably faster than dealing with controls to power wind them. I do wish our scrollers had better calibration, though. They'd usually require updating the color positions in the console every day or two during a run because they'd drift.
Last I heard, they got LED fixtures literally right after I graduated, so my senior year was probably the last season anyone had to deal with gel scrolls again there. End of an era, but I'm sure the faculty directors won't miss the scroller fan noise during shows…
I designed a theatre show recently with 22 of those scrollers, rainbow 8" pro I believe. it takes an age to get them all loaded, calibrated and addressed but it is somewhat cheaper than replacing the entire rig with LED that isn't quite there yet
we used to have those with a metal strip as a endstop so the tape would not be stressed so much
Clive. You have the knowledge I wish I had but I just don't. Have you ever thought about Building and designing guitar effects pedals? I'd love to but I just don't have the electronics knowledge. I think a project like this would be right up your alley.
I would say it works on pulse counting stepper output linked with current sensing for end stops, It can generate surprisingly accurate positioning.
Hey do you think you help me on better understanding an American plug, like why one prong is slightly larger or why they have a hole in both prongs?