The Nova Range
Here is Peter Daffarn demonstrating its characteristics at Cinec 2012, so if you didnt see it in person watch this.
Photon Beard were pleased to re-launch the Nova 270 Plasma light at IBC 2012.
As with most new technology there were some challenges to bringing this exciting economical light source to the broadcast and film lighting markets. Photon Beard are known for their build quality and attention to detail. Following some field trials with the original Nova design we identified a few areas where the beam quality was not optimal and rather than launch a less than perfect product we took the Nova back into the R&D lab. 
The Nova has gone through a major redesign over the last few months and the result is a unique approach to the implementation of Plasma lighting for TV and Film.
The Nova retains all the original energy saving benefits of the original product and is now housed within an extremely rugged housing to ensure it withstands the rigors of a tough live in the entertainment world.
Nova update : There have been some technical issues with the basic plasma technology that we have needed to solve before going into production with the Nova. We have now found solutions to these technical issues and are working towards a re- launch of the Nova around the middle of 2012. So far this is on target, and we are expecting to ship the first units by the end of June.
The new award winning Nova range which is still in its prototype form, won 2 awards at NAB 2011
The Nova is an LEP light. LEP is Light Emitting Plasma and is a far cry from LED. The light quality must be seen to be believed. Some people have called it - "A ray of sunshine"
The image to the right shows a Light Emitting Plasma envelope which is embedded in the RF "puck" which is used to focus the RF energy onto the gases in the envelope. This gets the gasses excited and they eventually turn to Plasma and generate a huge amount of light. That is a very brief overview of how a LEP fixture works.
273 Watts giving you similar output to 2000 Watts from a tungsten Fresnel
The PhotonSpot Nova range uses an established light source, Light Emitting Plasma (LEP) that is currently found in street lighting, aquarium and grow-lighting applications.
The source benefits from a high CRI of 94 meaning there is excellent distribution of the full spectrum of visible light whilst delivering an astonishing 14,000 lumens with a useful lifetime of around 20,000 hours. After this time you can replace the source to continue using your PhotonSpot Nova for many years.
LEP technology provides the following primary benefits:
Lowest Cost of Ownership
High Energy Efficiency
Reliability & Long Life
Daylight Output - 5600K
Near Full Spectrum (CRI94)
No Cooling Fans
Battery Power option
A preliminary data sheet is available here - PhotonSpot Nova 270 data sheet