ACME MANA PROFILE & MANA HYBRID Road Test

ACME has a strong presence in the touring market, here and overseas. Over the years, ACME has gained a reputation for listening to their customers and really taking on the feedback they receive; their recent range of fixtures really demonstrates this. Both the ACME MANA PROFILE and the MANA HYBRID have a lot to offer.

Construction

MANA is a family of lights, so they are constructed similarly. The only difference is that the PROFILE is 2kg heavier than the HYBRID. Width is 380mm, depth 284mm, and height is 658mm, with weights of 32.5kg (PROFILE) and 30.5kg (HYBRID).

Both are IP66 rated, a massive tick in my book. IP rated moving head fixtures are now becoming the norm, and I think that is a great thing.

They are both solid, chunky looking lights. They are workhorse fixtures, not an eye candy or effects lights – function over fashion all the way.

While there is a MANA PROFILE and a MANA HYBRID, there is not yet a MANA WASH, at least not at the time of writing. It would be good if they did have an accompanying wash light. Typically, when people are specifying lights for a show or purchase, they are looking for the Wash and the Profile to be able to work together and complement each other.

Optics, Colour, and Brightness

Both use a 600W LED engine with a native 7,000K source that uses subtractive linear colour mixing (CMY). The PROFILE outputs 26,000 lumens, where as the HYBRID does 21,000 lumens. The lumen difference seems large on paper but in person it is much more subtle.

Both the ACME MANA PROFILE and the ACME MANA HYBRID feature linear CTO colour correction, which ranges from 2,700K all the way to its native 7,000K. They have a single colour wheel which has six colours as well as a linear CRI filter. Both feature a 170mm frontal lens.

The MANA HYBRID has a very impressive zoom range of 2° all the way out to 45°. The 2° beam is almost laser-like. The MANA PROFILE features a zoom range of 3.5°-45°. The 45° gives a good wide wash, maintaining a lot of its brightness and producing a nice, flat field.

Applications and Features

The main difference worth noting is that the MANA PROFILE features a framing system, whereas the MANA HYBRID does not. The MANA HYBRID instead features a larger zoom range and a larger range of gobos.

The shutter blades for the framing system of the MANA PROFILE features four blades, each with separate movement and full blackout from a single blade. As far as I’m concerned, full backout from a single shutter and a 4-plane system is a must in a shutter kit.

The MANA HYBRID contains one static gobo wheel with 13 gobos, plus open as well as a rotating gobo wheel with eight gobos, plus open.

The MANA PROFILE has one static gobo wheel with nine gobos, plus open, and one rotating gobo wheel with eight gobos, plus open.

Both fixtures have steady, smooth dimming with four user-selectable dimming curves. Dimming curves are very relevant in the modern LED era. Different dimming curves can be quite noticeable in modern LED lights if you know what you are looking for. Naturally, LED does not dim the same as other more traditional light sources.

The motorised linear iris is really smooth and indexes well. All parameters are 16-bit making things much smoother, feeling much more precise and giving the operator more control. 16-bit parameters are the benchmark for high-end moving head profiles and we are seeing more lights offer this instead of 8-bit parameters. Will we soon start seeing fixtures with 24-bit or even 32-bit parameters?

Control and Programming

Both lights consume 910W of power. If ample power is at a premium in the venue you are in, this might be worth noting.

The four compatible control protocols for the MANA range include DMX512, RDM, Art-Net and sACN, the protocols you would expect from a high-end fixture. The MANA HYBRID can be run in either 24 or 30 channel mode. The PROFILE can be run on 22 channels, two different versions consisting of 31 channels, as well as 40 channel mode. It can be controlled via 5-pin waterproof XLR or an RJ45 connector.

The pan range of movement is 540° and the tilt range of movement is 260°. A moving head profile does not need to have infinite pan and tilt.

Verdict

These are both solid workhorse fixtures, and are fantastic lights. A reliable moving head profile forms part of the backbone of any modern lighting rig.

Overly simplified, the difference between the two is really whether or not you need the shutter kit.