As a major player in automated lighting, Robe has continually exploited new technologies to develop some of the most sought after products on the market. The ROBIN 600 LEDWash light, distributed in South Africa by DWR Distribution, is one of the Czech Republic company’s most acclaimed fixtures.
Confirmed as Robe’s fastest selling product of all time, the ROBIN 600 LEDWash is ahead of most moving heads in its league. As a member of Robe’s green-inspired ROBIN moving heads family, the ROBIN 600 LEDWash is designed to save energy, generate less heat, cut maintenance costs and generally give users an affordable professional wash-lighting solution with enhanced creative capabilities. But the big question is: does the fixture do what it was designed for?

Well, before we get into that let’s first understand how it works:

Lights source and optics

The ROBIN 600 LEDWash uses 37 Cree XLamp MC-E RGBW LEDs, each with red, green, blue and white emitters. These LEDs are dotted in three concentric rings (zones) that can be controlled independently with five modes of operation – each requiring a different number of DMX channels. The inner ring or zone has seven LEDs, the middle zone has 12 LEDs and the outer zone has 18 LEDs. These rings are mounted on three concentric circuit boards, which are, in turn, attached to a large aluminium heat sink. A sensitive fan is mounted at the rear of the LED driver board to further protect the system from higher heat levels. According to Robe, the LEDs’ life span is 60 000 hours and typical lumen maintenance is 70% at 60 000 hours.
The light’s homogenisation and spill-limitation systems comprise a complex layer of plates and optical devices mounted above the LED packages. One of the plates has 37 cone-shaped plastic TIR (total internal reflection) lenses, which fit over the LED packages. Another plate features 37 micro lens arrays which are also fitted over the LED packages to form a myriad of small zoom lens systems with nearly 100 micro lenses per emitter. The last noteworthy feature in this section is a larger micro “egg-crate’ with 37 cavities to accommodate each emitter.

Colour systems, dimming and zooming

In the words of Robe, “The 600 is the world’s first LED wash light with true white colours.’ In addition to the three LEDs zones, the fixture features a virtual colour wheel channel which is responsible for creating a range of proper colours and effects. Through the desk, users can fully manipulate this channel, changing colour temperatures to any of the 237 variations of white pre-programmed in the CTO filter (from 2 700K to 8 000K). The CTO whites even have the thermal fade and red delay emulation of tungsten sources.
For dimming, the light offers 0 to 100 % high resolution dimming in either 8-bit or 16-bit mode and has a motorised zoom system which ranges from 15° to 60°. To increase performance in ROBIN lights, Robe replaced the old PIC chip architecture with faster 32-bit ARM processors, which have increased memory and this generally makes the ROBIN 600 LEDWash faster in all areas.

Pan, tilt and noise

The ROBIN 600 LEDWash uses a combination of three-phase stepper motors and belt drives to achieve a pan and tilt range of 450° and 300° respectively. According to Robe, a full pan movement takes 2.1 seconds at maximum speed and 3.4 seconds in “theatre mode’ – the slowest and quietest of the available five modes of operation. A full tilt movement takes 1.1 seconds at maximum speed and 2.5 seconds in theatre mode.

Noise produced by the fixture is determined by the amount of work it is doing. So the more work you assign it, the more noise you’ll get from the temperature-controlled fan. However, the ROBIN 600 LEDWash light offers a theatre mode, which slows down the pan, tilt and zoom motors to reduce noise levels.

Control

The light is equipped with Robe’s standard colour LCD touch screen, which allows users to set the fixture´s behaviour, obtain information on its operation, test various parts & programme it in stand-alone mode. The menu can also be controlled by four buttons (ESCAPE, NEXT, PREV and ENTER/DISPLAY ON) which are found in the front of the base.

The unit’s automatic self-switching power supply is mounted on the base, which also houses a host of delicate electronics. Motor drivers are stored in one yoke arm and the other electronics are carefully distributed throughout the unit.

