Like the original Impression, the Impression 120RZ is a LED moving head with RGB colour mixing and a baseless design that makes it compact and lightweight. Also, the 120RZ version brings a new feature to the mix - a 10° to 26° Automated Linear Zoom, which gives it greater flexibility to be used in more applications. The Impression 120RZ also features a new ultra-bright LED source - 120 high-power Luxeon Rebel LEDs (42 green, 36 blue, 42 red).
It was the Zoom feature that sold Robin Alvis of Toucan Lighting (Oklahoma City), which has been supplying lighting to Thorogood for five years. "I saw the regular Impression at last year's LDI show and was really impressed by its brightness, compact size, light weight and the fact that there's no bulb replacement," said Alvis. "I definitely wanted to step up to an LED moving head, but I also wanted something with a zoom. Then Joe Adams of Elation told me about the Impression 120RZ, and they brought them here for a demo - and I actually was blown away."
Alvis said that the Zoom feature opens up so many more design options. "If you want a tight beam, you can get a tight beam without changing any lens. And then you can just zoom it up and get a bigger beam for a wash light."
Thorogood's lighting designer William Bennyhoff is using a total of 28 Impression 120RZ's on the tour set - 12 upstage, 10 downstage, and six on the floor for uplighting. "The lights in the back are all set to narrow (beam), and the 10 downstage are all wide. We were able to cover the whole 40' width of the stage with just those 10 fixtures.
"The brightness of the Impression 120RZ is phenomenal. It's actually too bright for the floor lights, so we put a gel in front of it to diffuse it." Smooth colour mixing is another feature praised by Bennyhoff, who designed the Thorogood show around vivid, intense primary colors. "Blues, magentas, ambers - this is old school rock'n roll."
(Jim Evans)
