Vertex Illumina

[albert_dao]

Hi,

Thought I'd chime in on this one:

The Vertex Illumina was designed from the ground-up as an open platform which will offer seamless integration into the soon-to-be-released Vertex Cerebra network. This network, the heart of which will be the Cerebra, will take the fundamentals of reef/aquarium equipment (eg. pumps, lighting, dosers, etc) and connect them all into one user-friendly, ever expanding network. This is something that no other lighting unit can offer. What exactly is all this 'fluff' you might ask? Well, off the top of my head, these are some of the developments currently under way:

- Fully synchronized tidal/photo cycles, as close as you will ever get to replicating the oceanic seasons in your living room. Moon cycles that run in tandem with surge cycles and beyond.
- Real-time weather simulation, not lighting, but current too. Imagine, with the advances in dosing pump and refrigeration technology, can you imagine increasing the amount of liquid food additives during a storm surge?
- Fully customizable color channel control to parallel the seasonal spectral shifts (this will become even more powerful with the release of the auxiliary modules, including RGB/UV-Cyan, etc).

These are features are very real and innovative options for the ultimate simulations. Pending some upcoming beta testing, they should be available nearing the end of this year/beginning of 2011.

As it stands, the Illumina has undergone nearly three years of R&D. There are no cheap parts or labour put into the product. The entire assembly was designed and assembled with the "buy it once, never look back" frame of mind and I have not had a single issue with any of the hundreds of fixtures that I have sold over the past few months. Every unit, every LED pad is hand tested.

Regarding the performance - the document leaked earlier this year was part of a much larger article which contains all the PAR and spectral data. This article is awaiting final drafts and editing prior to publishing.

@ Ron99

If someone from Vertex were to post here regarding this unit, you would know it (Hi).

Personally, I cannot engage into the debate of spectral efficacy as it is not a field of research to which I have applied myself. However, I am confident that, with the spectral testing being done and the impending publishing of the article being just around the corner, the Vertex Illumina will easily stand apart from the crowd in its ability both exceed the expectations and impress with its array of exclusive features.

I will refrain from making an analogy between this and the rather obvious car market. I think we're all a little more intelligent than that. I will however state that, having seen all the offerings from every manufacturer out there, this is by far the most unique and exclusive illumination offering from any manufacturer. There is no other lighting product out there as polished or feature-rich as the Illumina and this gap will only become larger as the Cerebra and auxiliary modules are released.

@ BlueTang<3

Check out TheDogFather's thread on RC for a more users. I cannot think of a single product I have dealt with over my entire experience within this industry that has left so many people feeling as PROUD of their investment as the Illumina. A particular example stands out in my head; one of the Canadian end-users actually called my office to tell me about how many different lighting products he had used, tested/experimented with over the years and wanted to thank me because he was ‘finally done with buying lights for his fish tank’. We’re not talking hodgepodge Chinese junk either – Aquatics, Geissman, Hamilton, Sunlight Supply, ATI, this guy probably spent more on lights in the past decade than I have spent on my car. To hear this statement from someone who was in that position of knowledge and authority has left me feeling brazenly confident about the capabilities of the Illumina.

Regarding the rapid 'leap frogging' that LED manufacturers seem to be doing with each other, the Illumina will be fully upgradable. The shell/haul of the light is completely modular and, should LED technology happen to surge forward in efficiency, easily be expanded to the current offerings and beyond. I should mention that all of this can be done without any prior experience or knowledge. No soldering, disassembly or internal parts replacement. Each pad is completely modular and can be removed by hand without the need for any tools.

Anyway, I’m getting off the soapbox now and will recede back into ‘lurker’ mode. Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions regarding this or any other Vertex products.