ACME TORNADO

The ACME TORNADO sits somewhere between a next level 1m bar light, five moving head lights in one, and a top-of-the-line, high-end effects light.

The TORNADO has five individual light heads featuring precise pan and tilt movements. Each head can be controlled independently with five 120W RGBL LEDs as its main light source, complemented by a ring of 120 0.5W RGB LEDs. It is a really interesting fixture.

It’s something you never knew you needed until you started playing with it. At first it is hard to figure out exactly what to do with it until you muck around with it and suddenly the possibilities are (almost) infinite.

Construction

It is IP66 rated, which I love. Such is the case with many of the newer ACME fixtures, and you can really tell it is IP66 rated. Being IP rated not only makes it more resistant to dust and water, but to touring and going in and out of the back of a truck.

The TORNADO is solid and well built. Build quality and robustness is something that is often missed or compromised on many effects-style fixtures that are not strobes or UV cannons. You could probably drop this onto a stage deck and you might do more damage to the deck than to the light – I did not test this!

It is 1m long, 192mm deep and 350mm high. The 1m long footprint is really smart and well thought out. It is heavier than you think. It caught me off guard when I first tried to pick it up. At 30kg, it’s definitely a two-person lift.

The TORNADO would work well en masse. You could make a wall or a tower out of them, and would be best used in a place where you can see the physical fixture. They would be great as eye candy behind a band, as a ground row, or to frame a LED wall or truss.

Optics, Colour, and Brightness

The optics are broken down into two parts. The first is the five 120W RGBL LEDs that make up the moving head light. The second is the smaller ring lights which contain 120 0.5W RGB LEDs. The 120 RGBL LEDs give a good range of colours including a nice white. It projects well. Brightness is a respectable 1,000 lumens. The smaller RGB LEDs do a good job as back lighting/eye candy type lighting.

LED life expectancy for the ACME TORNADO is 20,000 hours. That means you could run a unit for eight hours a day, every single day, for nearly seven years.

You get some good rich looking colours out of these lights. It is something that ACME did not compromise on when developing the TORNADO. Even the smaller lights give you good colour.

At its narrowest point, it gives off a nice tight beam and has a good wide throw when zoomed out. It has a 10:1 zoom ratio and it’s a smooth zoom in and out.

Applications and Features

Pan range is 59° and tilt range is 221°. The five individual light heads with pan/tilt movement can be controlled individually. I do wonder if they missed an opportunity to make the lights have infinite pan and tilt, which I think would have been very useful given the type of light it is. The outer circle of each light head has 24 LEDs, which can be controlled individually.

It’s the individual control that gives the ACME TORNADO its versatility.

As it is IP66 rated, its built for production houses. Take them onto any gig, they will be fine. You can do eye candy, you can do a beam/ spot, you can do colour washes, you can pixel map them and run content through them, you can use them to frame a LED wall, you can use them high, low, front or back. You are really only limited by your imagination. The more you play around with the ACME TORNADO, the more possibilities you will see.

They would be best suited for live shows and corporate gigs but would do just as well for TV and film. These would be at home in a night club or at a school. The uniqueness and usefulness of the light are its best selling points.

Control and Programming

This light is a little tricky to get your head around at first. It does not really fit into the conventional mold of any other fixture on the market. I did not quite know where to start when looking at the light, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a lot of fun. You can do so much with these. The real limitations are your imagination and programming (skill and time).

Control protocols include the usual suspects: DMX512, RDM, Art-Net and sACN as well as onboard control. There are five different DMX channel modes, 41ch, 71ch, 75ch, 85ch and 170ch. I was surprised to see that for a light that could do so much, the largest DMX footprint it had was 170 parameters. It feels like much more when you are playing with it. That said, if you want to use this light properly, you would run it in its full extended mode.

You can swap it out anywhere there is a 1m long bar light in your standard lighting rig and replace it with the ACME TORNADO for a much more versatile and high spec look.

It draws 935W of power, which is a lot. Many full size profiles and wash lights do not even draw that much. It’s a very thirsty fixture, especially when you consider that it is not really something you would have as the backbone of a standard entertainment lighting rig. This is not a problem if you have access to a lot of power, otherwise it could be worth flagging as you can only get two to a 10A circuit.

Verdict

l really changed my mind and my perception of the ACME TORNADO as I was reviewing it. I came into this thinking I was reviewing a cool looking niche effect light. I came away from this thinking I was looking at a very versatile, very well thought out fixture with a lot of possibilities.

If you are looking for a little something to make your lighting stand out, give the ACME TORNADO a whirl (pun intended).

Product Info: en.acmelighting.com/item/TORNADO

Distributor Australia and New Zealand: www.ulagroup.com

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The Specs

• Main light: 5 x 120W RGBL LEDs Outer circle: 120 x 0.5W RGB LEDs
• Total lumen output of fixture: 13,000 lumens
• Beam angle: 3°-30°
• Field angle: 4°-35°
• Control channels: 41/71/75/85/170 Pan movement: 59°
• Tilt movement: 221°
• Width: 1,000mm, depth: 192mm, height: 350mm
• Weight: 30kg