Flathead 80 System

The Flathead 80 system was designed as a softlight source that can be plugged into the wall on location.
With its narrow profile and size, the Flathead 80 can approximate the quality of light from bounced sources without losing set space.

The Flathead 80 system was designed to be compatible with the popular 4ft 4Bank components. In some situations more light was required and users were stacking 2 x 4ft 4Banks. Initial concept for the Flathead 80 was to make it out of plastic like the 4ft 4Bank, but because of its size, the final design called out for a metal wrapper.

Since many customers and rental houses already had 4ft 4Bank components in their stock, Kino Flo decided to use 2 x 4Bank ballasts instead of creating a Flathead 80 ballast. The advantage of this approach is that it increases rental utility, minimizes investment and allows for individual lamp control.

The Flathead 80 system consists of six components: Flathead 80 Fixture (fig 1), Mounting Plate (fig 2),
Ballast x2 (fig 3) and Extension Cable x2 (fig 4). It was designed as a remote-style fixture to give the greatest rigging flexibility for production crews.

Flathead 80 Fixture

The Flathead 80 fixture houses the lamps and is comprised of a removable Gel Frame, Louver and Cardholders. The gel frame is secured to the fixture by four spring loaded pins. The louver is held in place by a set of leaf springs.

The fixtures can take a variety of lamps. They can be used as a daylight source by using Kino Flo KF55 lamps or
a tungsten source using Kino Flo KF32 or KF29 lamps. Visual effects lamps for blue and green screen and a variety of designer colors are also available.

Kino Flo lamps are color correct and safety-sleeved. The lamps are safety-sleeved because the lamps are often changed out. The safety-sleeving offers protection for the user as well as the talent on the set.

Center Mount

One of the design features that makes the fixture so popular is the twist-on removable Center Mount (MTP-K81). When it's on, the fixture mounts easily to a light stand; when it's off, the fixture is flat and can be hand-held,
or hidden in a space too small to place a stand-mounting fixture. The screw holes along the back of the fixture
are designed to allow the fixture to be screwed to a wall or ceiling.

Example of Flathead 80's screwed to
the ceiling on a commercial shoot

All the features of the Flathead 80 fixture would be useless if Kino Flo had not developed its own ballasts that could run the fixture heads remotely. Unlike conventional architectural ballasts that need to operate three feet to six feet from the fixture head, Kino Flo ballasts can operate the fixture heads from up to 75 feet (3 x 25ft extension cables).
      
The Kino Flo 4Bank is a high output, high frequency electronic ballast that can operate four 4ft lamps up to
75 feet between ballast and fixture. To power the Flathead 80 fixture, 2 x 4Bank ballasts are used. The Select Ballast sends a high output current to the lamps to drive the light as brightly as possible. Its high frequency electronics prevent any type of flicker as well. A special heat-sink design and custom electronic engineering ensure stable operation without magnetic hum or cooling fans to interfere with the sound recording on set.

There is no delay when switching lamps. The ballast operates the lights on/off instantly. There is also a special
Select switch to raise or drop the wattage in the tubes for light output and color control. Keeping the ballast remote from the fixture and lamps makes the controls more accessible to lighting crews who might need to rig the fixtures into set designs or high up in a lighting grid, but switch them easily from a convenient location on the stage floor.

Our new Select/DMX ballasts can be run manually like the standard Select ballasts, or via a separate DMX control board. Notice we haven't used the word "dimming" to describe lighting control. The reason is that dimming changes a lamp's color temperature and color balance. The 4Bank Select Ballast has individual switches
so that each lamp can be turned on/off. Additionally, the lamps can be operated in a high output/standard output mode. This combination controls light levels without the color shift issues you have with dimming.

The Kino Flo 4Bank Select Ballast accomplishes all this and still out performs tungsten lighting instruments
10 to 1 when it comes to energy efficiency. In other words, the Select ballast uses 1/10th as much power
to produce the same amount of soft light as incandescents. The Select ballast works reliably under most
normal conditions, but it's also trustworthy in more harsh conditions, such as extreme cold. The Select ballast series is designed to operate at temperatures from 14F to 122F (-10C to +50C).

In extremely cold temperatures, the ballast may not strike the lamp(s) initially because the lamp may need
to warm up. Switch the ballast to Off, wait seven seconds and try again. If the ballast does not strike after
two or three attempts, turn off the ballast, check that the extension and harness connections are secure and
re-strike. Once operating for a few minutes, the lamps should re-strike instantly.

See operation manual for more detailed information.

Up to 75 feet (3 x 25ft) of extension cable can be used between the fixture and the ballast.

If the 4Bank Select Ballast is the brains, then the lamps would be the beauty of the Flathead 80 System.
The vaunted T-12 tube offers a large surface area of soft light. The wide design creates a nearly shadowless display that drops off evenly.

Smaller source fluorescents, such as the compact 55W lamps used in the Kino Flo Diva-Lites , can be brighter, but they are a bit hotter and create denser shadows as well. Kino Flo compensates for the lower
light level associated with T-12 tubes by overdriving each one with the Select ballast as described above.

A discussion of the various lamps available for use in the Flathead 80 System in the Lamp Section provides more information on the types of lamps available from Kino Flo. It's important to know that the True Match daylight and tungsten 4ft tubes common on sets around the world are unique to Kino Flo because they
display broad, even color correct light that cinematographers have come to depend on. These are the only
high color rendering fluorescent lamps made for the professional film and video production.

The Flathead 80 System will operate any 4ft T-12 tube but the color will not be true and the life span will be shorter. All True Match lamps used in the Flathead 80 fixture are available Safety-coated. Safety-coating protects the user from broken glass if the tube breaks.