AI Vega Color goes way beyond RGB with 8 colors and 20 channels of control (updated)

By Jake Adams on May 04, 2012

See the end of this post for AquaIllumination’s reply to our request for more information about the AI Vega Color

Hold on to your polyps folks because the full spectrum AI Vega Color is ready to set some benchmarks. Why have only three colors of LEDs when you could have eight? And why stop at having separate color channels when you could just control every single LED individually? Our corals probably won’t grow any faster from all that added spectrum and LEDs dancing like a string of colored Christmas lights but holy crap is it cool!

A just leaked demo video shows the AI Vega Color flexing 20 channels of control, basically each LED is tunable and there are no fewer than eight distinct shades of LED including cool white, blue, royal blue, very deep blue (probably like an indigo), green, red and far red and of course it ain’t ballin’ without a little bit of UV sprinkled in.

So far the video on the AI Vega Color is all we’ve got to go on in terms of functionality. We’d expect the AI Vega Color to come in at least $100 more than the $500 AI Vega since the Color uses so many exotic LED colors, not to mention the extra hardware and programming required to deliver 20 channels of control. Since Aqua Illumination will be exhibiting at InterZoo 2012 in a couple weeks we’ll be sure to ask them about this new colorific version of the AI Vega in person.

Update: We reached out to AquaIllumination for an official comment on the AI Vega Color and they had this to say:

“We’re excited to hear the feedback regarding the release version of the AI Vega, but didn’t intend for this pre-production cut to be for public viewing. We intended to keep it internal until the official release which will be in the coming weeks, but that clearly didn’t work. We will fill RB in with final specs and pricing as we get closer to the launch, and debut the other products we have in the pipeline.”

XD_1

I figured we’d see something good after the long wait. The original specs seemed a little underwhelming.
Clive Bentley

Maybe AI is getting into the club scene.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Tibbits/8640355 Matthew Tibbits

I wonder if the program they showed is preprogrammed into it. I’d like to see what it looks like at full blast…. I’m wondering if the Very deep blue would be a Rebel ES royal blue (where the peak is 10 nm below the cree 455 nm peak).
XD_1

Matt, you’re more of a diode geek than I am. Do you think that this new assortment means the Vegas will be less intense than Sols? It seems to me the Sols with the stock optics shoot a narrow, deep beam that burns anything when set above 60%…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mathieu-Gagné/659241296 Mathieu Gagné

Pretty cool! But I’m not sure about the overall balance of colors. That’s alot of red and green, you don’t need that much to make the overall color looks natural. It might lack some blues too with only 4 blue LEDs. Maybe only 2 set of multicolors pad would be enough.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3PQR2S2EAZUDJKVYUCKLCWJ37Q Micheal

That’s what I was thinking, forget the aquarium time to open up a club!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3PQR2S2EAZUDJKVYUCKLCWJ37Q Micheal

While I know there are some that likes the “full spectrum”, I wonder how much of a deficit this will cause by having a little energy at a bunch of different wavelengths vs. a lot at a few areas. Or if this will be the next “actinic” type addition, where you use it to pop the colors you want as opposed to being the main light.
Clive Bentley

They aren’t likely royal blue Rebels. 5-10nm won’t make that great of a difference visually (slightly more purple tint, but still very blue). They may be more in the range of 420-430nm to get that violet color that they showed.
Justin Farabaugh

very nice video production
jake_harvey

pretty light show, but would have preferred to see a less disco version showing it over a box o’ water with critters in it.
http://twitter.com/gumbii gumbii garcia

am i the only person on this planet that thinks dubstep is stupid..? why is it all over the place…? who told them it was cool to just make random patterns of noise that don’t harmonize at all and call it music…?
Kovy R

I feel like I’m watching a lamborghini commercial! Very…intriguing.

I am excited to see the Vega Color. This might be EcoTech’s biggest competitor yet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Burton/501913282 Thomas Burton

I didn’t know that AI was getting into the disco lighting scene – DJ’s are going to eat this up! Seriously though, I want to see what this looks like in action over a reef.
Richard Mayo

perhaps AI should focus on actually releasing a product to the public rather than building fancy videos.
reefergeeker

DJ’s would love it. probably not the price. cool video, just not sure
how practical it all is. can is still grow coral?

did you notice LEDs
aren’t inside a fixture yet? Maybe only 6-9 more months before release!
how many months are we going on the AI vapor, err, I mean vega? 6 I
thinks?
paulvoresis

welcome to club vega!

if dead mouse had a reef tank, he’d light it up with an AI vega color for sures!

for best results supplement reef tank with one hit of E per 25-gallons per day!
Guest

Retracted in favor of subsequent post…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Tibbits/8640355 Matthew Tibbits

Yeah, I only wonder that because I don’t know of any major brand emitter in the 420-430nm range and AI always used major brand LEDs. I’d love a cree, phillips, or bridgelux 420 nm emitter.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Meadows/100001064246230 Matt Meadows

