new star cloth advice

[synergyuk]

Hi, I am looking to buy a new LED star cloth for our group and just wondering if anyone here has purchased one from http://starclothsuk.co.uk ? Their prices seem very cheap so I am just wondering what the quality would be like. any advice would be much appreciated.

[dmxlights]

They are also on e-bay as well. I have bought from them via e-bay and star cloths are shipped straight from Hong Kong and are very good quality and I would buy from again.

 

I bought was the led video curtain and it is controlled via DMX and the patterns or moving images are stored on a sd card and it also come with the software to put the images.

[Ynot]

As ever this can depend entirely on what you plan to use it for.

 

Being a venue that has picked up a LOT of dance schools in recent years, many of them love the star cloths (thankfully as that steers them away from ruddy slash curtain!!) as permanent backdrop. We have a local hirer who can let us have the cloth we need at very reasonable rates (both white and RGB).

 

Buying one of these (Showled classic or Chameleon) would set us back 4 figures so hiring is by far the best option for us.

 

My usual question therefore is whether you can justify buying a decent quality cloth against hire when needed...?

[Tomo]

As ever this can depend entirely on what you plan to use it for.

This is the best piece of advice you'll ever get!

 

LED starcloths are extremely variable with a wide range of feature sets and control options, from the "plug it in and that's it", right up to "individual RGB/RGBA/RGBW control of every single star"

 

• 
   
  
• Some let you dim the LEDs.
  - Many of these don't actually dim very smoothly or very low, either being visibly 'steppy' or snapping off at low-ish levels.
  
• Some only turn on/off.
  
• Some have a built-in twinkle.
  - Some have a built-in twinkle that you cannot control at all.
  
• Some don't.
  
• Some have multiple controllable 'segments' so you can do the twinkling in the console.
  - This goes all the way from two or three sections right up to individual control of each star.
  
• Some only have built-in programs or just all-on/all-off.
  
• Some are made of shiny nylon. Some of matt serge.
  

 

All these affect what you'd want to use them for - a wedding dance, musicals and straight plays usually have different needs.

 

So first, figure out what you're using it for and how often it'll be used.

Then you can decide what features you need, which features are a nice-to-have, and whether it's better to hire the 'right' (different) one in each time or to buy one of your own that does all of what you need.

[Stuart91]

One problem I've found with LED starcloth (bought through a very reputable UK distributor) is that the LEDs in different manufacturing batches had a subtly different colour temperature. It wasn't immediately obvious in the warehouse, but when you hang two cloths side by side the difference is apparent. We got great support and were able to swap some around to get all our stock looking the same.

 

So I'd recommend buying all your cloths in one hit if you can.