blog

Spotlesslight launches in Colombia with Betterline

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:46:00 -0700

This past month, Betterline, a rental and staging company in Bogota, Colombia acquired the first Spotlesslight in the country. Within 2 weeks of showing the Spotlesslight to add agencies and promoters, they had already won 2 contracts. The first contract was with ABSOLUT Vodka for a winter bottle launch on the beautiful island of San Andres.

South America seems ripe and ready for the Spotlesslight. There is a huge demand for innovation and the publicity agencies are under constant pressure to do something new and exciting for their clients. After watching Betterline make some nice cash on this premium rental item, I realize that whoever is the first in a country with the Spotlesslight will definitely make very good money.

Check out the new videos in the Demo Reel section that we've uploaded.

MuteMath Tour

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:19:00 -0700

We are very psyched that Mutemath is now touring with the Spotlesslight. We met with some of the guys from 44 Designs late this summer to show them the Spotlesslight and everything that we've been up to. They were pretty impressed and realized that Mutemath is the kind of cutting edge band both from a musical and technological perspective that would be interested in what we are doing. Incorporating interactive projection into a set is not easy business. Most artists are doing it with a lot of effort and specialized equipment combined with a couple of MacBooks. The problem is that what if you don't have all of the time and energy in the world to spend but still want to add interactive projection techniques and effects to a show?

The idea behind the Spotlesslight has always been to create a product that can allow any LD to add in interactive projection technology to a set. To do this, we understand it needs to be easy to operate, easy to install, and controlled by DMX. The last thing an LD wants is another independent system to worry about during a show. Now, if you are talking about concert touring, you better multiply everything I said by five and make the unit a hell of a lot more durable. So, that is what we've done and the result is the Spotlesslight. It is self-contained, flexible and powerful - pefect for the tour!

Spotlesslight at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:53:00 -0700

Come check out the Spotlesslight this Saturday evening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in Brooklyn, NY.

As part of the Museum of Art's First Saturday Series, Frank Oteri from the American Music Center and VJ Benton-C Bainbridge will host a multimedia presentation on prolific Hungarian-American composer Gabriel von Wayditch (1888–1969), including the New York premiere of passages from his lush operatic works, video projections, and excerpts from a documentary about the composer.

As part of the performance art piece, VJ Benton-C Bainbridge will light up the performance using the Spotlesslight. Bainbridge will make use of one of the Spotlesslight's new effects that we call the automatic digital follow-spot. The name pretty much says it all. Just point the Spotlesslight in the general direction of your subject and it will automatically create a digital spotlight which will follow its subject. The Spotlesslight uses a unique system that allows it to interact with objects and performers on the stage. In this case, the spotlesslight will read the movements of the performer and then digitally create a spotlight effect which will be fed to the projector and projected back onto the performer. The spotlesslight takes interactive projection to new heights allowing for Lighting Designers to have a maximum amount of freedom and flexibility.

Spotlesslight at PLASA 2009

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:10:00 -0700

Today was the first day of PLASA 2009 and the Spotless Team is enjoying the show. Mike and Alex are in London where we are showing a new software release for the Spotlesslight Lightwarper. There have been some major enhancements to this latest release of the product, and we are all totally jazzed about it.

For starters, we've now got video! That's right, you all asked for it during loads of meetings this year, and it is now ready. You can now take your own content directly from your media server and pump it straight into the spotlesslight and then project it onto your performer with no spillover. The effect is quite amazing.

Besides Video, we are releasing a major architecture upgrade which now gives you fully independent control on 3 different layers while you are projecting. You can now independently control the background, the foreground, and one passive layer. All are independent and have an identical set of controls so you can mix and match effects independently on the performer(s), around the performer(s), and on one additional passive object (perfect for set pieces). We call this new concept - "Theater-in-a-box."

So, come check us out in Stand R-228

Interactive Projection getting better every day

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:06:00 -0700

We spent the day yesterday at the hyper cool loft space of Niles Creative Group in downtown Manhattan to try out a few new spotlesseffects. Alex is polishing off a new effect called "the wave" which will soon be approved and released as a stock effect in the Spotlesslight. The wave is an interesting breed of effect for us because it is the first in a planned series that will make much more use of our active background layer. This time, instead of shining light only onto a performer, we are shining light only around the performer and affecting the projection through the movements of the performer. The cool thing about the new Lightwarper is that it separates the background, foreground, and multiple passive object layers. This means that if you are interested only in generating effects around your performers you can do so. Or you can combine them with a totally independent set of effects cued up on the performer. It's really unbelievably dynamic now and puts the spotlesslight into a whole new category of interactive projection and interactive entertainment devices.

