iPhone Apps for Lighting Designers

Many lighting designers carry an iPhone in their pocket each day – and now that Apple has finally allowed third party developers to create applications for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software, some handy lighting tools are now available to these LD’s – right on their own iPhones.

West Side Systems, a developer and publisher of personal computer products for entertainment lighting design, has released three of these handy apps specifically for iPhones including DMXCalc, PowerCalc, and BeamCalc.

DMXCalc is a DMX address calculator that helps you with all basic DMX address arithmetic for entertainment lighting system setup such as: the first dimmer number in a particular rack, the address for a particular luminaire, and the proper dip switch settings for a particular address.

PowerCalc is a basic watts/volts/amps calculator. Many of us have those formulas memorized, but it is still handy to have the math done for you quickly and error free. It can help you determine total power needed for a light rig, total wattage for a particular 12V supply, and how much wattage a multi-phase service can handle.

BeamCalc is a beam calculator for stage spotlights using basic beam geometry. With it you can determine how large of an area a luminaire can cover, angle of a lighting position to the stage, and what lens will work best at for a particular throw.

For less than $2 each, these application tools can come in quite handy while on stage working through your lighting design. You can learn more about the applications and West Side Systems at their website (here).