Mid-range LED

[MadeNew]

Hey,

 

I've been a regular lurker but never a poster for several months now, but finally have a question worth raising.

 

Essentially I'm after the best way to spend ~£2000 on LEDs wash lights to add to a wide range of tungsten fixtures in a college that requires some fixtures with versatility (of colour mixing/usages across all of the college). This could be 4x £500 lights, 8x £250 or anything else, I'm open to suggestions.

 

Please includes brands/models/costs/benefits/etc.

 

 

 

 

Brief backstory: This year I started working for a college that has a studio theatre, but also installs performances in their large hall (which has no theatrical installation), and they have a some-what dated tech spec. I previously worked at a bespoke educational facility that had a wide range of LED and tungsten fixtures including: an ION with ETC Source 4 LEDs, D40s, Martin Mac Auras, Robe Pointes, Selecon Fresnel LEDS, etc. So I know my high(er) end brands reasonably well, but not the mid-low range. I'm not interested in the cheap throw away crap though.

 

 

 

 

Thanks in advance

[vinntec]

Included in the inventory we have a stock of Philips Selecon PL1 LEDs: 5 x PLCYC1, 6 x PLFRESNEL1 and 3 x PLPROFILE1. These are integrated into a very large, for our size, conventional inventory.

 

In terms of intensity they are very conquerable to a 500W lamped Selecon Acclaim profile and fresnel, the cyc units more like multiway HUIs or LUIs. They give a very wide range of colours using a common RGBW engine, including very nice face tints. In a shoot out between LED and 650W tungsten equivalent they were of the same intensity as a conventional gelled with L111, deeper colours of course the LEDs win hands down.

 

They have proper optics, run stone cold, very quiet (you can control fan noise easily - we have audience very close to them), gobos are razor sharp, barndoor edges also sharper than normal, and the cyc units have been misused at another theatre with a cyc taller than they are intended for, but they still worked really well.

 

I wrote up the workshop we ran when we first got them which has spread all over the internet, the main one is one the Selecon site if you are interested. You would be welcome to come and have a look if you want a trip to Winchester.

 

We got ours from Lancelyn in Oxford with help from Philips as they were in the first production container to the UK. List prices shown at Lancelyn currently are;

PLCYC1 £645, PLFRESNEL1 £549, PLPROFILE1 £634 but obviously you can discount these if you order more than a few units.

 

Incidentally I am nothing to do with either Philips or Lancelyn, just a very satisfied customer http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

[MadeNew]

What a hugely informative and helpful first reply. This forum is awesome.

 

Thanks. I will check the units out.

 

 

 

[jbrown96]

+1 for the PLCYC1 have used them with a local drama group a lot recently and been very impressed.

[paulears]

I was a Chinese LED sceptic at first, then they got better and better, and I currently have ten 36X10W zoom RGBW in their second year, and am pretty impressed with the brightness and overall quality. If you search aliexpress for that description you will come across many version, virtually identical and sourced from common parts. I kept two as spares, appreciating that getting spare parts is never going to be quick, but I've started to use them as my experience has been so good. Getting a decent wash on a 11 x 10m stage was never easy and it was always patchy before - now I can have a very bright stage in any colour. So much so, the follows spots are less effective.

 

If you buy more than you need, the prices are so good now that they are well worth looking at. All mine came in flight cases and they've all got plenty of miles on them now with no ill effects apart from two cases got cracked when they fell over in the van. The factory sent me some spares, but I've not used them, just repaired the cracks.

[Platinum events]

Are you looking for movers or pars. The prolight eLumen8 range is very good. Have used it now for a while not had any problems you would be looking at the following units which would be within your budget

 

Movers

Kudos CM100zs

Kudos CM150

Pars

Alu Hex par 64

Tour par 200zs not out yet but looks good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken Coker]

Well I've just hung up six Chauvet SlimPar Quad 12 IRC on the front truss at the Ritz in Manchester. They seem fine and Chauvet kit is much better than it was.

Worth a look.

 

KC

[MadeNew]

I had been looking at the some Chauvet kit as I've recently hired a few of their pars, and they were better than I expected. (I had previously, years ago, used and hated some Chauvet fixtures.)

 

Interesting to hear the Chinese stuff is getting better, I will look into that and the other recommendations.

 

I do think the Selecons would be ideal, but it's getting the quantity I need for the budget available.

 

 

 

 

I'm more after pars and similar at the moments (due to budget). But if I could find a couple of movers that did the basics for pretty cheap I'd consider them for sure.

