Colour Changers

[Darkness]

Hi all,

 

I'm after some kind of colour changer. I help out in at a small variety group with limited funs and space so cant afford or do we have the space to hang lots of lights.

 

I have considered LED par cans but im not sure they would be very bright and have read the light is not very smooth.

 

I have also looked at the NJD spectre and have heard the light is not very smooth around the edges and you can see the three different colours at times.

 

I'm now looking at something along the lines of http://www.discostudio.co.uk/item.php?upn=5820 and wondering peoples views on them and also other recomendations

 

 

Thanks

Kevin

[smalljoshua]

You don't say how big an area you need to light but 2-4 of these on a T-Bar with a small-ish desk should do fine for a small 4-5 piece band or a small cabaret act.

 

Josh

[Darkness]

its for about a 5m by 6m stage, we do have some general lighting, fresnels par cans etc I just find it a bit limited on the amount of colours we can use as we put on quite a few variety shows so lots of different colours come in handy

[smalljoshua]

If you want to use Just the RGB Cans at times maby 3-5 (depending on budget on each side or if just to augment other colours 2-3 each side.

 

Edit: Made Clearer To Read and more precise.

[pete LD]

If you Already have pars and Fresnels I would look in to colour scrollers. Apollo do nice cheep ones (£120? ish) and you can get small 2 way psus. you will get much more flexibility as you can put them on pars or Fresnel's and you don't get any nasty edges from colour mixing. You also get to chose the colours you put in the gel string!!

HTH

Pete

[ChrisBogg]

Hi There

 

A little OT but a quick question while we are talking about these par can colour changers as linked to above. I have always found that the three RGB lamp idea produces those nasty three coloured shadows from the three lamps and was just wondering if like in this case the three lamps are behind the same lense does that not stop the three coloured shadow as the light is all coming from one source? if so then these are a much more usefull fixture than there njd specte type brothers.

 

any thoughts

 

Chris

[Darkness]

I was just about to ask the very same question about them. I know they are relatively cheap so not going to be brilliant but surely being the three lamps are behind the lense it stops you being able to pick out the three colours as easily?

 

Does anyone know for definate?

[KevinE]

I've got a couple of the NJD Spectres in the workshop at the mo for a service and I've seen them many times in the famous NJD PLASA demo theatres of old. Unless you're VERY close to the lamp (ie less than 3m) then you dont see individual lamp colours but just the whole thing. They have a particular advantage over cheaper but similar-looking units from Showtec / Thomann / Prolight etc in that the 3 DMX channels are used to specify hue, brightness, saturation rather than the cheaper ones which are simply dimmer levels for the RGB channels. This makes the spectres easier to program either manually or in a preprogrammed scene, giving more consistent light output for different hues etc.

[karl]

Strangely enough I find myself in a similar position to the OP in this thread. To recap - venue with a modest sized stage (22' x 14'), want to be able to flood it with different colours but haven't got the space (or dimmer channels) for lots of parcans.

 

I have looked at alternatives (led pars - not bright enough, scrollers - expensive and limited colours, CMY mixers - too expensive) and decided that RGB mixers look the best bet.

 

Apart from the odd parcan type RGB mixer mentioned previously these units seem to be two main sorts - the NJD Spectre type and the iColour3 type with linear lamps. I don't seem to be able to find any info on how these types compare on things like beam angles, coverage, etc. Is one or other better suited to the job I want them to do?

 

Also how many units do you reckon would be required to cover the acting area?

 

P.S. The NJD Spectre looks like a good bit of kit but the stated lamp life of 50 hours seems a bit short. According to the documentation this seems to be a worst case scenario, anybody got any experience of lamp life in real life?

[Aaron-Hill07]

The Njd spectre's have a good lamp life, a friend of mine that I do work with owns 2. ive never known them to blow bulbs, I think there fantastic work for things like that. your both in the same position as me. I do band work too on a small stage, im going to order myself a spectre kit from an online store with the case, 2 spectres and controller. for under £300, thats a very good price considering thats a maximum of 3000w of coloured stage wash.

fantastic lights for the price.

[DuncanM]

I recently had to do a school talent quest with no budget in a hall with no fixed equipment, and ended up with a follow spot and 6x no-name chinese LED PAR56's - 3 each side on the floor, two washing the stage and one washing up a set piece. I was surprised by their performance - not exactly blinding, but certainly washed the 10mx6m stage adequately for little darlings to be seen. And apparently the PAR64's are brighter? The programmed chases (DMX ch4) are pretty naff, but...

 

I reckon: good for saturated colours (better penetration than a 500W fresnel with deep gel, and no risk of burning out), lousy for subtle near-white mixes. Better in bulk rather than just trying to use one. And great value for money! I'm a little tempted to buy some next time I have the cash to fling around...

 

My advice - get a few and have a play!

 

cheers

Duncan

Auckland, NZ

[karl]

I don't seem to be able to find any info on how these types compare on things like beam angles, coverage, etc.

 

OK, I've tracked down the beam angle for the NJD Spectre so I thought I'd add it here just in case anybody else was interested. According to the tech spec it's 56 degrees to 50% brightness (1m width at 1m distance).