Pani BP4 HMI
A major landmark for Ludwig Pani, and forthe entertainment industry in general whenthey introduced in 1974 the now famous BP4HMI projector, just three years before thedeath of Pani in 1977. It had been developedwith the aid of Kurt Winter, former lightingdirector of the Bayreuth Festival Opera,when a 4000W HMI lamp was tested in the Pani SkW scenic projector. The HMI lamp isthe German equivalent of the CSI (compactsource iodide) and it emits something likefour to five times the halogen equivalent.The result was that scenery could now beprojected at a strong enough level thatwould also enable the acting to be litwithout any practical problems.
The BP4 is a massive piece of engineering,weighing in at 72kg, and is mounted on afour-wheel platform for easy movement Itcan then be set in position for accurate andsteady projection. The double slide carriertakes 18 x 18cm slides, it has built-in fans forboth the housing and slide gate cooling, andan interchangeable front lens system. It has aseparate ballast, and can be dimmed by anopti-mechanical device for either local orremote control of the shutters.
Three electrical supply points enable theBP4 and its derivatives to be either 110V0apan), 120V (USA) or standard 220V. Theballast unit is provided with a voltage selec·tor switch for remote or manual ignition, andeconomy switching allows the power to bereduced from 24A to 20A, saving on bothprojection slide and lamp life (average lamplife is 500 hours).