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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED HMI

From the pics, my guess is that it is a RED branded ballast for HMI light heads - perhaps with the feature of dialing in which lamp you are using, 575W, 1200W, 2500W, 4000W etc. Why would you make a ballast without lamps to go with it?
 
Michael Hardwick said:
From the pics, my guess is that it is a RED branded ballast for HMI light heads - perhaps with the feature of dialing in which lamp you are using, 575W, 1200W, 2500W, 4000W etc. Why would you make a ballast without lamps to go with it?
Click to expand...

My take on it is that it replaces conventional ballasts. My guess is that you can dial in any wattage and it will ramp up the voltage as needed. So you could have one ballast and several different heads, all of which will work together. Obviously you want all your heads running through one ballast, but if you had multiple heads and multiple ballasts, ya, you get the idea.

It looks fairly small too, which is good.
 
Mark Collins said:
Obviously you want all your heads running through one ballast, but if you had multiple heads and multiple ballasts, ya, you get the idea.
Click to expand...


Huh?

What does that mean? When you are using HMI's you use one ballast to one head. It's a one:one relationship. Traditional ballasts have either one Wattage head or, maybe a split wattage like a 2.5k/4k ballast, or a 575/1200 ballast.

Voltage does not equal wattage also for those out there trying to understand the relationship between Power and light output.

Wattage divided by Voltage equals Amperage.
:rant:
 
Dan Kanes said:
Huh?

What does that mean? When you are using HMI's you use one ballast to one head. It's a one:one relationship. Traditional ballasts have either one Wattage head or, maybe a split wattage like a 2.5k/4k ballast, or a 575/1200 ballast.

:rant:
Click to expand...

Try reading it as "One Brand of ballast" or "One Type of ballast" instead.
 
Dan Kanes said:
Huh?

What does that mean? When you are using HMI's you use one ballast to one head. It's a one:one relationship. Traditional ballasts have either one Wattage head or, maybe a split wattage like a 2.5k/4k ballast, or a 575/1200 ballast.

Voltage does not equal wattage also for those out there trying to understand the relationship between Power and light output.

Wattage divided by Voltage equals Amperage.
:rant:
Click to expand...

The RED Ballast looks pretty small. So rather than having to lug around several large ballasts and several small ballasts depending on the HMI's you have, you have one type of small ballast that can handle any wattage of HMI.

So, if you had say, 3 4K's Par's and a 575 Fresnel, you could simply replace the 3 larger ballasts and the 1 smaller ballast with 4 RED ballasts.

Realistically it simply saves you on space when transporting gear, though if it's a larger production with grip trucks and stuff that's not an issue. It would make more sense for smaller productions with a lot less transport capabilities.
 
I gotta say I love the idea of having only one ballast as I kinda hate unnecessary heavy objects.

The question then comes to mind. How many hmi's can the one ballast power?
and can it poser different wattage hmi's at the same time?
 
If it could power more than one head at a time, that would be a pretty neat trick indeed!

However I'd still be over the moon to see a new switchable output, silent, flicker-free, power factor corrected, electronic HMI ballast at a 'disruptive' RED price point! :drool:

C'mon guys ... don't keep us in suspenders ...
 
Erik Bien said:
If it could power more than one head at a time, that would be a pretty neat trick indeed!

However I'd still be over the moon to see a new switchable output, silent, flicker-free, power factor corrected, electronic HMI ballast at a 'disruptive' RED price point! :drool:

C'mon guys ... don't keep us in suspenders ...
Click to expand...

I'm kind of curious why, even if it were possible, people would want multiple heads fed from a single HMI balast? I've got a few Arri HMI balasts that auto switch between 575 & 1200 heads. So I guess it would be cool if those balasts could also drive a 2.4k or a 5k hmi (although the balast would be subtantially heavier and more complex if I am only feeding 575 or 1.2k lights). But if I am combining heads onto a single larger balast, that would royally suck. I could never walk into your basic interior location shoot and just plug in to run a couple of 1.2k HMIs...the wall power would not handle that. I'd need to either pull from the circuit panel or run a 30A generator.

In my mind, for balast driven lights that pull more than 300w, I want them all on different balasts so I can balance my electrical load.
 
For RED to have an interest in making a ballast I would think they are providing a ballast that has functionality that is different to ballasts that are already out there.

The two logical things that spring to mind are - make a ballast that can be used on different wattage HMI's, and make a ballast that can power several HMI's of different wattage.

The wall's not going to handle much more than a 1.2 and a 575 anyway. I would guess that if its for multiple HMI's its for a generator. But I haven't seen its size and weight.

If its small its probably for one light but switchable wattage

edit:
I personally would love to see a small lightweight HMI ballast that runs off a wall that can power two 575's or one 575 and a 1.2k
That would be pretty useful.
 
J Davis said:
edit:
I personally would love to see a small lightweight HMI ballast that runs off a wall that can power two 575's or one 575 and a 1.2k
That would be pretty useful.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess I can see for the lower wattage lights, having a single balast powering a couple of 575s might be good for quick interview setups.

Howerver, 50% of the time if you put a 575 and 1.2 on the same circuit the breaker will be thrown off when the second light strikes and/or with houses that have lots of 15a circuits rather than 20a.
 
Quite a few times I've had 3000 pulling off one 'household' type location. In each case its been by dispersing power off outlets as far apart as possible and then hoping for the best before striking them up.
I've had 3x 1k tungstens on one shoot and quite recently I had 2x 1.2k hmi and a 575 hmi all off the one household. Which makes me think, what about a ballast that has multiple inputs .. that way you only have to lug one heavy beast, plug three inputs from various sources and have three outs...
 
J Davis said:
Quite a few times I've had 3000 pulling off one 'household' type location. In each case its been by dispersing power off outlets as far apart as possible and then hoping for the best before striking them up.
I've had 3x 1k tungstens on one shoot and quite recently I had 2x 1.2k hmi and a 575 hmi all off the one household. Which makes me think, what about a ballast that has multiple inputs .. that way you only have to lug one heavy beast, plug three inputs from various sources and have three outs...
Click to expand...

You must be shooting in newer houses than I do! ;-) Seriously, for corporate work sure, you are usually in a location with nice new wiring. But for narative work, its all over the map. I think I'm preaching to the chior though, you obviously know what works for you. Cheers
 
J Davis said:
Quite a few times I've had 3000 pulling off one 'household' type location. In each case its been by dispersing power off outlets as far apart as possible and then hoping for the best before striking them up.
I've had 3x 1k tungstens on one shoot and quite recently I had 2x 1.2k hmi and a 575 hmi all off the one household. Which makes me think, what about a ballast that has multiple inputs .. that way you only have to lug one heavy beast, plug three inputs from various sources and have three outs...
Click to expand...

Not sure if multiple inputs on one ballast is a great idea. For smaller HMI's like 575's and the pocket PARS it wouldn't be a problem, but once you start getting into bigger lamps you would run into a problem with drawing enough power to run them all safely.
 
plus with the really hight wattage bulbs, you running into some pretty intense magnetic fields within the cabling and ballast itself. running that much in the same unit could be disastrous.
 
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