Most shoots are happily served by a monolight or a battery strobe. But some jobs ask for more than any single head can give: a six-person group lit evenly across a wide cyc, a glossy product that needs to be wrapped in soft light from oversized modifiers, or a splash you have to freeze with a hard, clean edge. That's pack-and-head territory, and the Profoto Pro-11 is the top of that line — 2400 watt-seconds of output paired with some of the shortest flash durations and fastest recycling Profoto makes.
What the Pro-11 is
A power pack splits the system in two: one heavy box on the floor holds the capacitors and electronics, and you run light, simple heads off it on cables. That puts big, sustained power into heads small enough to fly on a boom or tuck inside a softbox. The specs that matter when you're driving a Pro-11:
Profoto Pro-11 2400 — key specs
- Output
- 2400Ws, adjustable in 1/10 f-stop increments
- Recycling
- 0.02–0.7s
- Burst
- Up to 50 flashes per second
- Flash duration
- Down to ~1/80,000s in Freeze mode at low power
- Heads
- Independent control per head
- Sync
- HSS via built-in Profoto AirX
- Control
- Profoto Air / AirTTL via Air Remote
Two things set a pack like this apart from a stack of monolights. First, raw, shared output — 2400Ws is enough to push large modifiers, fill a big white cyclorama evenly, or stop down hard for deep, edge-to-edge product focus. Second, the speed: recycling measured in hundredths of a second and Freeze-mode flash durations into the eighty-thousandths-of-a-second range. It runs on the same Profoto Air system as the rest of the shelf, so it shares a trigger with your B-series and monolights.
Why pros reach for it
It freezes motion with a hard edge
At flash sync the shutter is wide open, so the *flash duration* is your real exposure — the shorter that burst, the crisper a moving subject lands. The Pro-11's Freeze mode pushes the duration extremely short at lower power, which is what lets you catch a liquid pour, an athlete in mid-air, or flour bursting off a cutting board with a clean, frozen edge instead of a blur. For high-speed product and action work, that's the whole reason to rent one.
It lights groups and big sets evenly
Lighting one face is easy; lighting six people across a wide cyc so the person on the end is exposed the same as the one in the middle takes output and reach. A Pro-11 in a large modifier — or split across two heads feathered across the set — covers a group cleanly and gives you the headroom to stop down for sharpness front to back.
Fast recycling keeps a paid day moving
Recycling from 0.02 seconds and bursts up to 50 flashes per second mean the pack is ready before you are. On a fast fashion run or a high-energy product shoot, you're never waiting on a ready light between frames — you shoot at the pace of the room.
Shaping the light
Pro heads mount Profoto's full range of light shaping tools, including the big ones a pack has the muscle to fill, so the whole modifier wall is open:
- Large or XL softbox / octa — broad, soft light for groups, apparel, and beauty.
- Giant reflector or umbrella — efficient, even spread across a wide set or cyc.
- Strip boxes — controlled rim and edge light on the cyclorama.
- Grids and gels — shape spill and color the background, all driven from one pack.
Two heads, one set of controls
Where a pack quietly beats a pile of separate monolights is distribution. With independent control over each head, you can send most of the pack's energy to the key and leave just a touch for a background or rim — all dialed from one panel (or from the camera over Air) instead of walking the floor to adjust each light. That single point of control is what makes a complex multi-head build fast to set and easy to keep balanced as the shoot evolves. It's also why a pack is the natural power source for a specialist head like a ring flash, which has no electronics of its own and leans on the pack for everything. Fewer things on stands to manage, one place to set them all — on a busy set, that's the difference between fighting your lights and shooting.
When to rent it
A 2400Ws pack is heavy, expensive, and only out of the case for specific jobs — the definition of gear to rent rather than own:
- The shoot needs serious output — groups, big modifiers, or deep-focus product that a monolight can't fill.
- You're freezing fast motion and want the shortest flash durations on the shelf.
- It's an occasional need — high-power packs sit idle between the shoots that call for them.
- You're already booking the studio — add the pack to the room reservation and shoot it on the cyc.
Our Pro-11 two-head kit includes the 2400Ws pack, two Pro heads, two reflectors, and an Air Remote for your camera system. The pack and individual Pro heads are available à la carte, and we also rent the legacy Pro-8a 2400 pack if your build calls for it.