Electronically controlled stage lighting system

• US 6,622,053 B1
• Filed: 05/22/2000
• Issued: 09/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Production Resource Group LLC
• Original Assignee: Light and Sound Design Limited
• Inventors: Hughes, Michael, Hewlett, William, Parker, Richard, Clarke, Ian, Evans, Nigel, Hunt, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, RAMESH B
• Application Number:
  US09/577,428
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 700/19, 700/20, 700/54, 700/55, 700/56, 700/57, 700/58, 700/59-61, 700/62, 700/65, 700/66, 700/64, 359/291, 359/297, 359/298, 359/223, 359/850, 362/297, 362/565, 362/282, 362/249, 362/277, 362/257, 362/303, 362/283, 362/31, 362/319, 362/800, 362/806, 382/141, 385/146
• US Class Current: 700/19
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 13/08 the elements being filters or photoluminescent elements and reflectors
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/04 by movement of reflectors in vehicle head lamps F21S41/675
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/08 by movement of the screens or filters
• CPC Class Codes: F21W 2131/406 for theatres, stages or film studios
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/0833 the reflecting element being a micromechanical device, e.g. a MEMS mirror, DMD G02B26/0825 takes precedence; micromechanical devices in general B81B
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/0841 the reflecting element being moved or deformed by electrostatic means
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/008 using micromirror devices
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/14 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/16 Cooling; Preventing overheating
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/20 Lamp housings
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/28 Reflectors in projection beam in illumination beam G03B21/2066
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 33/04 by four or more separation records
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources

Abstract

A lighting system operating using a digital mirror as its operative device. The digital mirror is used to shape the light which is a passed through advanced optical devices in order to produce an output.

Claims

1. A digitally controlled stage lighting system, comprising:

a console, producing information indicative of a light beam to be projected;

a communication link, coupled to said console and receiving said information;

a commanded lamp element, including a communication controller, receiving said information over said communication link, said commanded lamp element including;

a source of light;

a digital mirror, coupled optically in series with said source of light, and also mounted remote from said source of light, to shape output of said source of light based on said information; and

a cooling system, thermally isolating between said source of light and said digital mirror.

2. A system as in claim 1, wherein said cooling system includes a plurality of fans producing a wall of air between said source of light and said digital mirror.

3. A system as in claim 1, wherein said information is a moving shape, and commanded lamp element further comprises a master digital signal processor which calculates a new part of the moving shape at each unit time, and uses said new part of the moving shape to control said digital mirror.

4. A system as in claim 3 further comprising a second cold mirror, and a cooling barrier, said light being directed by said first and second cold mirrors around said cooling barrier, and said digital mirror device located on an opposite aide of said cooling barrier relative to said source.

5. A system as in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of slave communication units, each including a motor associated therewith, and wherein said information comprises a command to said motor on one of said slave communication units.

6. A system as in claim 5, wherein each of said slave communication units includes a digital signal processor which processes information that is produced by said master digital signal processor and sent over said serial communication link.

7. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light;

a digital light altering element, located in a path of the light, and formed of a plurality of picture elements, each of said picture elements being commanded to either pass light towards a target or to reflect light away from the target;

a master digital signal processor, calculating a light shape for said digital light altering element based on an applied command; and

a supervisor device, separate from said digital signal processor, and connected at least to said digital signal processor and to monitor at least one parameter of the stage lighting system to monitor for errors.

8. A system as in claim 7 further comprising a plurality of motor control subassembly slave units, controlled by said digital signal processor, and monitored by said supervisor.

9. A system as in claim 8, wherein said supervisor further includes a direct access port, said direct access port allowing exchange of information with said supervisor.

10. A system as in claim 9 wherein said direct access port is a wireless port.

11. A system as in claim 9 wherein said supervisor maintains a registry including information about a time when specific hardware has been changed.

12. An apparatus as in claim 8 wherein said supervisor includes a capability of controlling said motor control subassembly slave units directly.

13. An apparatus as in claim 8 further comprising a bus driver device, coupled to said digital signal processor and forming a bus for all of said motor control subassembly slave units, said master digital signal processor addressing said motor control subassembly slave units by providing an address to each said motor control subassembly slave units, providing a command to an addressed slave unit, and waiting for a response from said addressed slave unit.

14. An apparatus as in claim 13 wherein the supervisor includes a capability of controlling any of said motor control subassembly slave units.

15. An apparatus as in claim 14 wherein said supervisor controls the motor control subassembly slave units by sending a command to the master digital signal processor requesting to control the motor control subassembly slave units, and waiting for a response from the master digital signal processor.

16. A system as in claim 15 wherein said response from the master digital signal processor includes an address of the motor control subassembly slave units followed by no command.

17. A digital stage lighting system, comprising:

a light source producing a beam of light;

a first cold mirror, located in a path of said beam of light, and reflecting a first visible radiation part of the beam of light and passing at least part of infrared radiation produced by the light source, said first visible radiation part being passed in a first direction different from an incident direction of said beam of light;

a second cold mirror, positioned to receiving said first visible radiation part reflected by said first cold mirror, and reflecting a second visible radiation part of said first visible radiation part, said second visible radiation part being reflected in a second direction; and

an addressable digital mirror device, coupled to receive said second visible radiation part, and receiving addresses indicating portions of said second visible radiation part which is desired to be passed, said addresses indicating a desired light shape, and said addressable digital mirror device selectively reflecting said second reflected light based on said addresses.

