"The NEO lighting control console has been proven to be a powerful and easy-to-use lighting control system and we are excited to now be expanding its power and control even more," said Bobby Harrell, Philips Strand Lighting product specialist. "With the addition of the Submaster and Playback Wings plus the Playback Controller, the NEO family now offers more control options and innovative control technologies for whatever type of production or lighting environment you may be creating."
The NEO Submaster Wing adds 20 non-motorized faders in a 2 x 10 configuration, and the Playback Wing adds 10 motorized faders and five multi-function faders. Each NEO wing has 5 colour screens that identify the Submasters or Playback's identities, plus each also has left and right side page up/down buttons for additional control. Both wings also allow for USB connectivity to a NEO lighting control console as well as USB communication daisy chaining between each wing. A total of three wings may be connected to a NEO console and power input and output connections on each wing (power daisy chain) can be powered via the console or an optional power supply.
Additionally, the NEO Playback Wing adds an extraordinary new feature called Group Masters which allows the use of Groups to be automatically assigned to each Playback Fader. Once assigned, it becomes unnecessary to use Command Line Operation to adjust the level of the Group; and as the first console to remember "how" a cue was written, Group Master levels are remembered during playback making it much easier to edit cues.
The NEO Playback Controller is a rack-mount device designed to store and run pre-programmed shows using the powerful NEO lighting control operating system software. The Playback Controller can sit on a LAN or operate independently with the ability to control up to 100 universes of DMX. The touchscreen interface has multiple tabs to view, playback and configure the controller with unlimited cues, cue lists, groups, palettes, effects, and macros. Along with its ability to control timed events with sunrise/sunset, the Playback Controller also offers pixel mapping, magic sheet layouts, blind pre-visualization and much more.
(Jim Evans)
