Ynot Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Pondering the Stage Directions feed and came across this little article on ETC debuting the Gio console (mentioned elsewhere on the BR) but I was drawn then to the sub text which mentioned the ETC LED S4 profile.... Fred Foster personally introduced the LED Source 4 during his keynote address on Tuesday. During the question period after his keynote Foster started musing about what an LED Source 4 would have to accomplish if it did exist. While he did a clean, pleasant white light filled in Foster, and a crisp, sharp shuttered rectangle began pulsing the saturated colors the product would have if it existed. Along with the shutters, color mixing, and smooth output, Foster said a "kick-ass daylight white" would be integral, and another area of light appeared, featuring a gobo bearing that same text. Both fixtures were very bright, and handled the sharp edges of the shutters and gobo beautifully. He then, of course, directed the audience's attention to the Source 4 LED fixtures that were hanging, masked, in the grid, which had been used throughout the keynote. No one was allowed a close-up look at the fixtures. Estimated ship date is within nine months, and current Source 4 lens tubes are compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDLX Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 And so it begins... the death of the tungsten lamp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callumb Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I seen one of those at the black light open day here in. Edinburgh back in March. Looked and acted like a S4 with out the heat and all the colours you could want! Something that really got me interested! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmeh2 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 And so it begins... the death of the tungsten lamp? Hi Until someone out there can invent an LED source brighter than a 5K Bambino, I highly doubt it. I think ETC have done this for the sake of doing it, it's not like everyone is suddenly going to stop using their tungsten S4s and buy a load of these. All the bestTimmeh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 And so it begins... the death of the tungsten lamp? Yes, but only the begining of the death of the tungsten lamp.I suspect that eventualy tungsten lamps will go the the way of carbon arc lamps and gas lights and oil lamps, all of which are still used for specialist applications but are not exactly mainstream light sources. There is lot of money invested in incandescent theatre lanterns, and a lot of producers will prefer them, either for good technical reasons or simply out of tradition. For a new theatre, LED may be cheaper in total cost than tungsten. A largish conventional lighting rig can easily be 1MW. Providing that much power is a costly business and may require a dedicated substation, and will certainly require a lot of space and money for switchgear, cabling, dimmers etc.By changing to LED the load could be reduced to 100KW or less. The saving in capital for electrical installation would probably pay for the LED lanterns. For a small install in a Church hall or the like, a reasonable number of LED lanterns can be worked from a 13 amp socket with no extra wiring at all.Halogen lighting in such a case would probably require at least 10/15KW, provision of which costs a fair bit of money for small voluntary venues. Another advantage of the low power use of LED lanterns is that battery operation becomes feasible.How many enquiries on these forums have related to long extension leads, voltage drop, portable generators, and earthing systems for outdoor events ?10 LED lanterns, enough for a basic outdoor stage, could be worked from a couple of deep cycle batteries. Cant do that with 10 incandescent lamps at say 500 watts each. So yes, the incandescent lamp is not dead yet, but we are seeing the begining of the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewGrant Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I seen one of those at the black light open day here in. Edinburgh back in March. Looked and acted like a S4 with out the heat and all the colours you could want! Something that really got me interested! You sure it was an LED Source 4 from ETC? Most people were surprised that it was announced at the Cue event in America last week. From what I heard the general feeling was that ETCpremiered it early because something else was launched which could compete with it. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmck Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I seen one of those at the black light open day here in. Edinburgh back in March. Looked and acted like a S4 with out the heat and all the colours you could want! Something that really got me interested! You sure it was an LED Source 4 from ETC? May have been one of their LED Pars (I'm sure there was some of them there and they did look very similar to a Source 4 Par, so I suppose technically they're an LED Source 4 (just not a profile ;)) Most people were surprised that it was announced at the Cue event in America last week. From what I heard the general feeling was that ETCpremiered it early because something else was launched which could compete with it. Robert Juliat's Aledin I imagine may have prompted the early reveal of the LED Source 4 Profile - I must admit from what someone I know at Cue said it does seem like it's an impressive fixture though and will be well worth the wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewGrant Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 May have been one of their LED Pars (I'm sure there was some of them there and they did look very similar to a Source 4 Par, so I suppose technically they're an LED Source 4 (just not a profile ;)) Good point! I've been chatting to someone on Twitter recently (who was at Cue,) she said it was brilliant and apparently no one noticed what was lighting Fred Foster until someone asked him about the possibility of an LED Source 4 profile at the end of his keynote speech. The only thing is that it could take between 9-12 months before it is launched. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 My next blog topic I think. I might start a thread for a bit of discussion on this before I write it.... Cheers Smiffy Thread Started here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicky Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Some more info from a blogger at Cue here Dicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I have a (probably vain) hope that they'll also show it at the CITT new product breakfast next week. ETC are certainly at the event, but it might just* be the Gio that they're showing. If so, I'll report back... *=Just! :** laughs out loud **: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Well, it wasn't at the event I hoped, but it was at an ETC event I went to yesterday: so we finally got our hands on some LED S4s (and a Gio, and the Selador LED wash stuff). The LED S4 (the full-colour version, that is, the Lustr) was pretty impressive. In "open white" matching tungsten, it's still only about 70% as bright as a regular 575w S4, but with a very saturated colour in it (they used R80 as the example) it's more like 30% brighter than the tungsten S4 with a piece of gel in it. There is a "holographic diffuser" that they drop into the gate to prevent weird colour fringing when you put a gobo or shutter cut out of focus, which does affect the sharpness slightly and apparently the brightness - although you don't need it in if you're focussing sharp anyway. The back is a fair bit longer than a regular S4 - it only just goes past the yoke, so it does feel differently balanced, but it just gets slightly warm, never hot. Apparently there is a fan inside, but I wasn't able to hear it with my ear literally touching the vent grate, so it must run very quiet. Aside from that, using it is exactly like a regular S4 - the lens tubes are identical (and exchangeable with older lens tubes, no problem.) There are also cool white and warm white versions but I didn't really play with them. My dealer says they're currently set for about $1900CAD each, (about 1200UKP) although there's almost certainly price breaks to be had at quantity. That's a hell of a lot more than a regular S4, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 That's actually cheaper than I expected - at the last show here, we were told to expect 5 times the price - so that £1200, while expensive - is not as bad as it appears - and could be low enough to pursuade a few people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmck Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 That's actually cheaper than I expected - at the last show here, we were told to expect 5 times the price - so that £1200, while expensive - is not as bad as it appears - and could be low enough to pursuade a few people?That's a fair bit lower than UK list - I've been told £1700 and £1900 (list) by two different people, both from ETC. Still, they are far better than most of the other LED profiles on the market, and cost less too... Unfortunately these prices exclude lens tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I do hope it's not one of those products where the North American price has no resemblance to the UK price - something that happens far too often just because someone thinks our market can stand it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.