18. A system as in claim 17 wherein said second cold mirror is at least partly in shape.

19. A system as in claim 18 wherein said digital mirror reflects a plurality of pixels representing a desired light shape in a first direction, and further comprising a lensing system, operating to collimate and direct to desired light shape to the stage, and reflects said second reflected light, representing an undesired light, in a second direction away from the stage.

20. A system as in claim 19 wherein said section direction includes a light sink which receives light which is directed in said second direction.

21. A system as in claim 17 wherein said digital mirror is positioned to receive in put light with a incident angle with less than 28 degrees.

22. A system as in claim 17 further comprising a cooling barrier, between said source of light and said digital mirror.

23. A system as in claim 22 wherein said cooling barrier is placed between said first reflected visible radiation part and said second reflected visible radiation part, such that said visible light is reflected around said cooling barrier.

24. A system as in claim 17 further comprising a light altering element, optically between said first cold mirror and said second cold mirror.

25. A system as in claim 24 wherein said light altering element includes a moving structure a moving structure which is moved into a path of the light beam to effect a color of the light beam and moved out of the pat of the light beam to pass the light beam without color change.

26. A digital stage lighting system, comprising:

a light source, projecting light in a first direction to form an optical path of light;

an addressable light altering device, addressable to alter a characteristic of light to be displayed, said light altering device being addressed in a first way to form an optical beam having a non-uniform brightness profile across a dimension of said beam, such that light output at a central portion of the reflected optical beam being brighter than light output at a peripheral portion of the reflected optical beam, said light altering device being addressed in a second way to form an optical beam having a uniform brightness profile across a dimension of said beam, such that light output at a central portion of the reflected optical beam is substantially the same brightness as light output at a peripheral portion of the reflected optical beam.

27. A system as in claim 26, wherein a profile of said light has a profile such that said non-uniform light beams produce an amount of light which is within 20% of an amount of light produced by the center of a nonoverlapped light.

28. A system as in claim 26, wherein said non-uniform brightness profile is substantially sinusoidal across a dimension of said beam.

29. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light, operating to form an optical beam;

a cold mirror, reflecting a part of a visible portion of said optical beam in a first direction, while not reflecting an infrared portion of said optical beam in said first direction;

a first color changing device, located in a path of said first direction, to receive said visible portion of said cold mirror, said first color changing device located at an unfocused portion of said optical beam, to change a color of the light transmitted thereby, said first light altering device also including a clear portion which allows said optical beam to pass without changing color;

a second light altering device, located at a different position on said optical path than said first light altering device and said second light altering device being of a different type than said first light altering device, said second light altering device including a plurality of filters, each operating to alter the color of light in said optical path, and said second light altering device which also includes a clear portion which can be selected to allow the light in said optical path to pass said second filter without modification; and

a controller, automatically controlling said first and second color altering devices to allow either one, both, or neither of said first or second light altering device to select a color of light in said optical path.

30. A system as in claim 29 wherein said first color changer is located at a location where light in said optical path is out-of-focus and said second color changer is located at a location where light is in-focus.

31. A system as in claim 29 wherein said first color changer is a color cross fader and said second color changer is a dichroic color wheel.

32. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light producing a light output of at least 5000 lumens;

a first one cold mirror operating to reflect light from said source in a specified direction and pass at least a portion of infra red from said source;

a digital mirror device, located in an area to receive light from said specified direction, said digital mirror device having an optically active surface which selectively reflects light according to a specified command, said optically active surface located in a location to receive the light with an incident angle between said optically active surface and said specified direction of 28°

or less.

33. A system as in claim 32 wherein said digital mirror device is located on a physically separate circuit card from the controlling structure for said digital mirror device.

34. A method of operating a lighting system, comprising:

determining characteristics of a first lighting system, whose properties are to be emulated;

storing said properties into a memory in a second lighting system, which is physically different than said first lighting system and has different properties than said first lighting system; and

using a digital device in said second lighting system to operate based on said properties in said memory to simulate an effect of said first lighting device.

35. A method as in claim 34 wherein said characteristics include a simulation of a rotating gobo, and further comprising calculating a first position of the rotating gobo at a first time and calculating a second position of said rotating gobo at a second time different than said first time to simulate a rotated position of said gobo which has rotated to said second position.

36. A light projecting system, comprising:

a light source producing a light beam; and

an electronically-addressed light distribution system, which is addressed to modify said light beam to produce a modified light beam which is brightest at its center, and decreases in intensity towards edges of the light beam.

37. A system as in claim 36, wherein said edges are sufficiently less bright than said center so that overlapped edge portions of two overlapping light beams are not more than 20% brighter than centers of said two overlapping light beams.

