ABSTRACT
Inanimate objects can be classifi ed scientifi cally into three major categories; those that don’t work, those that break down and those that get lost.—Russell Baker, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist
When automated lighting systems were in their infancy, two things were certain: they were sure to impress and they were sure to break down. The MARC 350 lamp, which was originally designed for 16-mm movie projectors, was a popular lamp source for automated lighting in the early 1980s because it has an integral dichroic refl ector, a high color temperature, and a relatively small arc. But it also required the use of an electronic switching power supply, which, at the time, proved to be relatively unreliable in automated lights. The lamp also suffers from relatively short lamp life and the color temperature varies quite a bit over the life of the lamp. Later on, some automated lighting manufacturers began using HTI lamps and magnetic ballast power supplies, which have fewer components and are much more reliable in this application. But the lamp life of the HTI lamp is also relatively low, and, because they require considerable cooling, the fans tend to be large and noisy.
