Fos / 4 ETC, the only full color LED panel

The only full color LED panel for lighting in film and television

The American manufacturer Electronic Theater Controls (ETC) Technological benchmark in professional lighting and control, we were surprised at the beginning of this year with a revolutionary LED panel essential for the lighting of your film and television project.

With the advancement of the de-escalation phases in the Spanish territory, filming and studio recordings have been activated. It is time to recover the time that has kept an entire society on hiatus. Do you have a demanding film project to carry out? Are you thinking of renewing the lighting in your television studio? Make the right decision when choosing the right LED panel and make a meticulous comparison between the products of lighting in film and television market leaders.

LIGHT AND SHADOWS

More than a century ago, cinema emerged in a silent simplicity of black and white, which at the time was not at all simple. At that time, the camera operators were photographers who over time have established their own position; the director of photography. His role was at that time a real challenge, since, without the musical or vocal component, the image was the only protagonist scene after scene. Faced with this reality, lighting techniques they were the cause of success or failure of a production.

LOYALTY TO COLORS

Although there is still a director who is committed to black and white productions, the reality is full of colors. And this is how you want to see through the big screen. Given the premise of offering the highest color fidelity through a camera, the ETC Advanced Research Group (original: ETC Advance Research Group) has been working for more than a decade in the study of light and color. This is where the new led panel fos / 4 ETC in its version 6 and 8 colors; a differentiating technology that elevates the fos / 4 to color quality indices nothing to do with the rest of the panels on the market. With the panels of simply a color temperature or RGBW, the camera does not manage to capture certain tones that with the use of the fos / 4 panel would include them in the filmed scenes.  

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Comparison of the color volume of an RGBW panel and the 8-color version of the fos / 4.
DEEP RED

The red color emitted by RGBW panels is a red with an orange hue. In this new LED panel fos / 4 the Deep Red, a much more intense red that prevents the true skin tone from being lost by not using incandescence.

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Comparison between deep red achieved with the fos / 4 and the red color obtained with another panel on the market.

For practical purposes, both the 6 and 8 color solutions will offer quality and a lot of time savings in the post-production part. It is recommended that if you are going to work on an audiovisual project in warm colors, opt for the 8-color system. While the 6-color one would be optimal for a project in cold temperature, although variable to warm colors at some point in time.

CRI AND TM-30

The fos / 6's 8 and 4 color solution achieves an additive mixture of color additions, which has a high color rendering quality, reaching high CRI, TLCI and TM-30 values.

At this point, it is worth noting a note from the CRI measure. The CRI (positive the closer it gets to 100) is a measure that was created to compare the results of colors emitted with incandescent light and led light. This value has become somewhat obsolete since it has been verified that there are devices with high CRI but that the quality of the color reproduction is not being faithful to the camera.

CRI values
Table with CRI, TLCI and SSI indices of the fos / 4 of ETC.

Currently there is a new measure to assess color fidelity: the TM-30 diagram. The interpretation of this index is that the red line that can be seen in the image is as close as possible to a perfect circle. If this is not the case, the result shown by the diagram is that the examined device will not have a faithful color rendering to the camera even if it has a high CRI.

TM30 diagram
TM-30 diagram of panel fos / 4.

That is why it is recommended that when making this color quality analysis, the manufacturer's diagram TM-30 be requested from the manufacturer.

MODE SELECTION

The fos / 4 LED panel allows you to select the type of output (output) of the device, being able to prioritize for higher color quality (better CRI) or performance. Usually LED panels for film and television do not offer this output option. Based on this basis, the options of this device are:

1._ Better color quality; CRI is prioritized to performance

2._ Better performance; performance is prioritized over CRI

3._ Hybrid; gives good color quality while maintaining good performance

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY

Communication with the fos / 4 is wireless and can be carried out through various protocols:

  • NFC. If your mobile phone has this feature, the panel configuration can be done just by bringing your mobile device closer to the device. For this option it is not necessary that the panel is connected to the current, so from the same firecase configuration can be done.
  • City Theatrical Wireless Multiverse DMX, transmitting up to 10 DMX universes from a single transmitter. With this new protocol the signal is less invasive.
  • Bluetooth (DMX transmitter control) and also the common types of communication such as the standard 5-foot DMX and local control from the display itself.
camera options connectivity
User experience screen with fos / 4

The fos / 4 of ETC is presented, as we have already said, in its two versions (6 and 8 colors), as well as in three different sizes that vary by their power: 540w, 1.070w and 1.600w. The panel is positioned at the top of the market with its range of up to 62.000 lumens.

10 YEAR WARRANTY AND IMPORTANT EXTRAS

The ETC fos / 4 offers a 10-year warranty on the LED source and 5 years on the entire product. In addition, these panels have their own fully customizable effects that adapt to the characteristics of your production. As a last detail, its design created by engineers does not pass indifferently. With a robust structure it contemplates a grip rail for mounting batteries and accessories. Diffusers, intensifiers, Egg Crates, Chimeras, Honeycomb These are some of the accessories that the ETC fos / 4 has to modify the light.

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