Lighting
Drone lighting
Aerial drone lighting is a lighting fixture flown as a payload, so the source can be put where no rigging reaches and moved while the camera is running.
AGL flies a 2x2 Stratus LED array, owned outright. Four 150 W emitters, 100,000 lumens, roughly the output of a 10 kW HMI. The part that matters is not the output. It is that the source is repositionable in real time.
01Fixture
The array
Four 150 W emitters putting out 100,000 lumens, roughly a 10 kW HMI.
Lighting payload
2x2 Stratus array
| Emitters | 4 x 150 W600 W |
|---|---|
| Total output | 100,000 lm |
| Roughly equivalent output to a 10 kW HMI. | |
| Repositioning | Real time |
| Ownership | Owned outright |
| Not a sublet, so it is not subject to a rental house lead time. | |
02Configurations
Two ways it flies
The full array goes under the Alta X on a gimbal. A single emitter goes on FPV.
The two exist for different problems. The full array is the one that replaces a large fixture, and it flies on the aircraft that can carry it. The single emitter gives up output to go where the Alta X cannot, and to move at a speed it cannot.
Full array
The whole 2x2 array on a gimbal, so the source can be pointed independently of where the aircraft is heading. This is the configuration that stands in for a 10 kW HMI.
Single emitter
One emitter flown on FPV, for shots where the light has to move at a speed the Alta X cannot, or reach geography it cannot.
03Fit
What this is right for
Aerial lighting is right for a night exterior where the source has to be somewhere rigging cannot reach, or has to move.
- Night exteriors where the source has to move with the shot rather than sit where it could be built.
- Repositioning between takes without a relight.
- Lighting from above, where there is nowhere to put a condor or a scaffold.
- Coverage that needs a key rather than a fill, at roughly a 10 kW HMI.
What this is not right for
It is not right for tight geography in the full array configuration, and a match to existing fixtures has to be confirmed before the night.
- A matched color temperature or a specific CRI, unless it has been confirmed for the job before the night.
- Long continuous burns. The night is planned around battery cycles.
- Precise or cued dimming, unless the control setup has been confirmed for the job.
- Interiors and tight geography in the full array configuration, which is limited by the aircraft carrying it rather than by the light.
04On the night
What it changes on a night exterior
It moves the source off the rigging, so the light can go where the shot needs it rather than where it can be built.
Conventional rigging fixes the position
A condor, a scaffold, or a tower puts the source where it can be built and holds it there. That is a decision made before the unit arrives, and changing it is a rig move that costs the day time rather than a note to the operator.
Flown lighting does not
The array is repositionable in real time. It can move with the shot while the camera runs, or move between takes without a relight. That is the whole point of flying a fixture, and it is the part worth planning the night around.
It is a key, not an accent
At 100,000 lumens, roughly a 10 kW HMI, the array is bright enough to be the source a night exterior is built on rather than something added to it.
What it does not remove
Flights are short and run on batteries, so the night is planned around cycles the same way a heavy lift day is.
05Booking
Book drone lighting
Send the shot, the location, and the night.
If the light has to match existing fixtures, say so early, so color temperature and CRI can be confirmed before the night.