VL2416 Wash

VL2416 Wash luminaire
 
Despite its numerical designation, this was the first new luminaire to be produced following the VL7 and hence became unofficially known as the "VL8" among American crews. The VL2416 marked a major sea-change in the Vari-lite business model, in that it was the first Vari-lite luminaire that could actually be purchased. Previous luminaires had (in) famously been available for rental only.
 
The head was closely based on that of the VL5 Arc, with radial CMY colour mixing and mechanical shutter dimming fast enough to also provide strobe effcts.
 
The liquid lens was discarded and beam width controlled instead, by a new type of zoom optics(see US Patent 6809869[35]). This uses two plates of glass; one with a surface covered in several dozen, small (<10mm), convex lenses and the other moulded with corresponding, concave depressions, into which the lenses precisely fit. When the plates are brought together, they effectively form a flat piece of glass, through which light passes unaffected. Moving the plates apart increases the angle of the beam, producing a very wide range of angles (5° - 55° in this luminaire) over a very short range of travel (<25mm) - leading to a compact design with rapid operation (1.2 seconds end-to-end). A similar system can be seen in operation on some, early 21st Century LED stage lighting fixtures, with a variable beam angle function.
 
As this was a self-contained luminaire, the Upper Enclosure (UPE) was restored to the design, to carry the lamp power supply and DMX related electronics.
 
The VL2416 could only be controlled with DMX data. There was no facility for control from a proprietary Vari-lite console.