REVIEWED: Equinox Helix 100W GOBO Flower
Moonflowers. Remember those old things? Once upon a time, they were the number 1 lighting fixture carried by every discerning mobile DJ in the land. You were a nobody if you didn’t have one. Abstract Twister 2s, 3s or 4s, Martin Destroyers, NJD Datamoons, EVL Spins, MAD Power Flowers and iShow 4s were regularly found atop DJ tripods all over the UK… so where did they all go?
In my opinion, the problem with lighting is that us DJs are like lemmings. When the latest shiny thing appears on the market, we all dump our old kit, join the queues and buy the new thing!
Let’s start with a quick history lesson. At one point in my life I had two Abstract Twister 3s and a pair of Twister 4s. I then got rid of those and replaced them with EVL Spin 250s. Then, when they were considered to be old hat, with their retro A1/259 lamps, I got some MAD Power Flowers. I liked those, but hated the shadow on the lamp so I got some iShow 4 HIDs, which were also great but suffered from lamp shadow too.
And then the dawn of the LED lighting revolution came with the introduction of the ACME InvincibLED and MiracLED! Before long, dance-floors all over the UK were sprinkled with bright, shiny, red, green and blue DOTS. It was the age of the DOTS folks and those pesky things stuck around for some time! During this time, ACME, one of the Prolight Concepts Group’s other brands, released a couple of white LED-powered moonflowers, the 50W Cheetah and a lesser powered, 25W unit called the Dynamic Spin 25. I actually owned a pair of Cheetahs and really liked them to be fair, but the beam angle was really narrow and just didn't give enough coverage on the dance floor.
Fast-forward a few years and the word on the street was that Abstract were looking to return to the scene with the Twister 5. Everyone sat up with interest, only to feel let down after an unfortunate launch at a SEDA ShowNight in 2017.
So, I think it’s fair to say we all love moonflowers. They’ve been a major part of the mobile DJ lighting evolution, but, in a world where moving heads are king, can a moonflower really make a difference once more? I think so.
So here we are… finally. The Helix 100W Moon/GOBO flower from the guys at Equinox. There’s no getting away from it, it’s been a long time coming, with lots of design changes to ensure that this is the right product. But all that time seems to have paid off!
It’s a small, compact unit, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and it’s pretty bright too. Some would say the elephant in the room is the shape, and yep, it’s not rectangular. But it will still fit inside a compact flight case no problem [Prolight has a dedicated twin padded bag] and, at just 4kg, it’s certainly not a back breaker! It's also set to be available in both white and black versions, which means it's an option for those who like to maintain an 'all white' rig.
On the front you have the lens with a manual focus ring and around the back you’ll find all the connections. You get an IEC power input and thru as well as 3-pin DMX input and output sockets. Unlike some other lighting units I’ve looked at recently, Equinox have gone for a small LED display, with four, eight-segment characters. Personally, I would’ve liked to see one of the nicer full colour displays that are becoming more common these days, as trying to work out some of the menu options can be a little confusing, unless of course you have the manual in your hand at the same time.
Inside, the beating heart of the unit is a mega bright 100W cool white (7400K) LED. Now, I, and many others, saw this at BPM in October 2019 and it really didn’t stand out. I was hoping that this was down to there being so much pollution from other lighting units in the building so was really pleased when I powered my pair of review fixtures up at a gig. They are bright, even with a load of mood lighting they really do stand out. The 40° beam angle gives really nice coverage as well, so if your average dance-floor size is anywhere between 12ft and 18ft square, these will be perfect.
The GOBO wheel features 11 static patterns plus open, and you’ll be pleased to know that the terrible ‘hand’ and ‘radiation symbol’ have left the building! Instead, you get some really nice breakout shapes and the inclusion of hearts and snowflakes make this fixture ideal for many occasions and events.
Colour-wise, you get 9 dichroic filters plus open, with some really nice, rich and vibrant options included. You can split the colours too, however I was a little disappointed to see that you can’t get a pink/white split like you could on the ACME Cheetah. Although, I guess you could have one unit on pink and another on white if you wanted to create a similar look for a first dance.
For those of you who like to run sound-to-light, there are a number of sound active modes you can access via the menu. If you have two or more units, you can run them in master/slave mode as well as access the built-in shows, of which there are eight to choose from. The manual breaks these shows down and tells you what each one does, which I think is really helpful. Another clever feature is that you can exclude the snowflake and heart GOBOs, but only together and not individually.
For real power over control, DMX is where you need to be. You get a choice of three different DMX modes, offering 2, 5 or 7 channels, giving you increasingly more control over the fixture. I use the popular Lightrider app on my iPad to control my lighting and had to make my own fixture profile so I could use the Helix. It was easy to do, but, as Lightrider doesn’t have a way of controlling the rotation of a dish inside a moonflower (it’s better for moving heads and wash lighting to be honest), I had to think outside the box a little and pretend that the dish rotation channel was actually the PAN channel of a moving head. This way I could easily set up a movement in Lightrider to make the dish spin around randomly, as well as give me access to the dimmer, GOBOs and colours, and this actually worked quite well.
Now, for first dances, you might, like me, want to set up a very slow rotating scene, perhaps using the hearts GOBO and the aforementioned white/pink colour combination, something like that. One thing about the Helix that really blew me away was the ability to slow the dish rotation right down to almost nothing, with absolutely no jerks in its movements whatsoever! One of my DJ friends asked me how slow I could make it go and when I sent him a video he was equally impressed. The transitions between colours and GOBOs are also extremely smooth, so under DMX you can get the Helix to do some really interesting things.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Helix is going to be a game-changer for a lot of DJs. It’s been a long-awaited product, and one I feel will be a hot seller for the Prolight Concepts Group. The 100W LED is extremely bright and looks great on the dance-floor and, with a bit of haze, will look absolutely stunning.
Where to go from here though? I would love to see a V2 of the Helix with a higher power LED and maybe interchangeable, rotating GOBOs. That, for me, would make it the ultimate moonflower! But for now, the Helix is fantastic and worth every single penny.
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 99, Pages 68-70.