Colour Mixing Stage Washes (IColour 3, 4 / Chauvet Stage Wash950 etc)

[R E Faust]

Hi

 

This my first post here so forgive me if this has been covered in part before. I have checked several other threads and also used the search to check and haven't been able to find the info I want, so if I've missed it somewhere I apologise!

 

 

I am looking for some info regarding colour mixing stage wash lights such as these:

 

http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item3465.htm

http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item3466.htm

 

(there are pdf versions of the manuls there also)

 

They seem available in several versions, some of which are simply rebadged. Here is another example, very reasonably priced:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_hl40_dmx_compact.htm

 

Although they don't seem to stock the 3-colour version there.

 

I am considering getting some as a more convenient alternative to the standard Par56 lighting for front/side stage washes in a band situation in small pubs and clubs. I like the fact that you can interchange 300 or 500w lamps, depending on the available power and size of venue and the lamps are dirt cheap. I also like the fact that the 4-cell version has a yellow dichroic, allowing for better colour mixing as it's harder to get nice yellows and oranges with the standard RGB versions. The fact that they are floor mountable is also a plus. They would also save on dimming - and transport would be much easier.

 

However, the DMX specs state that these are 4 channel and colour is controlled on channel 1. It comes with 32 preset colours but I can't find any details of what they are (ie how useful) or whether other colours can be created. Chauvet do have their own version of the 3-Cell light here:

 

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures/st...sh950_fix.shtml

 

which DOES have RGB colour mixing, but they don't seem to do the 4 colour version.

 

Does anyone here have experience of these who can advise? My questions would be:

 

How well does the single channel control of colour work and are the preset colours good? If I select a value between two of the preset colours, would I get a in-between colour?

How well do these work with other lights? i.e. will they simply overpower any specials such as movers, par 36/56 back-lights, floor cans etc?

Are there any potential problems with them (ie heat etc) considering they contain 4 x 500w bulbs in a small unit?

 

I should add that I have also looked into the possibility of going for a couple of LED pars each side as an alternative but am concerned about lack of intensity and not being able to get good Orange colours without the option of adding yellow to the mix.

 

Thanks very much in advance for any input.

 

R E Faust

[PDD]

I have used the iColor 4 at my previous job. I don't remember much about them, except they were cheap and awful to control manually. They were hot, yes, and have fans in the unit. The brightness was okay - it has a dimmer control channel if you need to bring them down a bit. Don't forget that these are basic floods essentially, so no directional control (apart from barndoors) - I wouldn't say they would be ideal as a replacement for Pars, but still useful for getting a colour wash on stage - we used them for concerts and discos only. Control-wise, I remember it was difficult to select the individual colours with any accuracy on just one channel, but if you have time/a desk to do programming I'm sure you can overcome this. I don't remember being able to select colours "in between" as you ask - I think it was just the preset colours only, but I might be wrong! I presume you have a DMX control desk to use with these? Hope that helps for now.

[R E Faust]

Thanks very much for replying.

 

It's a shame the control was an issue, though from further reading, they bundle these along with a simple foot controller which simply cycles through the colours - fine for small groups/solo artists who have no LX tech. It sounds like the Chauvet version, with proper RGB mixing, is a better idea. Its unfortunate their model is only the 3 colour option - and I want good ambers and oranges!

 

Can you comment on how they worked along with other lights - did they tend to overpower more directional lanterns? Would they work better at the sides?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

R E Faust

[David Duffy]

I have a couple of the 3x 500W versions that I used recently for a school production. The ease of hanging and control was great but the dicroic filters mean that the colour from each lamp varies across the beam quite a bit.

 

eg. The red one is nice and red in the centre but quite a bit more orange at the edges. The same goes for the other colours. Maybe you can cover some of this effect if you overlap the coverage enough but they don't look anywhere near as good as conventional cyc lights for serious use.

 

For band - pub use they'd be very handy I reckon so it all depends on what you're expecting. That said I'll be buying another two units soon because they're just so simple to get up and running. Hope this helps.

[jaykaygee]

Hi,

 

good to know that there are other small(ish) budget band people out there :P

 

I am looking at buying four of these at the moment to replace our Par 56's as I saw another band use them recently and it looked impressive. I was wondering if you saw this controller:

 

http://www.terralec.co.uk/prod.asp?I=15837...E_iCOLOUR_LIGHT

 

The Thomann version is out of stock at the moment, but the Terralec one is almost the same price. It has a bank of preset colours down the left and different chases, mixes etc.

I am thinking of purchasing this controller to run these lights off a different universe from our movers, LED pars...etc.

 

One question to the other guys who replied. How easy are these to hang from a simple T-bar? I can see that there are 3 mounting holes, but for some reason, any pictures that I see show one on an adaptor directly on a lighting stand instead of being hung on a T-bar?

I know that they can be placed on the floor, but having seen this done, I didn't like the shadows cast upwards on faces, so I would rather hang them.

 

Cheers,

 

James

[David A]

These are not true colour mixers as when you dim the blue lamp all the blue spectrum in the light disappears so the 'mixing' only applies when the channels are near full.This is fine for disco and band use but useless for any subtle applications.My personal preference for colour washes is the showtec clubwash as its very bright, has 7 colours, a mechanical dimmer means you can do a dim on a dark blue or purple and being a 250W discharge lamp they will take a good deal of abuse and vibration without constantly blowing lamps, I buy the cheap generic lamps which work fine.Also there is no waveform chopping dimmers to stuff up the P.A. and the 300W of power you use is much brighter than a par 64.Of course the red is pathetic, like all discharge lamps so I usually include some cans just to add that warmth.

