Smith And Kole Lighting Technology

A Practical Guide to Working With Smith And Kole Lighting Technology

Smith And Kole Lighting Technology has been a quiet part of film sets for years without getting much hype. They make LED panels, dimmers, grip gear, and mounting systems. The panels are fine for most work. The dimming curves aren't perfect out of the box, which is something I learned the hard way.

Understanding the Panel Architecture

The core design uses high-CRI LEDs arranged in a grid pattern with a dual-diffuser system. Most people don't realize the second diffuser isn't just for softening the light. It also helps flatten the beam pattern so you don't get hot spots when moving the light closer to a subject. On their 1x4 or 2x2 panels, the beam angle sits around 120 degrees with the stock diffusers attached. What beginners miss is the dimming behavior. At low percentages, these panels tend to shift slightly warmer before they go dark. If you're dialing down past 20 percent, expect the color temperature to creep up a few hundred Kelvin. I ran into this on a documentary shoot in an actual windowless basement in Atlanta. We needed a very low fill on a subject's face and every fix from the default presets looked inconsistent. I ended up pulling the data sheet and found there was a user-adjustable minimum output threshold in the service menu. You access it by holding the dimmer button for eight seconds on the rear panel. That let me lock the lower limit at 5 percent without the color shift kicking in.

Power and Control Setup

These lights run on standard DMX512 and also support Art-Net over Ethernet. A single controller can manage up to 512 fixtures on a traditional DMX run. When I transitioned to Art-Net on a larger set, I found that keeping the network under three switches and under 60 fixtures per subnet prevented any flicker or dropouts. More than that and you start seeing latency issues, especially on cheaper switches. Power draw on a full-output 2x2 is roughly 150 watts. That is manageable on a single 20-amp circuit if you are not running too many other pieces of grip equipment simultaneously. But here is the practical constraint nobody mentions: daisy-chaining power through the standard IEC connectors on multiple panels will add resistance and cause a slight voltage drop across the line. I measured about a 3 percent dimming difference between the first and last unit on a six-light daisy chain. Running separate power feeds to each panel eliminates that issue entirely and takes maybe ten extra minutes to set up.

Common Installation Mistakes

The mounts that come with these lights are decent for overhead suspension, but they are not rated for heavy sandbagging. I have seen setups fail because someone hung a 2x2 from a standard C-stand arm with a sandbag clipped on, expecting it to hold. The arm bent. The light dropped. Nobody got hurt, but the shot was lost and the crew was angry. Use a proper yoke mount into a pipe grid or a direct stand connection. That takes about two minutes longer and prevents any accidents. Another issue is heat dissipation. These panels are passive cooled, meaning no fans. They rely on the aluminum housing to shed heat. If you cover the rear vents or install the light in an enclosed fixture pocket, the thermal management falls apart and the driver will throttle brightness automatically. I learned this while shooting in a tight interior where the panel was mounted behind a scrim frame with nothing but cloth on three sides of the back. The light started dropping output after about forty-five minutes. Opening up the back side and giving the housing airflow restored full output immediately.

Color Accuracy and Calibration

p>The CRI rating on the standard Smith And Kole panels sits around 95 plus, which is solid for most production work. But CRI alone does not tell the whole story. TLCI and Rg values matter more when you are matching these lights to existing practicals or mixing them with fluorescent fixtures on set. I have seen crews get burned by assuming a 95 CRI meant a clean match against older T8 tubes. The spectral output of those fluorescents is spiky, and no matter what CRI the LED claims, the colors still look wrong on camera. Using a handheld spectroradiometer like a Sekonic or a Color Munki can reveal this mismatch before you commit to a shot. It saves hours in post.

For calibration, the panels ship with a default preset curve. If you need consistent color across multiple units, running them through a manual white balance reference at your target color temperature is necessary. I keep a Kodak gray card on set and shoot a reference frame at the start of every setup. Then I note the RGB values and adjust any panels that deviate by more than 0.02 from the target. It is a small step that catches unit-to-unit variation before the director calls action. Smith And Kole Lighting Technology is not designed for weather resistance. The enclosures are aluminum, but the connectors and internal electronics are not sealed against moisture. If you are shooting outdoors in rain or high humidity, you need a protective cover or you risk corrosion on the contacts. I once left a panel connected to a power source outside overnight after wrapping it in plastic. The next morning the DMX ports showed green residue and one panel would not sync. It took three days to get a replacement part ordered. Another limitation is the lack of built-in battery options. Every panel requires external power. On location shoots where generators are far away or power is unreliable, this means running long cable runs or investing in external battery plates, which add cost and weight. If portability is a priority, you might be better served by a self-contained LED unit with native battery support instead of relying on these panels.

The software interface is also fairly basic. There is no cloud connectivity or remote monitoring. You control everything locally or through a conventional lighting desk. For large-scale productions that use networked control rooms, this can feel limiting. Some crews workaround this by running DMX over a wireless system like a Freznel or a Racket Wireless, but that introduces another point of failure and requires additional equipment coordination.

Practical Workflow Recommendations

If you are using these panels regularly, labeling each unit with its DMX address and power feed location at the start of every shoot saves significant time during strike. I use colored gaffer tape with marker codes directly on the housing. A blue square for unit one, red for unit two, and so on. It takes about five minutes per light but cuts the teardown process down to roughly fifteen minutes instead of forty. Keep a spare DMX cable and a spare IEC power cable on hand. The connectors on these panels are functional but not indestructible. I have replaced three cables on a single panel over two years of regular use. Having spares means you do not stop shooting to search for replacements. For storage, do not stack panels on top of each other during transport. The diffusers scratch easily and the housing can dent if mishandled. Use padded cases or individual dividers. This extends the lifespan of the optical surfaces and keeps the light output consistent over time.

These lights are workhorses. They are not fancy, and they are not perfect. But they get the job done when you understand their limits and work within them. Plan your power runs, check your thermal clearance, calibrate across units, and keep spare cables nearby. That is the practical routine that keeps things running smoothly on set.