Pro Systems spoke to a number of companies using the Robe ROBIN 600 extensively and this is what they had to say.

Mark Gaylard – MGG
(36units, 12 months in use)

“When I saw the 600 on the Internet I knew right away that it was what I was looking for. I bought it before I had even physically seen it and it has exceeded all my expectations. The light’s primary colours (Red, blue and green) are incredibly bright and it uses less energy and weighs very little. Another big thing is that there are no globes, which makes the light significantly economical. The discharge lamps we have require new globes after 700 hours of use so on a busy year we relamp them twice and that amounts to about a quarter-million rand. Discharge lamps use about 700 watts and the 600 only uses about 200 Watts, which is very crucial especially when you have electricity going up by 25% every year. The light is also very quiet; there is a fan but it does not make a lot of noise because there is big heat sink attached to the system. It’s also been great from a reliability point of view; we haven’t had any problems at all and technical support from DWR has also been amazing.’

Mike Jones – MJ Lighting & Event Gear
(24 units, four months in use)

“As a company owner, the biggest thing for me is that I don’t have to relamp it. With other lights you spend thousands of rands on relamping every 750 to 1000 hours but the 600 gives you 70000 hours, which significantly reduces costs. The 600 is also very versatile, its dimming capabilities allow you to use it everywhere, from big rock concerts to corporate events, TV shows and outdoor events. The thing that surprises us the most, however, is the amount of zoom it has, it’s just phenomenal. We are also very impressed with the unit’s smoothness, speed, weight, size and quietness. In terms of colours, Robe has done an amazing job because it has a proper CTO with a correct range of whites. We have not had any faults at all and support from DWR has been brilliant. Overall, I am very happy and will certainly buy more.’

Stuart Andrews – Gearhouse SA
(72 units, 7 months in use)

“I am impressed with their efficiency, brightness and wide beam spread but I think some of the colours could be better. The colour mixing on LED fixtures is not quite as full and rich as traditional colour wheels with the full range of a colour palette. While we have used the fixtures extensively, we also have had a few faults which I wouldn’t expect from a fixture that is essentially brand new. However, I have the same problem with other manufacturers and this seems to be a problem with technology in general. We use them mainly for theatre, concerts and corporate events and the response from clients has been very positive, they are requested quite often. Overall, the lights are fantastic, very versitile and we are very happy with them. In fact, we’ll probably be buying more in due course.’

Abesh Dhevalall – Solid Rock
(four units, 12 months in use)

“We were looking for a fixture that is light in weight, smaller, power-saving and with as wide a zoom as possible at a short distance and the ROBIN 600 LEDWash was the perfect solution. The fixture has meets all expectations on every level and we’re actually thinking of purchasing six ROBIN 300 LEDWashes after the experience we’ve had with our 600 LEDWash lights. DWR has been excellent in terms of service and willingness to help where ever possible. My previous fixtures were lamp fixtures and we will not buy them again because they are an expense to maintain, unlike LED fixtures.’

Allan Dickinson – DNG Sound & Audio Visual
(12 units, eight months in use?)

“The ROBIN 600 LEDWash is the best product we could find in the range and I am particularly impressed with the brightness of the lights when using primary colours. We are involved in live productions, mainly in the corporate sector, and they meet all our expectations. They are LED fixtures so the lifetime of the light is vastly better than any other light we have ever had. In terms of maintenance costs, the lights are still very new so it is hard to judge, but we estimate them to be a lot cheaper to maintain because we don’t have to change bulbs. Product support from DWR has been very good; they are the best in the market.’

Kagiso Moima – Black Motion
(12 units, eight months in use)

“I am particularly impressed with the light’s output which is perfect for my market (television). The ROBIN 600 LEDWash gives you a benchmark in terms of natural colours and it allows you to produce lights with the right intensity. I also like the fact that they consume minimum power, which is very important to us because we shoot for very long hours and you wouldn’t want a light that gives you huge studio costs. Our clients enjoy the technology and we’re actually looking forward to buying more Robe LED fixtures.’