Just to clarify something folks. All you really need to grow your corals is to use a ratio of 1 neutral white and 2 royal blues. This combination alone looks quite incredible. If you really want to spice up your reds, toss in a couple reds or even warm whites on a dimmable driver, and if you have tons of SPS, maybe throw in a few 420nm true violets, but you DO NOT NEED color disco. You just need neutral white and royal blue, and you certainly will be pretty surprised at how lovely this looks (particularly if you stick to Luxeon or Cree whites)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Tibbits/8640355 Matthew Tibbits

Dan, if those big XM-Ls at the center are run at a decent current, these things are going to be even stronger. That being said, I’d rather have a few more royal blues in this set up. It seems odd that there are only two true royals in a 20 emitter set up, but 4 greens.
SolidStateLEDLighting

I expect we will see a very big run in sales on dancing fish. The rumor is this new unit will be low in cost but you’ll need 20 of them to cover an average tank. Extra heavy duty scaffolding to support the units will be sold at a premium
http://www.facebook.com/Scallen84 Scott C. Allen

OHH MY! I’m in love
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mathieu-Gagné/659241296 Mathieu Gagné

I personnaly don’t like this combination, the color rendition (CRI) is really crappy compared full spectrum sources. The only interest of it is the pop that all that royal blue is giving to fluorescent corals.
Phanboy

Been that route with Sol Blues and Radions…The Radions produced much better color than the Sol Bues did… Having said that, I went back to MH and T5. LED’s just don’t cut the mustard for color rendition.
CalmSeasQuest (Tom)

I agree – I’m surprised that no one is using (or at least adding) neutral and/or warm white. It seems that it would be far simpler and would blend better than using individual red and green diodes that appear to be much more than are needed. Clive – Don’t you agree?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Frode-Numan/659084887 Frode Numan

It has been a long wait. It was obvious AI had to do something with the colours in respect to the de Ecotech Radion, Orphek Nilus, Pacific Sun …but only from a marketing piont of view.

I do hope they will bring out a ‘simple’ blue and white version of the Vega as they showed as the ‘Phoenix’. Two of these would meet my (tanks) needs

Though maybe…maybe … I could come to like those reds…and then why not throw in some greens to.

Ah, just show me the PAR graphs, and full tank shots with this new Vega, and I can decide what to choose.
Mark van der Wal

Maxspect includes warm whites in the Mazarra P.
CaliReefer

My thoughts exactly. This seems like a nice light, but the colors are not what I would pick. The green, red, and far red would have to go, in place would be some warm whites. Maybe, if it your preference, have 1 or 2 regular reds (610-620nm which falls short of the photosynthetic spectrum that would grow algae, which is 640nm-665nm, yet still provides red coloring) depending on the size of the fixture, but a little goes a long way. For me the warm whites provide more than enough reds for my preference. Also the UV, unless anyone can show why there is a need for UV (I haven’t found anything definitive in all my research) then I wouldn’t add them, but I would add a lot of actinic (420nm) LEDs coupled with the other blues.

So while this may not be “my” perfect light, I do like the direction the Mfgs are going now by adding many different types of LEDs with independent dimming.
CaliReefer

When you throw in all the useless colors in regards to photosynthesis and try and get a PAR reading it is not going to be accurate. Since a PAR reading measures 400nm-700nm it will add in all the useless colors into the final PAR number, so it isn’t a fair comparison to put a light like this next to something like an AI Sol (RB/CW combo light).

You will get a higher PAR reading with this light but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be better at growing corals. I would rather see a spectral plot of each type of LED independently and then one with all at full power so I can do comparisons between this and other lights on the market to judge how well I think it would work.
under cover

I’m sick of reading people saying that exotic colors aren’t necessary. LEDs themselves aren’t necessary, but we like them for specific advantages they afford us. Same with color channel control. Coral can grow under practically anything, but we have to look at these boxes of water within our homes. I like being able to dial in the exact color I want. If you’re happy with ugly efficient light, there are PLENTY of options already available to fit that bill.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000280907922 Jonathan Ruddy

I am a DJ at a club here in Phoenix and I think that should go behind me in the booth not over my reef tank!!! That is the farthest thing from natural! I think I will stick with my Sol Blue for the price they are going to charge for that small thing. If I wanted something like that I would have picked one up from Guitar Center for cheaper a long time ago!!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001443324671 Patrick Jewell

YOUR STUPID.. jk but seriously…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Frode-Numan/659084887 Frode Numan

So why take PAR measurments of sun light? The whole purpose of measuring par, is that it is a better approximation of pur then lux.
Ofcourse combining it with the spectral output is usefull to give meaning to the par values. But only spectral output doesn’t tell us anyting about the energy emmited by the LEDs, and that is what I want to know
And for the Vega, I would like to see par values for each seperate color and each possible combintaion of colors
http://www.facebook.com/people/Frode-Numan/659084887 Frode Numan

All who have problems with Red, Green and Blue leds over their tank …how does your pc screen make all the colors you see?

If those lights put out enough PAR/PUR a watt, I’ll take them, cause I can set the light at just the color temperature I want for my tank. And each of us can adjust them to their specific whishes. Isn’t that just great?

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