[PDD]

Can you comment on how they worked along with other lights - did they tend to overpower more directional lanterns? Would they work better at the sides?

Sorry, I can't really remember. I think they were fine, but we used them on a fairly big stage with only some 500W Pars and groundrow floods as well, so quite a lot of light going on generally. We did use some small disco-movers, which I think were fairly washed out by them, yes. Try sending a PM to 'mar' as it's now his venue and they were probably used recently just before Christmas. He may also be able/willing to answer any other questions you may have.

 

As for how they hang; you can either use a standard hook clamp, or a bolt directly onto a T-bar if it's drilled, so absolutely no problem to hang.

[R E Faust]

Hi,

 

good to know that there are other small(ish) budget band people out there :P

 

I am looking at buying four of these at the moment to replace our Par 56's as I saw another band use them recently and it looked impressive. I was wondering if you saw this controller:

 

http://www.terralec.co.uk/prod.asp?I=15837...E_iCOLOUR_LIGHT

 

The Thomann version is out of stock at the moment, but the Terralec one is almost the same price. It has a bank of preset colours down the left and different chases, mixes etc.

I am thinking of purchasing this controller to run these lights off a different universe from our movers, LED pars...etc.

 

One question to the other guys who replied. How easy are these to hang from a simple T-bar? I can see that there are 3 mounting holes, but for some reason, any pictures that I see show one on an adaptor directly on a lighting stand instead of being hung on a T-bar?

I know that they can be placed on the floor, but having seen this done, I didn't like the shadows cast upwards on faces, so I would rather hang them.

 

Cheers,

 

James

 

I hadn't looked at that controller, actually, but I would be using them in conjunction with some floor cans/par 36's etc, so thought about going for the Behringer desk.

 

Cheers

 

R E Faust

 

 

Can you comment on how they worked along with other lights - did they tend to overpower more directional lanterns? Would they work better at the sides?

Sorry, I can't really remember. I think they were fine, but we used them on a fairly big stage with only some 500W Pars and groundrow floods as well, so quite a lot of light going on generally. We did use some small disco-movers, which I think were fairly washed out by them, yes. Try sending a PM to 'mar' as it's now his venue and they were probably used recently just before Christmas. He may also be able/willing to answer any other questions you may have.

 

As for how they hang; you can either use a standard hook clamp, or a bolt directly onto a T-bar if it's drilled, so absolutely no problem to hang.

 

 

Thanks very much for replying, I'll try contacting mar to ask him to run his eye over this thread and contribute if possible.

 

Cheers

 

R E Faust

[Guy Tec]

Hi , I have 4 of the JML I Colour and they are good as one post said, quick to set up,They are a bit noisy which is fine for dancing show (look fab on a white cyc) but not so good for theatre.

As for the colours yes there is some colour bleed from the glass filters but the best way to achieve colour mixing is plotting a fader where 100% is say the equivalent to Dec 6 (red only)then it is easy to recall it

 

Just My 2P for the pot

Guy

[R E Faust]

Hi , I have 4 of the JML I Colour and they are good as one post said, quick to set up,They are a bit noisy which is fine for dancing show (look fab on a white cyc) but not so good for theatre.

As for the colours yes there is some colour bleed from the glass filters but the best way to achieve colour mixing is plotting a fader where 100% is say the equivalent to Dec 6 (red only)then it is easy to recall it

 

Just My 2P for the pot

Guy

 

Thanks for the responses, guys. I think I'll go for a demo and have a look.

 

I assume by Dec 6, Guy means one of the preset colours?

 

R E Faust

[mattyfish]

Hi folks,

 

Noticed that white light was mentioned somewhere, how good is the white light on them? Im thinking of buying them for a church and need to just set up and then leave them for a evening which sounds like they can do easy, but do need reasonable amount of white light, so how good are they at white!?

 

Thanks

Matt

[bruce]

Hi RE Faust, and welcome to the Blue Room.

 

There has been some discussion on these units in the past - if you go to the top search button (not the google one, the "search" above it) and do a search for "icolour" in the lighting forum, you'll find some relevent comments.

 

(However, if you search for "icolor", which is what is printed on the cases, you'll find significantly less :D )

[LampieManPro]

To be quite honest the colour mixing on these units isnt very good you dont get true shades.

 

The white light isnt white its yellow, and you will have to have all lamps at 100% to get true so called white light, which meens 2000w of light if you have the 500w version.

 

For compact issues they are good, but they are a budget lantern so dont exspect anything other than budget performance. + if a lamp goes mid performance your screwed in terms of colour mixing.

 

I would get something as surgested above that has a colour wheel and mechanical dimmer.

 

I work for a band myself and would personaly never use these 'So called colour mixes'

 

I used to have 8 pars per side of stage but ive got rid of them all and bought pro CYM colour washes and moving washes, and ive never looked back

 

vince

[mattyfish]

How hot are they? I have heard that they are very hot so do they need a break after a lot of use?

[LampieManPro]

well knocking out 2000w at full power you can imagine they get quite warm, and have been known to melt things in close proximity.

 

They do have a fan but its on a temp sensor so it wont kick in till the temp is high.

 

vince