Showtec RGB theatre spot

[MrBoomal]

Has anyone tried the Showtec RGB theatre spot? Thomanns sell them for £75 each, which, if they do what they're supposed to seems a bargain. Anybody know what angle they throw out at, and when the RGB is full on how "white" is white?

 

500 watts per colour seems reasonably powerful. I was thinking of having 6 facing the audience for when I have a band in, and giving general colour wash on stage for theatre. Opinions please.

 

 

Malc.

[boatman]

I think you should go back to the Thomann website and re-read their description. As I see it, this lantern is a 500W spot with a DMX controlled colour changer. If that is the case it won't produce white light.

 

As an aside, don't buy lamps for use in the UK from Thomann. They are all rated at 230V and will have a shorter life that correctly rated 240V lamps. Been there. ;)

[bruce]

Don't think so - I believe it's a 3-lamp unit, each with it's own dimmer channel.

[MrBoomal]

I think you should go back to the Thomann website and re-read their description. As I see it, this lantern is a 500W spot with a DMX controlled colour changer. If that is the case it won't produce white light.

 

As an aside, don't buy lamps for use in the UK from Thomann. They are all rated at 230V and will have a shorter life that correctly rated 240V lamps. Been there. ;)

 

 

Sorry, your wrong, is definitely a 3 lamp unit. As to your second point, is this right? I've got quite a few lanterns from Thomann. Never had a problem with any of them.

[KevinE]

They are indeed 3-lamp & 3 filters with a lamp on each channel. I've had a few through the workshop under different badges. No problems really except getting the colour right can be tricky, ok, white is all channels full-on, but if you want half brightness white for example then you have to adjust the seperate channels lop-sidedly to maintain a neutral tint. On early models (not necc. from Thomann) the lamps were expensive Ushio HPL's though I think they've altered this now on most brands.

 

These are in stark contrast to the superior NJD Spectres in which the hue, saturation and brilliance are 'linearized' by the firmware throughout the dimmer ranges and thus easier to program on the desk.

[boatman]

I think you should go back to the Thomann website and re-read their description. As I see it, this lantern is a 500W spot with a DMX controlled colour changer. If that is the case it won't produce white light.

 

As an aside, don't buy lamps for use in the UK from Thomann. They are all rated at 230V and will have a shorter life that correctly rated 240V lamps. Been there. ;)

 

 

Sorry, your wrong, is definitely a 3 lamp unit. As to your second point, is this right? I've got quite a few lanterns from Thomann. Never had a problem with any of them.

 

Yes, you're right. I haven't seen this lantern, just read the description on the Thomann website. Now I'm curious about the purpose of what looks like a colour wheel on the front.

 

As for lamps, yes I've bought the 230V ones from Thomann and regretted it as they definitely don't have the expected lifetime. Of course, it could have been a bad batch, but I'm not going back for any more.

[David A]

It is not possible to mix incandescent dimmed light as the blue content of the spectrum disappears as soon as you fade it down.The only accurate colour mixers have the lamp running at full and flag the light.

[Bruff]

If they're the units I'm thinking of, they've got noisy fans in them, which limits their use for drama.

 

 

Has anyone tried the Showtec RGB theatre spot? Thomanns sell them for £75 each, which, if they do what they're supposed to seems a bargain. Anybody know what angle they throw out at, and when the RGB is full on how "white" is white?

 

500 watts per colour seems reasonably powerful. I was thinking of having 6 facing the audience for when I have a band in, and giving general colour wash on stage for theatre. Opinions please.

 

 

Malc.

[fitsjohn]

I purchased 8 last year for for a show and 6 of them were returned within 2 months due to display faults/blackouts and difficulty in controlling. Very troublesome overall.

[KevinE]

It is not possible to mix incandescent dimmed light as the blue content of the spectrum disappears as soon as you fade it down.

 

It's up to you with the Thomann ones to keep the hue in track. This is the point I made, it's done automatically in the rival NJD units.

Both types use dichroic filters in front of the lamps, the thing that looks like a colour wheel is just the plate you unscrew to relamp & the barn doors can be swivelled to any angle on the Showtec etc but not NJD.

 

 

http://www.10outof10.co.uk/acatalog/50463.jpg

[MrBoomal]

Thanks guys. I think that I'll look at the njd one's or maybe just give them a miss.

[smalljoshua]

Resurrecting this one on a slight tangent here, I've got two of the aforementioned units and both have developed similar faults to one another.

 

I can go 3 or 4 shows with everything fine but sometimes when I power them on, the fan comes on as normal but that's about it. The display doesn't come on and the units don't respond to DMX or any button prodding on the back of the unit. 95% of the time powering them down, giving them a quick tap with a precision instrument (or a long pole) and powering them back up fixes the problem. The other 5% of the time I have to take the back off, push down all of the connectors and reassemble, this fixes the problem almost every time.

 

I've got a feeling that it's a dry joint on the Screen and Micro PCB (which is right below the fan if anyone knows the units) but I don't want to go poking around in the wrong place when I need these units working.

 

If anyone's got any experience of these units or just general fault finding suggestions, it'd be appreciated.

 

Many Thanks

 

Josh

[dwright2104]

Most of the eqipment that I have purchased in the UK with uk plugs on them, are rated at 230v.

 

Correct me if im wrong but I herd that the voltage supplied can vary up to as much as +- 20v?

Most of the plugs have max 250v written on them, when the appliance its self says 230v.

[paulears]

It's not the labelling - it's that European lamps are essentially 220V designs and UK ones are 240V designs. So ignoring the so called harmonisation which by fudging figures looks like we're all the same - which we're not, we have foreign lamps being over-run on our mains, and UK ones under-run when used in mainland Europe.

 

The increase in brightness and decrease in lifespan is pretty evident from my own experience. Especially with lamps that are designed to run hot in the first place - like DXX 800W halogens used in Red Heads. The European ones just don't last long at all.

[adam2]

It's not the labelling - it's that European lamps are essentially 220V designs and UK ones are 240V designs. So ignoring the so called harmonisation which by fudging figures looks like we're all the same - which we're not, we have foreign lamps being over-run on our mains, and UK ones under-run when used in mainland Europe.

 

The increase in brightness and decrease in lifespan is pretty evident from my own experience. Especially with lamps that are designed to run hot in the first place - like DXX 800W halogens used in Red Heads. The European ones just don't last long at all.

 

 

Agree entirely, lanterns, plugs, and most appliances can be designed to work over a wide voltage range.

Incandescent lamps are inherently very sensitive to voltage variations. Despite so called harmonisation at 230 volts, the UK is still 240 volts, and mainland Europe is still 220 volts, most of the time in most places.

 

The fact that our supply can be as low as 216 volts, and mainland Europe can be as high as 244 volts does not alter the observed fact that ours still averages 240 and theirs still averages 220.