Create the perfect lighting effect in every situation: the new Eclipse range from ERCO and its modular system of accessories

Lüdenscheid, March 2021. The strategy is clear: ERCO with its Eclipse product range targets applications with the highest standards, such as prestigious museums, art galleries and exclusive retail projects. With thousands of product variants, the new system of spotlights already includes an exceptionally wide range of solutions for individual lighting tasks. Eclipse also stays flexible in application thanks to a modular concept for its optics and accessories—a decisive advantage, especially regarding its intensive use in display and exhibition lighting. This gives lighting designers and practitioners the opportunity of modifying properties such as light distribution, light color and visual comfort to the specific task, both simply and precisely.

A central requirement of lighting concepts for museums, galleries and luxury retail projects is flexibility: this is because exhibits, exhibitions, forms of display, seasons of the year and ranges adapt and change over the lifespan of the lighting system. The Eclipse spotlight system is ideally prepared for this: four different sizes—XS to M for 48V systems and size L for 120V systems—offer an enormous range of lumen packages for applications of any scale. The luminaires can be freely positioned and aligned in the new Minirail 48V track or the classic 120V track. Thanks to appropriate accessories, the photometric characteristics of the high-end lighting tools can also be modified in no time at all. This allows users of the Eclipse range to configure highly specific tools for individual tasks. In the design-conscious retail trade, museum technicians or visual merchandisers can use Eclipse spotlights in various sizes, combined with their unparalleled range of suitable accessories, to build up a versatile stock of lighting tools and thus be optimally prepared for changing requirements.

A twist for a new light distribution

The key to the flexibility of Eclipse is the modular design of the complete system. The optics, in the form of lens units, can be exchanged for optics with different characteristics without use of tools. The fact that only one hand is needed for this is a great advantage when installing, as the other hand remains free to hold on to the ladder. The secure twist-and-lock interface between the luminaire body and lens unit is continued at the front of the lens units and accessories as an accessory connection. In this way, lens units and up to three accessory components can be combined with each other—providing almost unlimited combination options for modifying the light distribution, the spectral composition of the light and for improved visual comfort.

With the appropriate lens units as accessories, the user can thus transform a narrow beam Eclipse spotlight with spot distribution (18°) into a floodlight with wide flood distribution (51°) in next to no time—or else into extra wide flood (79°), oval flood (19° x 63°), oval wide flood (55° x 83°) or wallwash distribution. ERCO special features such as the ultra-compact Zoom spot (17° - 67°) and Zoom oval (25° x 65° - 62° x 68°) optics can also be retrofitted or exchanged in this way, as can the precise, high lumen-output and particularly user friendly new framing attachment for sharp contours (40°).

Lenses modulate the characteristic

Eclipse lens units already offer an unusually wide range of different beam characteristics with symmetric, oval and asymmetric light beams. However, ERCO's accessory lenses for Eclipse provide additional scope for matching the light beam to the lighting task: the softening lens spreads the beam slightly and creates a softer gradient with perfect uniformity at the center. The sculpture lens on the other hand is a familiar and highly proven tool particularly in the field of museum lighting—it spreads the light beam cross-section ovally for illuminating the typical proportions of sculptures. The sculpture lens is freely rotatable in order to match the illumination to elongated objects or target surfaces in any position.

Filters modify the light spectrum

The spectral composition of light not only has an atmospheric effect in a room in the form of a warm or cool light color but also strongly influences the color perception of illuminated materials, surfaces and objects. ERCO offers all four Eclipse sizes in no less than six different LED spectra from 2700K to 4000K, thus already covering many applications in practice. For fine tuning purposes, the four conversion filters Cold Filter, Cold Filter Plus, Warm Filter and Warm Filter Plus generate 24 additional color nuances from these six LED spectra. The Blue Light Filter absorbs blue components in the spectrum and thus reduces the damage factor to an absolute minimum for especially sensitive exhibits or with high illuminances. With this filter and the additional Skin Tone and Food special filters, no wishes remain unfulfilled in terms matching spectra.

Anti-glare elements for additional visual comfort and further connectivity options

Eclipse lens units feature exceptional visual comfort even in their standard state of configuration due to their minimal luminance at the light aperture. For special applications in display lighting, for example for high-contrast effects in very dark surroundings, professionals can use additional anti-glare elements that can be fitted to Eclipse 48V and 120V as accessories. These elements include snoots, i.e. additional anti-glare cylinders in suitable shapes for spotlights and wallwashers, as well as honeycomb louvers and barn doors. In addition to the standard 4-fold model, the special 8-fold barn doors for Eclipse are an asset: they are highly variable and can also be closed, completely light-tight, on the sides.

In terms of connectivity, Eclipse scores as standard with various control options—from wireless control with Casambi Bluetooth and Zigbee 3.0 to switching and 'on-board' dimming using a rotary control on the luminaire. Furthermore, spotlights controlled by Casambi can be connected to 0-10V systems via a bridge. Control via DALI is possible via gateway on request.

It is no coincidence that the design and functionality of Eclipse, as well as the scope of its accessories, are reminiscent of other precision optical products such as professional camera systems. Just as photographers equip themselves with an extensive camera system for any shooting situation, lighting designers with Eclipse have an extremely high-performance, flexible and future-proof toolbox that sets no limits in the creative use of light.