BB&S Area 48 Color LED RGBWW is now shipping

The BB&S Area 48 Color RGBWW is now shipping. The light was first shown at IBC last year in Amsterdam.

BB&S Area 48 light: A long-term test

I have been a big fan of the original Area 48, which I bought way back in 2013. Above you can see my review of the light.

A testament to how good the original Area 48 was, is that BB&S haven’t made a replacement in almost 6 years.

The original Area 48 put out 3290 lx at a distance of 1m when using the 5600K remote phosphor panel. It also had an extended CRI (R1-R15) of 91.23. Both these figures were exceptionally good for a light that is almost 6 years old!

When used with the 3200K remote phosphor panel the light has an extended CRI (R1-R15) of 96.09 which is the highest score I have ever recorded from a light tested at 3200K.

The new Area 48 Color isn’t a replacement for the original Area 48, it is just a new addition to the lineup.

The Area 48 Color features a very similar design to the original Area 48, but with a lot of changes under the chassis.

Highlights

The Area 48 Color can produce saturated and tinted colors as well as precise clean white light in both 2700°K and 5600°K. At 1.8K output, it matches the original Area 48’s remote phosphor daylight and tungsten color rendering at both ends of the spectrum (2500K to 10,000K). All while drawing only 185W at full power.

Weight & Size

The Area 48 Color measures in at 356mm / 13.97” wide, 275mm / 10.82” high, by 115mm / 4.53” deep, and weighs 5kg/ 11 pounds. The yoke is reversible for hanging or using on stands.

Color Accuracy

Precision color is a hallmark of BB&S Lighting. To ensure very accurate color rendition, BB&S utilizes RGB and both white LEDs (2700K and 5600K) that are selectively binned to produce outstanding rendition.

Soft Output Wide Dispersion

Like the Area 48 Studio and Soft, the Area 48 Color fixtures can provide an output that BB&S claims are comparable to a 1800W soft light. Maximum output is available in 5600°K and 2700°K. They deliver soft light, with wide 105º dispersion and a claimed 97.5 TLCI.

Touchscreen Operation

An on-board touchscreen offers local control or users can perform ON/OFF and color/white tweaking via DMX/RDM. DMX 512 also provides for daisy-chaining multiple fixtures. Settings for plus/minus green, plus/minus magenta allow you to easily match other fixtures. They also offer full range dimming (8/16 Bit from 0% to 100%) and run flicker-free at any framerate, to fully accommodate high speed shooting. It also accurately generates speed adjustable strobe effects within the fixtures software.

Standard & Optional Accessories

The BB&S Area 48 Color comes with a 48V power supply, locking AC cable and TVMP. They also feature removable barn doors for additional lighting control. Optional soft boxes, grids and diffusion are also available.

Price

The Area 48 Color is certainly not as affordable as other similar sized 1×1 RGBWW panel lights. But at $3,300USD it is almost $1,000 USD less than the ARRI S30-C SkyPanel.

Other more affordable options include the Lupo Superpanel Full Color 30 ($1.598USD), Luxli Timpani ($899USD) and the Rayzr MC 120 ($899.00) and MC 200 ($1199.00).

We will attempt to get hold of one for review to see how it matches up against other RGBWW panel lights.