Press Release

Lighting The Way With Xenon—
New Era Film Projector Bulbs Run Brighter & Cooler

Even with the advent of digital theater systems in recent years, the basic method used to project motion pictures hasn’t really changed much since Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the movie industry by screening a film at a Paris café with their cinematographe in December 1896. The same combination of light source and optical projection that the Lumières employed is in use today. What’s changed is that the underlying technology has gotten a lot more advanced.

At this year’s ShoWest, attendees are getting a chance to see exactly how far things have progressed at the booth sponsored by Advanced Specialty Lighting (ASL). One of the world’s leading manufacturers of xenon short arc lamps for theater projectors, ASL based outside of Chicago and maintains facilities in Poland and China. We recently caught up with ASL engineer Jim Wells and sales & marketing vice president Stefanie Farnsworth who filled us in on company developments and the bulbs that light up the film industry.

What makes xenon lamps different from the average light bulb?
Jim Wells: Xenon lamps give you a very bright, very steady white light that is ideal for movie projectors where reliability is so important. The light is much more intense than a household bulb—the standard bulbs for modern projectors usually carry at least a 2000-watt to 7000-watt rating. A good quality xenon bulb is far more efficient and reliable than the carbon arc lights used in the past.
Xenon lamps are standard equipment in most projectors today?
Stefanie Farnsworth: Yes, there are quite a few older projectors still in use that have carbon arc lights, but (most of-in India they still manufacture new carbon arc projectors) the new projectors manufactured today use xenon. And that includes special formats like (IMAX?)Omnimax also. Xenon works with the new emerging digital projection systems, and we see that as a big market for us moving forward.

Has ASL always been in the projector lamp business? And who are some of the other big players out there?
Jim Wells: Our parent company, Advanced Strobe Products, has been manufacturing xenon flash lamps for many years, which are similar to but distinct from xenon arc lamps. The xenon arc / cinema side of the business began with the acquisition of the Entertainment and Lithography Division of PerkinElmer back in July 2003.

Stefanie Farnsworth: It’s a competitive business because the underlying technology from lamp to lamp is virtually the same. So, we’re basically going up against other manufacturers like Osram and Christie based on quality and price. Theater owners need to feel comfortable knowing that their lamp is going to perform for the lifespan warranty specified by the manufacturer(if not longer). That’s most important. From there, owners look at price. Market share can be pretty fluid in this business. A lot of sales get made based on established personal relationships and product reputations. But if you can demonstrate a superior product and sell it at a great price, you can capture a healthy segment of the market in a relatively short period of time. We’ve seen it happen in the past.

So bulbs are basically a commodity for theater owners?
Stefanie Farnsworth: Not exactly. There are some important distinctions from product to product. For instance, the new line of cinema bulbs we recently launched offers (higher light output)more candlepower) at lower wattages.

Jim Wells: What we’ve been able to do, for instance, is develop a 4,200-watt bulb that delivers the brightness of a standard 5,000- or 6,000-watt bulb. This design incorporates specific electrode geometries to provide better heat dissipation and light generation. The benefit is you maintain the brightness you need for optimum onscreen clarity, but you’re not drawing as much current and you’re not generating as much heat, so you have slower degradation. You get cost savings on several different levels.

And that’s how owners gauge quality—lifespan and brightness?
Stefanie Farnsworth: Yes, and you have to be able to show your commitment to manufacturing quality and product testing. When we bought the business from PerkinElmer, manufacturing had recently been moved from (an the previous ORC )plant in Azusa, California to a brand new facility in the Hi-Tech Industrial Park in Shenzhen, China, right outside Hong Kong. We are capitalizing on this new facility with (our highly trained personel and our readily available materials)
Jim Wells: Opening the Shenzhen facility gave us access to some of the most advanced manufacturing technology available today, along with a broadband communications and IT infrastructure. With this set-up, we are able to maintain all product design and testing at our headquarters outside Chicago.

Stefanie Farnsworth: We should add that a lot of manufacturers won’t offer warranties on their bulbs with the new digital systems, but we will. And, we’re always happy to do a sample run for good customers who need a specific custom design.