Big lights for solo/architectural use

[TomHoward]

Evening all

 

We have a regular setup of 2x 243s on 2x winch stands (the 243s are just on spigots to go straight on top of the stands) which is used when we take events into churches, quick concerts, this kind of thing.

The 243s often run a heavy frost just to stop them dazzling the talent too much and throw them everywhere, usually without dimming, usually just run on 13-15s straight off the mains.

 

The problem we are having is the weight of the units for setting up, and the power draw is a bit strong for community venues and that. A colleague of mine asked whether a modern 2K fitting would be any lighter (in weight), and this got me thinking that since they are never used with dimming, they don't need to be tungsten at all, and we might be able to get away with a smaller, lighter discharge source.

 

For the same kind of light output, and the warm colour temperature is quite important, what do you think we should be looking at? Are things like the Arris available as discharge? Convert a couple of source 4 Pars to discharge?

[chelgrian]

For the same kind of light output, and the warm colour temperature is quite important, what do you think we should be looking at? Are things like the Arris available as discharge? Convert a couple of source 4 Pars to discharge?

 

Robert Juliet do both LED and discharge fresnels. Never used them so no idea how good they are but they exist.

[csg]

Colour temp will be the main issue with discharge - off course this can be corrected, but then you loose much of the efficiency gain. Sure Arri have a full range of discharge and latterly LED units.

 

If you were to stick with tungsten, you could do worse than to look at the humble old redhead - its 800W versus 2Kw, but the output will be surprisingly close as its a highly efficient unit and uses a short life lamp that offers a higher efficiency in terms of lumens per watt compared with the lamps in your 243's. Nice and light too, and reasonable control with the barndoors. You can clip a hard frost, say 250 to the front of the doors to create a much bigger, softer source without resorting to a separate flag.

 

If the readheads don't cut it in terms of punch, then blondes are the next step up at 2K, but these might be a bit fierce compared with your 243's.

 

A 2K arri fresnel will offer similar output and quality to your 243's but will be a fair bit lighter if not the pole op version

 

All should be easy to hire so you can try before you buy...

[Jivemaster]

Discharge is usually a funny colour dependent on the particular lamp, but yes they are usually brighter in terms of lumens per watt. You may need colour correction filters.

 

For lightness look at PAR cans, for lumens per watt efficience look at LEDs.

[TomHoward]

We could throw up Par64s but I don't think they'd cut it compared to a 2K, and once we look at multiple units the whole setup gets a bit more complex and takes longer. We used to go 4x 650s a side but gave this up in favour of the one lantern.

 

With the redhead and blonde arris, the frost on the front - I guess they just burn it in a runner like a theatrical lamp?

I'd be worried about losing much light so don't know if we could go down to 800W tungsten and the blonde I guess would need some dimming or frosting

[csg]

all I'd say as regards to the redhead versus the 243 is try it. Just as in sound, the number of watts does not tell you how bright...likewise the output of a CP62 is going to be similar to a 2K fresnel as the optical system is much more efficient.

 

Sometime ago I did replace some 2K fresnels ( arenas I think) with redheads for a side special and it worked very well with no loss of punch.

 

 

The frost on the barndoor reasoning is twofold - firstly as you say it would not last long in the runners ( redheads / blonds are open fronted lanterns with just a thin wire mesh for lamp fragment protection), secondly the larger area of the filter when placed on the front of the doors gives a much bigger and softer source. With a neat, well sized cut and proper use of crock clips it can look neat enough.