: £3598..CHAUVETDJ.EU Mobile DJs have been transforming function rooms with coloured up-lighting for many years now, and wireless solutions for deploying it quickly and easily have been on the market for quite a while. But CHAUVET DJ’s new Freedom Flex H4 IP model takes wireless up-lighting to the next level. It’s a premium product that offers a unique feature as well as an elegant design that is supplied ‘roadready’ complete with a professional grade flight case.

70 70 sponsored by The Freedom Flex H4 IP itself is a par can specifically designed for up-lighting, with integrated feet to allow it to be placed on the floor and shine directly upwards as well as a built-in adjustable kickstand that can be used to angle the light inwards towards a wall or venue feature. It is fitted with four 10W hex-colour (red, green, blue, amber, white and UV) LEDs, and has a relatively narrow 23° beam angle, making it ideal for generating vibrant columns of light projecting up venue walls or for highlighting pillars or other distinctive features of a particular room.

The fixtures are bright enough to be effective even when there is a lot of ambient light, but look incredibly effective in a truly dark room. A luxurious matt black powder-coating gives the fixture a high-quality feel, while its sturdy metal construction means that it should easily withstand knocks and bumps when out on the road. It has a compact design – the top measures 138mm x 145mm and the unit stands 204mm tall – making it ideal for positioning inside truss plinths or standing inconspicuously against a wall.

The outer casing also has an IP54 rating, meaning that the fixtures are protected from rain, snow, dirt and sand, making them suitable for use at outdoor events. A discrete flip-up metal carry handle is located on the top of each unit, which is handy when distributing them around a venue. They are each also fitted with an M12 mounting hole, so can be attached to a mounting clamp if required. What sets the unit apart from every other wireless par can on the market is its unique replaceable battery pack design.

Unlike other models which feature a built-in lithium-ion power pack that is charged by connecting the whole fixture to the mains, the Freedom Flex H4 IP is supplied with a removable battery pack that is charged externally. This means that for a particularly long event (for example an all-day wedding running from midday through to the early hours of the following morning), it would be possible to swap in replacement battery packs half way through to keep the up-lighting running throughout.

Because of this unique approach to wireless par can power, a battery charger is also required to use the Freedom Flex H4 IP units. For this reason CHAUVET DJ is not suppling the fixtures individually, but in a pack of six – known as the Freedom Flex H4 IP X6 – which includes a flight case with a built-in 6-way battery pack charger. CHAUVET DJ FREEDOM FLEX H4 IP X6 CHAUVET The included flight case is tabs located a professional grade ‘fully battery pack to flighted’ model with a robust mechanism and plywood construction, protective simply drops aluminium edging and heavy-duty in the flight ball corners.

It is fitted with large charging. This castors, two of which can be locked six hours, while to prevent unwanted movement battery can run when stored or loaded in a vehicle. for around 8 It is also fitted with recessed slots up to 20 hours on top, which means that multiples one of the six can easily be stacked and wheeled into a venue in a single trip. As you would premium product Inside, the case has separate Freedom Flex solid sections for each of the six of operating pars, which are coated in dense selected and protective foam.

The hinged lid four-character is then fitted with pieces of thick four corresponding foam positioned above each par located on a slot to protect the front lens the bottom and hold the unit in place during not in use as transit. The battery charger is screen also mounted in the front of the case level indicator. and features a slot for each of six segments batteries as well as an IEC mains full charge and input socket and a status LED for each fixture which glows red when charging is in progress and green when it is complete.

This efficient design on the inside makes for compact external dimensions of just 530 x 490 x 430mm, however the combination of six robust fixtures, six highcapacity batteries, the charger and the touring-grade case also makes for a heavy lift. In fact the fullyloaded case weighs in at a total of 44kgs, which can just about be lifted by one person over a short distance – for example up into a van – but is ideally a two-person lift. To accommodate this, the case is fitted with four spring-loaded handles, with two positioned on each side.

Removing the battery pack from the fixture for charging is an extremely quick and easy process. You simply turn over the unit, squeeze together a pair of CHAUVET DJ FREEDOM FLEX H4 IP X6 DJ Freedom Flex H4 IP X6 on the top of the turn to indicate each 25% drop in release the locking battery power. pull it out. It then into one of the slots The recessed bottom panel is case and is ready for also the location of the fixture’s takes approximately two-position push-button power the high-capacity switch, however it doesn’t feature the fixture on full any input or output sockets. hours, which increases As a purely wireless fixture, the when using only Freedom Flex H4 IP doesn’t primary LED colours. feature XLR input/output sockets for wired DMX control or a power expect from a inlet to allow the fixture to run such as this, the from mains power if its battery H4 IP offers a variety dies. modes.

These can be configured using a The fixture is pre-programmed LED display and with 63 colour macros, which make push-buttons it easy to quickly select a static recessed panel on colour. However, if you need to of the unit. When achieve a precise hue, for example a menu, this display to match with an event’s colour serves as a battery scheme, the Custom Colour Mixing Its four central mode allows individual colour illuminate to indicate a mixing of the six primary LED then switch off in reedom Flex H4 colours to be achieved directly from the menu screen without the need for an external controller.

The units are also pre-programmed with four colour chase / fade programmes, which can be selected directly from the menu and set to run at a speed of your choice. Being truly wireless fixtures, the Freedom Flex H4 IP pars are also fitted with built-in D-Fi transceivers. This means that they can be controlled via CHAUVET DJ’s D-Fi wireless DMX protocol using the company’s dedicated FlareCON Air interface and associated smartphone/tablet control app or using any standard DMX control solution connected to CHAUVET DJ’s D-Fi Hub wireless DMX transmitter. is – he in-built wireless DMX transceiver can also be used for cable free master/slave linking of two or more Freedom Flex H4 IP fixtures.

This is very easy to setup and means that a colour macro, custom-mixed colour or automated pattern selected on the master unit will be instantly mimicked by all of the other connected slave fixtures. What’s more, each unit is also fitted with an infrared sensor and the package is supplied with one of CHAUVET DJ’s IRC-6 remote controls. This can be used to provide easy remote access to 10 pre-set colours and the four pre-programed chase/fade patterns as well as for manual colour selection and triggering of macros such as blackout and strobe.

This particularly useful as the IRC-6 can also be used to control the lead unit in a master/slave setup, so it could be used to set a room full of static up-lighting early on during an event and then swap to dynamic automatic programmes when the dancefloor begins to fill – all without the need for DMX. The Freedom Flex H4 IP fixtures themselves are high quality products that have clearly been carefully designed with their intended purpose – up-lighting always kept in mind.

Coupled with the equally welldesigned road case, the whole package is an excellent up-lighting kit for use by professional mobile DJs. What’s the catch? Well, there’s no catch per se, but I would be remise if I didn’t mention the price tag. Premium products usually come at a premium price, and the Freedom H4 IP X6 is no exception.

With a retail price of around £3500 for the kit, and an additional £162 for each spare battery pack, this will fall outside the budget of a lot of mobile DJs. However, if you yourself offer a premium service to your clients and are looking for a truly wireless uplighting solution, this may prove to be a very worthwhile investment. CHAUVET DJ FREEDOTMH FEL EEAXR HLY4 DIPA XY6S With your of your With Find out more and YO DJ Event Planner you’ll be able to manage business from anywhere, anytime.

Keep track bookings, appointments, clients, employees, equipment and most importantly, your time! all your tools in one place, you can handle every aspect of your business and ggeett bbaacckk time for you! get a free trial at UK and US Based Support Team