New MSP Beacon
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coop359
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Mars Light
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dmathieu
Lifetime VIP Donor
Abacus
Member
It's in the Sound Off latest promo. Looks like a modified roads N short dome. Gotta love old school simple and effective lighting packages.
wfdstation42
Member
Michigan State Police Updates Iconic Beacon Lighting
The agency modernized its patrol vehicle lighting, while keeping the same iconic look.
www.government-fleet.com
This article mentions they partnered with Soundoff.
Cherokee County Sheriff in Georgia has some units fitted with the old version of this light. You have NO problems seeing them so the new version having more LED's should be crazy. I'd love to see a new fire engine built with 2 of these roof mounted like the old days of dual Beacon Rays.
wfdstation42
Member
I remember someone here having one for sale maybe eight or ten years ago, in blue. I realize now that I probably should have bought it, especially seeing as these haven't become nearly as common as I imagined they might become.
firebuff17
Member
All this talk about the new beacon.
But anybody have videos of it?
But anybody have videos of it?
I've yet to track down one to get video. I'm trying though. They are made by Soundoff here in Michigan. The lower "scene" lighting i've been told is junk and isn't bright enough for anything at all.
They researched and developed because the 23 Tahoes are too tall with the currently Unity light to fit into troopers garages. So rather than tell them to park them outside, they developed a new light.
Pretty stupid in my opinion.
They researched and developed because the 23 Tahoes are too tall with the currently Unity light to fit into troopers garages. So rather than tell them to park them outside, they developed a new light.
Pretty stupid in my opinion.
C17LVFD
Member
I think I would take the Whelen retro-fit any day over this and just park on the street.
Seth
Seth
dmathieu
Lifetime VIP Donor
firebuff17
Member
dmathieu
Lifetime VIP Donor
I think it’s Gord
on County that has the LED beaconsMichigan State Police Updates Iconic Beacon Lighting
The agency modernized its patrol vehicle lighting, while keeping the same iconic look.
This article mentions they partnered with Soundoff.
Cherokee County Sheriff in Georgia has some units fitted with the old version of this light. You have NO problems seeing them so the new version having more LED's should be crazy. I'd love to see a new fire engine built with 2 of these roof mounted like the old days of dual Beacon Rays.
NPS Ranger
Member
JohnMarcson
Administrator
First I have to give some credit to Sound Off for being a domestically produced high quality product at a lower price point. I have in the past outfitted vehicles with sound off equipment and been very happy. Also, I should disclaim that I was never happy with the retro fitted unity beacons because I wanted to see an upsized version of the LED rotabeam instead with a line of spitfire white built-in. Also, I do like the idea of Michigan keeping the single beacon theme going.
All that disclaimed I feel like this beacon is taking a step towards the secondary lighting market and putting it on top of a slick top vehicle. Michigan has been slowly adding more lights to their patrol cars for years and you could argue that any of their vehicles are just slick tops with a beacon slapped on them at this point. But the footprint of this light specifically that it lacks a metal base, makes me feel like it's not the full "beacon asthetic". The bottom functions as a flood light, which in theory is a great idea and kind of goes back to the whole Darth Vader commander. But in function, the LEDs in the base are completely insufficient for area lighting to the point where I think they should not have been included. I know I'm probably in the minority as someone who likes the appearance of the single beacon more than the functionality that one could obtain with modern technology. I just think that area lighting could be better achieved with push bumper mounted larger flood lights combined with pillar mounted spotlights or even small lef "brow lights" ; then the beacon can be left alone since this is essentially a slick top anyway. I'm sure the idea to put takedowns into this looked great on paper, but in practice it detracts from the appearance and doesn't add a lot to the function. I can't say for sure that the example I have seen in person is the final version, but I was not impressed by the white area lighting function at all. The warning capacity of the red was absolutely on par with what they have now. At the end of the day I definitely have nostalgia for the chrome base and hate to lose it in order to gain what I perceive as a feature that isn't extremely effective. However, I am happy to see Michigan going with Sound Off and I am happy to see Sound Off working to produce some not so typical products like this. They used a michigan-based company to produce a specific device that keeps their traditional look alive to some extent and I should probably just be happy with that.
Tldr; I miss the chrome base and I'm not a fan of the brightness of the flood feature that replaces the chrome base. I'm glad to see them go with sound off though
All that disclaimed I feel like this beacon is taking a step towards the secondary lighting market and putting it on top of a slick top vehicle. Michigan has been slowly adding more lights to their patrol cars for years and you could argue that any of their vehicles are just slick tops with a beacon slapped on them at this point. But the footprint of this light specifically that it lacks a metal base, makes me feel like it's not the full "beacon asthetic". The bottom functions as a flood light, which in theory is a great idea and kind of goes back to the whole Darth Vader commander. But in function, the LEDs in the base are completely insufficient for area lighting to the point where I think they should not have been included. I know I'm probably in the minority as someone who likes the appearance of the single beacon more than the functionality that one could obtain with modern technology. I just think that area lighting could be better achieved with push bumper mounted larger flood lights combined with pillar mounted spotlights or even small lef "brow lights" ; then the beacon can be left alone since this is essentially a slick top anyway. I'm sure the idea to put takedowns into this looked great on paper, but in practice it detracts from the appearance and doesn't add a lot to the function. I can't say for sure that the example I have seen in person is the final version, but I was not impressed by the white area lighting function at all. The warning capacity of the red was absolutely on par with what they have now. At the end of the day I definitely have nostalgia for the chrome base and hate to lose it in order to gain what I perceive as a feature that isn't extremely effective. However, I am happy to see Michigan going with Sound Off and I am happy to see Sound Off working to produce some not so typical products like this. They used a michigan-based company to produce a specific device that keeps their traditional look alive to some extent and I should probably just be happy with that.
Tldr; I miss the chrome base and I'm not a fan of the brightness of the flood feature that replaces the chrome base. I'm glad to see them go with sound off though
I'm confused on how they're able to do Whelen's ActionFlash pattern on it without issue. If pattern copying is fine, then Whelen should do an InterCycle pattern
That would be cool. I've always wanted to see Whelen do an Action Flash pattern but instead of a single flash between Comet Flashes, use a SignalAlert flash.
C17LVFD
Member
My guess would be they either changes the timing of the flashes just enough to avoid the patent or they’re putting the Whelen flasher inside to control the SOS modules.
JohnMarcson
Administrator
I would be curious what exactly is trade marked about that flash pattern. Comet flash (quad flash) isn't really a Whelen exclusive anymore. Is quad then single still a copyrightable thing? I know copy right law is terrible and nuanced, it is possible that it isn't protected at this point... The name might be protected? I'd be curious to know.
Swapping between CometFlash and SA would be a cool pattern, surprised that's not an option yeah
Hmm maybe you're right on that first one, but the second one sounds more like it although that seems like a lot of work over a good but not crazy pattern. I mean MSP/SoundOff could've just used InterCycle on the new lights and no one would've cared
What's weird is that ActionFlash is essentially just 2 patterns (CometFlash and SingleFlash) just going one after another but when you take the sum of them, ActionFlash, then yeah that's a unique idea that I imagine would be subject to a patent/copyright.
As you said, would love to see the patents or copyrights on flash patterns to see what's described by the authors to make them unique. Perhaps that's something I'll research when I have time and report back (no promises)