Predator Arena lighting is now available to buy
Long time lurker, first time poster.....
Before the world got crazy I ordered a 9’ Diamond Paragon table due for delivery in June. No telling when it will actually get here but I’m pretty excited about it.
I’m looking at lights and want to get the new Predator Arena Light by Lucid but I can’t find out how or where to order one. I’m on my fourth email submission on the Lucid Ball website with no response. No phone number is given.
Does anyone know where I can get one or order one or have any better contact info?
I’m trying to post a picture of the rectangle light but it’s proving more difficult to learn than the Diamond system.....
I was searching the forums to see if anybody took the plunge to buy the Predator Arena lighting for at home use. It looks like this is the only thread, so I don't see much interest. Anyhow, I am considering replacing my Diamond coffin-style light with the Predator Arena in early next year. The lighting is now available for sale.
https://lucidballsports.com/where-to-buy/
Yesterday, I had a long phone chat with the engineer, who designed the light. His name is Ira Lee and he's based out of New York (phone: 917-579-2974). He is a very nice guy and incredibly passionate about lighting as you might expect. He is also an avid pool player and fan of professional pool.
One thing I learned is how they came up with the perimeter rectangle light design. They built a test prototype light which had tiny LED lightbulbs installed into a grid of sockets all hand soldered on a board. I believe he said the board had 40K individual lights. The grid of lights was exactly the size of the playing table surface. They ran an algorithm to analyze the lighting and they could disable/enable individual lights to keep tuning the quality of the lighting. Lo and behold, the optimal lighting was just having the perimeter lights enabled and the interior lights disabled. That was a big shock to them.
Another thing I learned is that they consider the lighting to be a platform for many other things. They will be releasing carbon fiber arm attachments in the near future, so that you can hang things like a short-throw video projector for pool training software, cameras for streaming, and laser-based training devices. He said a multi-camera setup for streaming can provide views from multiple perspectives like behind the rack, around perimeter of table where players are walking and the overhead view w/o keystone distortions.
He said they will eventually be selling tournament-used lights with a discount of $200 off new price. But, the only tournament they have done was one in Vegas in early 2020 right before Covid shut things down. So, they are mainly selling lights to home players, and in particular, people who want to get set up for streaming tournaments.
If I spring for the light, I'll post back with my impressions. I may wait to find a tournament used one to save a few bucks.