I say interactive entertainment because yesterday we took our output and put it simultaneously onto a 6500 lumen Christie Digital (LX650 projector) and onto a 4mil Barco LED Wall. Wow now that was cool! (those are the kinds of toys David plays with daily). So, in case you aren't following, let me lay it out for you:

Media Server or Live Video Feed --------->Spotlesslight FX300 on board server -----------> Mixing our Spotlesseffects ------------------->Output to Projector + LED Wall = Very Cool

By the end of the day yesterday we were all giddy with the new interactive entertainment possibilities. In fact, it looks like we will be trying them out at PLASA at Earl's Court in 2 weeks time. So stay tuned to find out where to find us and what you'll see there.

Making Interactive Projection that much easier

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:59:48 -0700

This past week we were giving a demo to a band that is looking at taking the Spotlesslight out on tour. We gave them a glimpse at the soon-to-be-released Version 2.0 software and their minds were blown to say the least.

We often meet with clients that are doing interactive projection and are skeptical at first about the spotlesslight. But then comes the "holy #$!!" when we come in to a space set up in 15 minutes and have such a wide array of complex effects working so easily from a DMX controlled light board. The fact is, we have not invented the concept of interactive projection, but we've innovated in the following areas:

1) Nothing is easier to setup than the Spotlesslight
2) DMX controlled
3) Open architecture that leaves the Lighting Designer empowered to mix his own content into the interactive projection
4) Theater-in-a-box - a revolutionary new way to apply interactive projection.

So, come have a look if you haven't already. The spotlesslight gives you a way to do what you thought it would take you months and programmers to do before.

Spotlesslight at Rock The Sound - Big learning curve

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:03:00 -0700

This weekend was a great step forward for the spotlesslight. We were invited to provide special effects lighting for the bands at the Rock The Sound Concert series this past weekend at the Hammerstein ballroom in New York City. Introducing a new lighting fixture to the market is the sum of a series of tests and we understand that it is very important for our public to know how and where the Spotlesslight has been used.

Around this time last year, we were setting the spotlesslight up in its first trade fair. Needless to say, we learned a lot and went back and made some changes to the product. Then, after LDI, we got some more important feedback and continued to improve the product. Since then we've done dozens of demos all across the US and in different parts of Europe - each one resulting in improvements that have been plowed directly back into the product. Interestingly, the Europeans were concerned with different aspects of the product than the Americans. There the questions revolved around how to make the product more easily serviceable - which we did. We also realized we would have to switch to metric nuts and bolts - which we've done. In the US - the feedback led us to redo the entire channel arrangement of the product and change a number of aspects in the software.

But Rock n' roll is a unique environment. There is very little tolerance for being "different." If this new gadget is going to be hung like a fixture, then it better damn well act like one. That is the attitude of the LD. Fair enough - they are under a lot of pressure as it is, have very little time, and are constantly on the road. They don't want to have to screw anything extra in, adjust any extra knobs or do any extra work that will add to their already grueling schedule and time constraints.

The good news is that the Spotlesslight did just that. We mounted it in under 15 minutes, assigned the DMX channel, and it went straight up in the air and was ready to go. We didn't have our latest release of the software for the concert but we confirmed that our new channel arrangement and some of the new features we are set to announce is just what the market wants.

The product is now in its 4th hardware rev and 5th software rev. In other words, it is mature. We've taken almost every serious recommendation we received about the product - and now it is in the product. And I must say - it's now pretty damn awesome. So, check out some of the reels from the concert and let's talk about how we can bring interactive projection to your next show.

Second Blog Post

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:50:00 -0700

Excitement is in the air. Prolight + Sound starts tomorrow
in Frankfurt and Spotless ist im hause. For those of you who
are already here, you can find us in Stand B71 in Hall 9.

First Blog Post

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:48:00 -0700

Whhhoooo....Yes, LDI 2008 is over. Here at the Spotless
headquarters in Brooklyn, we are busy recovering and trying
to get back to our normal routines. The debut of the
Spotlesslight™ Dazzle™ was a huge success at LDI, and we
would like to thank all of you for the great feedback,
support, and enthusiasm. In fact, we are already hard at
work with a number of you creating some very cool and
innovative applications of the Spotlesslight for this
holiday season.