LED Par 56 - Bright and Cheap

[djmatthill]

Hi Guys ,

 

A Client of mine is looking to purchase some LED Par cans for use on his stage for live visiting acts.

 

Stage is about 7m Wide x 8m Deep x 10m stage to ceiling height.

 

Venue in front of this is same Width and ceiling height then 25m long.

 

We are looking to install 6 / 8 Led Par 56`s in front of the stage but only have a small budget £250ish.

 

I know the usual suspects produce Cheap Budget Par 56`s for between £30 - £40 each , out of the cheap units can

anyone recommend any particular brand over the other??

 

My options for this are I think the likes of CPC , Soundlab , Thomenn , Monocor etc....

 

I know we are not going to get the best for this budget , but have you used or seen any of the cheapies

which are worth considering ?

 

We are looking for the brightest and most reliable options please.

 

Many Thanks

 

Matt

[musht]

Sure about those dimensions, 10m is quite a throw if thats the lighting position as well?

 

7m wide hits problem common to almost all LED units, until spend several multiples of your budget, narrow beam angle.

 

Going to need more than 4 a side to cover the width, honestly 5/10mm LED Pars wont be bright enough to throw on to the talent and make them look bright from the back of the room.

 

Gear that isn`t quite the right thing is never inspiring.

 

Unless have current power, data and rigging in place, budget is going to need a bit of a rethink.

 

Or just install the power , data and rigging and hire what`s needed in, on an as needed basis.

[djmatthill]

Sorry My Bad ....

 

The Par Cans will be mounted about 5m high from stage floor height and about 3.5m away in distance..

 

Matt

[ojc123]

I can't recommend the CPC cheapies for what you're looking for.

 

We have eight on a slightly smaller stage in a school. I use them for eye-candy effect rather than for lighting a scene. They are fine for a splash of colour on a backdrop, a bit of uplighting etc.

 

For this weeks event, as an example, I have two hanging about 3m over the drummer and two uplighting so we can put a bit of changing colour on him. Last week they were on the floor putting some green into the fog for a marsh scene and lighting a couple of banners for a medieval castle. That's the kind of thing they're ok for.

 

They don't give anywhere near a good enough white for lighting a scene. They have a fairly narrow beam angle. They have odd colour fringing. They have the usual fade then switch off. They've been ok for reliability with careful handling.

 

Even eight of these would take you over budget when you add clamps, DMX cables and safety bonds. As others have said, you'll have to factor in the power supply.

 

Don't get me wrong; we've found them very useful, versatile and good value for £30 each. I'm even considering getting another half dozen because they are cheap and effective for what they are. However, I doubt they'll do what you seem to be looking for. I can't comment on other brands but I suspect the story will be similar at the price point.

[timd]

The Thomann Par56 Pro, while over your budget, are extremely bright, substantially more so than the 5/10mm led heads. They are however horrible for front light as they can't produce anything approaching a decent white - it's very harsh. They also suffer from slight colour fringing in shadows.

[paulears]

I find it strange that somebody has a space, decides to use it for live visiting acts, and then produces a ridiculous budget for making it look nice (or even just be bright enough for the musicians to see each other in). If you call in an electrician to fit a couple of 13A sockets to plug the lights into it's going to cost more than £250! A new urinal in the loo? Some electrical work for a beer cooler, a few carpet tiles, a single security camera? All these things have a realistic business cost, and one that is of course offset against the profit.

 

People have an expectation - let's put on some live music, yet the very things that the punters will notice (unlike all those things I listed above) is being attempted on petty cash money, NOT proper budgeting. Frankly - it makes me think the project is run by somebody totally out of touch, and if this is their budget, then in my head, I'm imagining a really embarrassingly low quality project. God knows how much has been spent on the PA if the organisation is this much out of touch.

 

Everyone nowadays knows what lights can do - we see it on TV all the time. Does somebody really believe that £250 is going to get them something genuinely useful? As said above with this kind of budget, the consumable items like plugs, safeties and clamps claim a high proportion of the total funds available, which is crazy, forcing you to shop around for bits of bent metal, that really should not be that important. Back in the 1970s when I first started being involved with lighting, a single theatre spot - the cheapest around cost very similar prices to these LED devices you are looking at - yet back then, that price was my weeks wages!

 

I wonder what kind of visiting bands, who may have travelled a long way, will think £250 worth of PAR LEDs = good lighting?

[dosxuk]

I know the usual suspects produce Cheap Budget Par 56`s for between £30 - £40 each , out of the cheap units can

anyone recommend any particular brand over the other??

 

My options for this are I think the likes of CPC , Soundlab , Thomenn , Monocor etc....

 

In my experience, at that price point they're all selling the same design, just with different stickers on.

 

We are looking for the brightest and most reliable options please.

 

As others have said, they're great for eye candy / low powered washes, but they're not really suitable for lighting up a stage, and they're not all that reliable. I always make sure I've got a couple of spares sat ready to go when I use them.

 

I wonder what kind of visiting bands, who may have travelled a long way, will think £250 worth of PAR LEDs = good lighting?

 

Judging by the OP's other posts, I'm not sure that "live visiting acts" actually means bands, more likely "person off of made-in-geordie-shores" doing a Q&A, or some pop act singing along to a backing track for five minutes. And in my experience of those types of act/venue, even getting the money to hire equipment specified on the artist's rider is often met with "well they can just do without, I'm not paying for that", let alone actually buying something for the venue.