Absen distributor invests in 1,000sqm of transparent LED

May 30, 2023

By Guy Campos in Displays, Live Events December 7, 2021 0

French rental and staging firm Alabama has become the owner of the largest small-pitch transparent LED inventory in Europe, after purchasing 2,000 panels of the Absen Lyra (LR) Series.

Absen and French rental stager Alabama have reached a new level of co-operation in their eight-year-old distribution partnership by agreeing on the sale of 2,000 panels – totalling over 1,000sqm – of Absen Lyra (LR) Series transparent LED, effectively making Alabama the go-to company for this product type in Europe.

This new inventory will be used alongside the 800sqm of Absen LED products already owned by Alabama, which includes Polaris 2.5mm indoor rental LED and Altair Series AT5 Pro mobile indoor / outdoor products.

All in all, this means that the Novelty Magnum Dushow Group – Alabama's parent company – now owns over 5,000sqm of LED available for rental.

"Transparent LED has been around for years, but it's not always been the most practical product type for a number of logistical reasons," said Christian Czimny, industry product director at Absen. "With Lyra, we’ve created a product that has excellent definition and endless creative possibilities, all in a package that can be rigged by one technician."

The IP65 rated Absen Lyra boasts a 3.9mm horizontal pixel pitch (7.8mm vertical) and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Each panel measure 1000mm x 500mm. Existing Absen customers will also benefit from the same stacking system already found on Absen's rental staging range of products, including the award-winning Polaris. With a weight of only 12kg per square metre, Absen Lyra is three times lighter than traditional LED panels with similar resolutions.

Despite being 50% transparent, the Lyra Series’ black PCB boards produce stark contrast – 4,000 nits outdoor – making them as useful as traditional LED in terms of performance, while the refresh rate is >3840Hz, which makes Lyra equally suitable for broadcast and live-streamed gigs and events. Lyra panels can be angled from -15˚ to +15˚ in order to create curved displays.

Maintenance is also extremely easy and fast. The Lyra LED panels themselves can be changed from the back in less than 10 seconds without switching off the whole screen.

The new Lyra Series was designed as a joint effort between Absen and Alabama. "Absen is constantly listening to the market," said Czimny. "We believe this is the only way to create the very best products, and strategic partners like Alabama are a vital source of information and collaboration in this process."

Alabama also worked closely with Absen's engineering team to develop an extremely light and robust plastic-based flight case for the product, which can be stacked in threes to save space in trucks, warehouses, and venues; all while saving money for the client.

"Productions are extremely excited about this new inventory, as it has great transparency, great resolution, and great weight," said Alabama's technical director Joël May. "On top of logistical and performance advantages, it affords lots of creative opportunities, like the ability to mix reality with an image.

"Scenographers will inevitably need some time to reach the full potential that this transparent LED product brings, but once they do, the possibilities are extremely exciting; so exciting, in fact, that we already have up to 90% of our new transparent LED stock due to be on the road until summer 2022."