House lights - upgrading

[NTABID]

An amateur theatre (150+ seats) has reached the point of wanting to replace its house lights. Not only will the appropriate tungsten filament bulbs soon become unavailable for the existing luminaires, but any extension of use of the theatre - eg hiring out the venue for lectures etc - is likely to need much higher light levels than currently available.

 

A route between DIY and rip-off is needed, but where to start? Trying to research ' house lights' is not productive, and other phrases produce loads of links to the ever-changing coloured world of LED technology. Hopefully someone else will have tackled this question and can give us some useful pointers - however simple they may seem - to help us get started.

[jonathanhill]

What are the lamps you use currently?

[kerry davies]

Maybe googling architectural lighting would set you off on the right lines? There are a few architectural lighting magazines on the web and innumerable sites with information and images.

[the kid]

Why are they becoming non existent ? you can get most lamps still AFAIK.

I would look at maybe calling a few companies. I know AC-ET are more than great at suggesting options as my other work has had them in a couple of times to suggest options (a few years apart as the tech has changed but finances have not been there)

[medina]

Ive just put in 8 Chroma Force LED floods for my 420 seat theatre and they are more than bright enough. We put cyc lenses on them to spread the beam a bit and barndoors on the front 4 to keep the spill off the stage. With the warm and cool LED you can get a very pleasing light. They were not too expensive either. Brought from those nice chaps at AC ET

[the kid]

Ive just put in 8 Chroma Force LED floods for my 420 seat theatre and they are more than bright enough. We put cyc lenses on them to spread the beam a bit and barndoors on the front 4 to keep the spill off the stage. With the warm and cool LED you can get a very pleasing light. They were not too expensive either. Brought from those nice chaps at AC ET

 

 

I would even hazard a guess that was one of the options.

 

I did like the wybourn lights a few years ago, not sure how they match up but at PLASA they were quite stunning.

[johnhuson]

Whilst potentially out of your budget if your thinking down the DIY route, I know of a number of venues that are very happy with a GDS ArcSystem as their house lights. Even if it's out of your budget it might prove to be useful food for thought.

[PaulDF]

We have a similar situation, currently we have 3 main houselights with glass shades using a mixture of dimmerable CFLs and 100w filament lamps which are used when we want dimmable lighting such as for shows, when the hall is in use for exhibitions etc we have six floodlights dotted around the room (metal halide 250w) which are used.

[James Bawn]

Hi there!

 

If you get a moment take a look at our brand new award winning Chroma Q 'Inspire' houselight fixture! It could be perfect for your application.

 

It's an RGBW unit which has already created a huge amount of excitement over in the USA. It's possibilties are endless.....!

 

Chroma Q Inspire

 

We are literally about to do a product launch over here so please let me know if you need a demo unit or indeed any pricing.

 

Many thanks

 

James

Chroma Q Global Brand Manager

james.bawn@ac-et.com

[Smiffy]

Can I suggest that you dig out a copy of Lighting & Sound America?

 

There is a company in there that advertise a replacement LED houselight system every issue. I'll try and track a copy down when I get home and access to the iPad as I was looking at an issue the other day so I'll dig a link out for you.

 

Cheers

 

S

[Tomo]

Maybe googling architectural lighting would set you off on the right lines? There are a few architectural lighting magazines on the web and innumerable sites with information and images.

Caution!

A lot (actually, most) of Architectural-market lighting is excellent for working light, foyer, restaurant, office, facade etc but is inappropriate for houselights.

 

Commonly they are only able to dim down to 10-20% or so then snap off, and/or may not be designed to do a live fade, instead being intended for "set to an appropriate dimmed level".

 

Some guidelines:

 

• DALI is not intended for live fades, it's for office-type lighting control. This makes it unsuitable for houselights - but quite useful elsewhere.
  (I know several installations that went this route for their houselighting and they hate it.)
  
• DMX or 0-10V control is usually needed, as none of the 2-wire "dimmable" drop-in replacements dim all the way down.
  (Though some are pretty good these days - I'd have no qualms using them in the foyer or my own home!)
  

"Theatrical-quality dimming" is a claim you'll want to look for, rather than just "dimmable".

 

Once you have a shortlist, try one fixture out in a completely blacked-out room.

Shine it at the wall, and watch the dimming and the fades.

 

However, given a low budget and high brightness requirement, I would recommend tungsten-halogen fittings.

Modern TH fixtures are quite efficacious (some TH actually produce more lm/W out the front than cheaper LED fittings), so it's likely you'll find some TH fixtures that consume less power and are brighter than your existing houselights.

 

- Perhaps moving to Source Four Pars could be a good route.

The HPL lamp is not going anywhere, and you'd have the choice of lamps depending on the brightness needed.

Depending on what your existing luminaires are, even the 375W long-life might be brighter in a 1:1 fixture replacement.

 

Switching to LED will be quite costly, as the bright and reliable fixtures are still quite expensive.

(Plus you'll need to run data cabling, although that may be simple)

 

That said, in the EU you may be able to access additional "green" funding for an LED solution.

[Tow]

- Perhaps moving to Source Four Pars could be a good route.

The HPL lamp is not going anywhere, and you'd have the choice of lamps depending on the brightness needed.

Depending on what your existing luminaires are, even the 375W long-life might be brighter in a 1:1 fixture replacement.

 

I don't think you can get HPL 375W in 230~240 volts, I was looking for a couple a while back and could only find 115v versions.

[jonathanhill]

Ushio list a 230V and 240V version of the 375W variant of the HPL+.

 

They should know as they developed the HPL.

[Tomo]

Ushio list a 230V and 240V version of the 375W variant of the HPL+.

 

They should know as they developed the HPL.

We've got quite a few on the shelf, both HPL-375/230X and HPL-375/240X

 

If you want some, give your local ETC dealer a call. :)

 

These are both 1000 hour/3000K, the 300 hour/3250K version is indeed only available in 115V/120V.

Though you can use those here as well now, with the Source Four Dimmer </plug>

[Jivemaster]

First thing to look at is the real skill set of your am-dram company. My local am dram had the local electrician as a member so he would do jobs like this through the firm, The other nearby am-drams couldn't be trusted to push a plug into a socket so would have been better to pay an electrical installation company.