Lighting manufacturer Aputure has acquired fellow lighting manufacturer Prolycht. Aputure describes the acquisition as a “strategic union” that will “fortify Aputure’s legacy” in film and TV lighting technology.
The acquisition comes with some great benefits for Aputure and its future products, including the Prolycht RGBLAC technology shown off in the Orion 675 FS (buy here). The terms of the acquisition have not been released.
Who is Prolycht?
Prolycht is a company that came together when a group of leading colour scientists who wanted to create better LED light. They wanted to use their years of experience studying colour reproduction and the perception of colour and turn it into real products.
They’ve led the way in a number of respects when it comes to lighting technology, including the RGBLAC system mentioned above. RGBLAC integrates the standard Red, Green and Blue parts with Lime, Amber and Cyan to create a much wider (and complete) overall colour spectrum.
It delivers very high colour accuracy, which has always been the stated goal.
Who is Aputure?
Aputure was founded in 2005 by a team of filmmakers. They wanted to produce professional-grade tools at affordable prices for mere mortals. Since that time, they seem to have achieved that goal consistently. Today offer a wide range of products targeted towards every type of user from absolute beginners to battle-hardened Hollywood veterans.
The team at Prolycht, along with the technologies they have developed, are now part of Aputure. I think this means we’ll probably be seeing RGBLAC technology coming to Aputure lights in the near future. It also explains why we haven’t seen Aputure developing any RGBLAC lights of their own after Prolycht and Nanlux announced theirs.
They have been developing their own colour system, though, with the proprietary RGBWW system used in the upcoming Aputure Electro Storm C15. This technology also boasts very high colour accuracy. It will be interesting to see which of the two technologies will be most prominent in future Aputure products.
What about existing Prolycht customers?
It sounds like Prolycht will no longer be producing any products at all in the future and will be wholly integrated into future Aputure products. The company has said that the Prolycht team has plans in place to ensure that existing Prolycht customers get the warranty and repair support they need for as long as possible.
Exactly how long “as long as possible” actually is remains unclear. But for now, you can get some level of support by reaching out to them at service@prolycht.com. Hopefully, before Prolycht support ends for its existing products, Aputure will have equivalent replacement models available.
What’s next for Aputure?
The terms of the agreement between Aputure and Prolycht have not been released. But the wording suggests that all of the Prolycht staff will be staying on in some capacity at Aputure.
No new products have been announced alongside the acquisition, and there are no hints as to how soon we might expect something. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Aputure will integrate RGBLAC with something at some point, but “when” is another matter entirely.
Aputure may decide to go all in on RGBLAC and focus on getting that out quickly. They may have already been working on it, and we’ll get a surprise announcement (or development announcement) at IBC 2023 in Amsterdam next month.
Of course, Aputure might sit on it for a couple of years to really perfect and tweak it and integrate it into their Sidus Link system before announcing anything publicly. We might just see updates to existing models for a while before anything RGBLAC is announced.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
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