38. A system as in claim 36 wherein said decrease in intensity follows a cosine distribution.

39. A system as in claim 36 wherein said characteristics include a gobo shape, said information is a digital file indicative of said gobo shape, and said using comprises using said digital file to shape a light beam according to the digital file indicative of said gobo shape.

40. A digitally-controlled luminaire system, comprising:

a source of light, producing a light beam along a path;

a programmable color changing device;

a digital light altering device;

both said color changing device and said digital light altering device being in said path of said light beam produced source of light;

a numerical processor, operating according to an applied command, to calculate a plurality of values indicating a state of said digital light altering device; and

a supervisor device, separate from said numerical processor, said supervisor device monitoring outputs of said numerical processor, and at least one temperature of the system and one fault parameter of the system, said supervisor device being capable of resetting at least said numerical processor.

41. A system as in claim 40 further comprising a supplemental port, coupled to said supervisor device, said supplemental port coupling input and output information between said supervisor and said port, allowing status to be read therefrom.

42. A system as in claim 40 wherein said supervisor device includes a timer device, and a registry memory device, storing information indicating previous faults in the system along with a time of said faults from said timer device.

43. A system as in claim 42 wherein said timer device comprises a real time clock, providing an indication of current system time to said registry memory device.

44. A system as in claim 40 wherein said timer device comprises a real time clock, and at least one operating device including a unique identification indicia which represents an identification of the system,

wherein said supervisor device monitors said identification, and determines a change in identification indicia, and stores an indication of said identification change along with an indication of system time from said real time clock into said registry memory.

45. A system as in claim 40, further comprising a bus driver, coupled to an output of said numerical processor, said bus driver receiving information indicating information about devices on said bus which are to be controlled, and producing a bus driving signal which produces a signal to control said devices.

46. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light, producing a light beam to be output;

at least first and second motor control devices, including;

a first subassembly including a first motor control device, and a first motor controlled by said first motor control device, said first motor controlling a color changing element located in a path of said light beam and which is operable to change a color of light which is projected through said color changing element, and

a second subassembly, including a second motor control device, and a second motor controlled by said second motor control device, said second motor located in the path of said light beam and operable to change a position of said light bean which is projected, each of said motor control devices including a digital signal processor which is uniquely associated therewith.

47. A system as in claim 46 further comprising a master digital signal processor, producing output for said first and second motor control devices over a motor control bus.

48. A digitally-controlled stage lighting apparatus, comprising light producing device, producing a beam of light;

an optical system, coupling said beam of light along an optical path;

a digital light shape controller, operating to change an aspect of said beam of light according to an applied command; and

a digital signal processor, operating to calculate said aspect of said beam of light to control said digital light shape controller, and to control at least one non-lighting related function of said stage lighting apparatus.

49. An apparatus as in claim 48, further comprising a plurality of slave motors, and a motor control bus, connected to said digital signal processor, said digital signal processor operating to control said motor control bus as said non-lighting related function.

50. A digitally-controlled stage lighting apparatus, comprising;

a light producing device, producing a beam of light;

an optical system, coupling said beam of light along an optical path, said optical system including at least one cold mirror that reflects visible light and passes infra red;

a digital signal processor, operating to calculate a shape for said beam of light according to an applied command;

a digital mirror device, optically coupled along said optical path, and operating to change said shape of said beam of light according to said shape calculated by said digital signal processor; and

a cooling system, cooling said digital mirror device.

51. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light;

a digital light altering element, located in a path of the light, and formed of a plurality of picture elements, each of said picture elements being commanded to either pass light towards a target or to reflect light away from the target;

a master digital signal processor, calculating a light shape for said digital light altering element based on an applied command; and

a buffer, holding a light shape for use by said digital light altering device, said master digital signal processor calculating a next light shape to be displayed while said digital light altering device is displaying the contents of said buffer.

52. A stage lighting system, comprising:

a source of light;

a digital light altering element, located in a path of the light, and formed of a plurality of picture elements, each of said picture elements being commanded to either pass light towards the stage or to reflect light away from the stage;

a master digital signal processor, coupled to form a motor control bus, calculating a light shape for said digital light altering element based on an applied command;

a supervisor device, coupled to form the motor control bus, separate from said master digital signal processor, and connected at least to said master digital signal processor and to monitor at least one parameter of the stage lighting system to monitor for errors,

said master controlling said motor control bus, and including a mechanism allowing said supervisor device to control said motor control bus.

53. A cooled stage lighting luminaire, comprising:

a housing;

a heat producing portion, located within said housing and forming a hot spot, said hot spot being formed by heat producing elements within the housing;

a heat sensitive element, also located within the housing, and operating to carry out some function of the lamp, said heat sensitive element located spaced from said hot spot; and

at least one air moving device, located in a location to produce a wall of air between said heat producing portion and said heat sensitive element, said wall of air at least partly thermally isolating between said heat producing portion and said heat sensitive element.

54. A luminaire as in claim 53 wherein said heat sensitive element includes a digital mirror device.

55. A luminaire as in claim 53 further comprising a pick off fan, located adjacent said wall of air, and operating to couple air from said wall of air to use in cooling another subsystems.