Do you use LEDs?

[karl]

It seems that everywhere you look people are selling LED units these days. The thing is I'm struggling to understand how and where you might use them. This isn't helped by the number of different types (and qualities) available and the sparsity of info on many lower end units.

 

Having read a lot of posts on here I'm not really much clearer - some people say they are useless for theatre, others say the opposite. All I have gathered is that, on the whole, they aren't all that bright.

 

So I was wondering what people have used LED fixtures for (especially in a theatre environment). It would be useful to know what purpose / effect you used them for, what type of fixture you used, how many were used and how successful the result was. The more info the better.

[pete LD]

Eye candy ( I hate that term but it describes it well) Truss toners, back light for small band gigs with limited power!. If you have enough of them they can look fantastic and if you have proper ones (JTE Pixel Pars etc) then you could use them to wash a big stage with colour no problem!

Pete

[dave_m]

I tend to use them for:

• Uplighting walls (Chroma Q DB4/IPix Satellite)
  
• Marquee backlight (DB4's)
  
• Some stage lighting (SGM palco)
  
• "eye candy" (lots of different units)
  

 

Horses for courses really, I wouldn't want to use a normal RGB led unit for theatre, it seems to make people look "ill". RGBA(W) seems to be the way forward for LED in theatre, though not if competing against multiple kilowatts of tungsten.

[paulears]

Got 12 lighting the cyc, but turned towards the audience they do look quite nice. They are ok on the cyc, but I wish they were brigher.

[jamed2017]

Generaly we use ares for I-candy ands strobing, ours are faced to awards the audiance. They make a good strobe aswell.

 

We only have 6 LED Pars. Manchester acadamy 2 has put quite good use to there LED's,

 

http://hawkwindforum.freeforums.org/manche...tures-t612.html

 

As scene here, but in a theatre environment floor lighting?

 

 

I'm open to sugestions here aswell.

[ceecrb1]

Uplighting...

 

general wash duties...

uplighting truss legs... and so on...

In hotels etc where power is a non-starter yet effect is wanted (usually weddings etc where the client see´s "light" but is not a tech/designer so is basically happy with choosing a color and a wash..)

 

and our (rather cheap) fineart moving head ones are used when there is a chance they wont go back into the van come de-rig time..

 

We even found some (horrific yet disposable) led bars from china at 40USD a pop... again not for "normal" jobs but sometimes its nice to put something "tat" in with the fireworks or near the fountain etc...

[dunk_1984]

Eye candy, side lighting, up lighters, "stage/crowd blinders" and lighting up 100 perspex boxes... http://sxsevents.co.uk/folio_music_awards.php . 1 behind each works well, certainly not something I'd like to do with incandescent colour changers.

[FullRange]

Have used:

 

Chroma Q colour blocks: hallway lighting, truss lighting, overhead colour washing (pointing slightly towards audience) during a production of Guys and Dolls in addition to MAC 600s. Mostly used the colour blocks though. Worked very well, particularly when lighting the smoke during the sewer scene. Did require them to be directly beside each other along the full length of the bar to give an even spread.

 

Showtec P56 LED cans: 40+ of them colour washing the roof of a marquee (30 x 30 metres at least)

Results: very effective in low level lighting, pretty good with full lighting, not great during the day.

 

Pixelline: lots of use for live music and disco type events. Unbelievably bright (what do you expect from 1044 LEDs!) Just a few can easily light up a medium sized room / dancefloor (about 400 people). Can be used almost like a strobe in these cases. Also used once to illuminate a large marquee where power was an issue but money wasn't. Very effective.

[niclights]

Pretty much echo what other people do. Mostly rock'n'roll:

 

Cyc/uplight/wash - DTS Delta R - very bright.

Effect - DB4/Pixelline/I-Pix/Chromapanel

Disco - cheap LED pars - not so bright!

 

I love the colour capabilities (of the pro units) which IMO always beat metal halide source & its limitations, lamp aging being one of the most significant. No restrictions on fades between colours (unless using HSI!) and unique response speed for dimming/strobe and fast colour changing. Hate the way it is impossible to avoid an initial step on from blackout.

 

While they will never replace tungsten I do see them as a serious contender to kill gas discharge sources.

[Jamtastic3]

Echoed as above. I've got 4 of the Eurolite 64's acting as truss toners. They are pretty awsome as the truss creates a 'frame' around the stage and bands. You can't help that with these fixtures, white will never be white (it's more a silver blueish on the truss) but the fact that you can have so many possibilities of colours and chases and colour chases over colour chases - it's great. Also, flashing LED pars or putting them to full strobe is pretty good too since the response time is so fast.

 

I hope to get more in the future - they definetely have a place on stage either for band and club nights.

[torch1972]

We have showtec powerbricks. 1 set can light a small area, so in a performance we have used them as backlight for a centre spot, when we have multiple single performers do individual pieces. This works very well but when the rest of the stage lights come on they can get washed out. Side light they can be good but you must have units.

[Modge]

Well the current rig we're using with the stage bus has 6 * showtec trackpod 90 battens at the back and at night (quite a lot of our events are during the day) I have to back off the brightness of them if you want to be able to see what's going on on stage. During the day they're very still very effective visible sources, even in saturated colours.

 

I also use 2 more battens has high side light to add interest on stage. Last years rig had 4 battens washing the stage (2 front, 2 high side) and 4 behind as eye candy. It looked good and the battens could just about be used as all the front light. We choose change however because a) Saturated front light is only interesting for so long (As a sweeping generalisation. It can be good etc. etc.) b) 6 Battens behind them looks very cool.

 

I also know the battens have been out for theatre though I was nothing to that, so I could tell you what they used them for. Also seen them used as random up lighters (of walls, windows etc)

[Jamtastic3]

I think the best uses of LED pars are for the 'eye candy' effect.

Have a dozen units behind a band out into the audience and you can have some real wow factor moments. Use them across a cyc or as a back wash and you can achieve nice colour washes. If you programme them well, you can have more of an interesting show than with a set of movers.

One of the problems with lower end LED units is lighting the subject with them (actors/bands). There's either too much saturation at R, G or B, not enough light output or just not the right balance of colour for skin tones.

[Ike]

Got 12 lighting the cyc, but turned towards the audience they do look quite nice. They are ok on the cyc, but I wish they were brigher.

Out of curiosity why are you using them instead of conventional cyc lights?

[LXbydesign]

I have just bought 12 prolight LED cans for my venue and have found them more than usefull for things like "eye candy" and up lighting pillars / cloths etc (narrow beam output)

 

I found them handy for dance side lighting - so long as high levels of light are not needed!!! but are good for less bright saturate colour washs.

 

Ive yet to try them to light a cloth. My feeling is by the time added silk and/or frost to spread the beam , the output wont be all that high ,but it may be enough in less bright states.

 

Sure , they are the cheap and cheerfull chinese ones and im not expecting them to perform like a pro unit but for the cost , they serve their purpose - and if one breaks or develops a fault - then its cheap to replace.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Eye candy, side lighting, up lighters, "stage/crowd blinders" and lighting up 100 perspex boxes... http://sxsevents.co.uk/folio_music_awards.php . 1 behind each works well, certainly not something I'd like to do with incandescent colour changers.

 

 

id love to have seen "round the back" of that set! lots of wire!! mains and DMX!!!