 

 

 

[WiLL]

I've recently added the Chauvet Colordash QuadPAR 18 to my stock (18 of them in fact) and so far been extremely pleased with their colour mixing, dimming and the build quality.

[vinntec]

As Will says one of the key things, assuming they need to crossfade, is how good the dimming curve is.

 

I used some Stairville Stage PAR 18 Tri-Color LED3W pars last year and these snapped compared to tungsten, but the convenience especially for a musical and a ballet as backlighters far outweighed the inconvenience (these were both short runs). In the musical I tended to crossfade them to a low intensity blue above their "snapping point" and used this as working light. The audience soon got the hang of what dim blue light meant and won't even notice it second time on. So the cheaper ones can be used, but you need to make sure they are fit for purpose. This behaviour would be very distracting for a play, for example.

 

Needless to say the lanterns I first mentioned have a brilliant dimming curve, which can even be fine tuned in the lantern or from DMX if you want to (we have never had the need).

 

It sounds like the Chauvet units Will mentions are in between the cheaper and the Selecon units I mentioned. There is also an ETC LED PAR which might be worth a look, but probably relatively expensive (but does have a more sophisticated LED engine compared to most others).

 

The Point in Eastleigh recently adding a lot of LED as I saw in a newsletter from WhiteLIght yesterday, which includes a mix of medium and higher end LEDs so might be relevant to look at here. (I have no connection to White Light either other than as a customer)

 

I notice AC Lighting are also selling LED lanterns with less well known names which might be worth looking into. (nothing to do with them either)

[MadeNew]

Some great suggestions here. I don't know much about the elumen8 range so will explore them.

 

I'd love something with some dimming curve options, especially as we do a lot of theatre. I used to have, and love the selecon's. My concern this time, is cost - I wouldn't get many for my buck. And that my rig is low - a typical educational studio space, it's only 3-4m from the floor. I wouldn't want the limited selecons I could afford to be limited in stage coverage. Resulting in a few spots of colour rather than washes, I remember them being a lot tighter than the D40's etc.

 

Maybe I should look at some floods?

 

 

 

 

So many people have recommended Chauvet to me at the moment. I've used their slim pars, but felt they were more club dj kit than their professional range?

 

 

 

 

Thanks again guys. I would definitely owe a few of you a pint or two by now.

 

 

 

[Tomo]

The 'budget' ETC LED fixture is the ColorSource PAR.

This is a calibrated RGB+Lime fixture, and the LED mix means that the "all-at-full" is a useful white.

It's natively homogeneous, and takes the same holographic lenses as the Desire D40 for controlling the beam.

 

Lancelyn currently list the ColorSource PAR at £510 (ex)

 

Worth adding to the shootout.

[MadeNew]

Going to revive my old thread here to update my current standing.

 

I recently used some Chauvet fixtures again, but wasn't smart enough to take note of their names, whilst someone told me they were from their professional range, I still had issues with their dimming curves, especially when fading out intensity.

 

I don't want to take the gamble on some of the cheaper fixtures without seeing them.

 

 

 

 

I spoke to Lancelyn (or National Stage Technology) and they were still fans of the Phillips PL1's, but even more so of the ETC Coloursource Par, or recommended me a Martin Rush Par for a cheaper variety.

 

But I did recently get to test some Elation SixPar 200's and they weren't bad at all. And at a very good price point allowing for a few units.

[Paul Turner]

Take a look at the Scena LED 80 RGBW fresnel and Profile from DTS, It's a nice compact fixture, (think minuette).

If you want a demo, please let me know.

[gareth]

I recently used some Chauvet fixtures again, but wasn't smart enough to take note of their names, whilst someone told me they were from their professional range, I still had issues with their dimming curves, especially when fading out intensity.

 

Chauvet have recently upped their game a bit as far as their 'pro' range is concerned.

 

While we as a venue would love to invest in some top-notch LED kit like Source4s, we simply can't afford to do so - so we got ourselves some Chauvet gear, mainly as cheap and cheerful tools for doing big, bold washes of colour for panto, dance shows, etc. The first lot we had were Chauvet Colorado 2 Zoom Tour units, and some Colorado 144 battens - and while they were OK, the dimming curve was pretty nasty at the bottom end, limiting their usefulness for anything requiring any sort of subtlety. Recently, we replaced the zoom units with a large quantity of Colorado 2-Quad Zoom Tours, and they're vastly improved - the bottom end of the dimming curve is vastly better than the previous model, and the green emitters are much improved (more yellow, less blue).