Large PAR lamps being discontinued

[Ynot]

At the moment this looks as though it's mainly a US decision BUT I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't affect us over here...

 

Article on Control Booth about Large PAR lamps

 

[timmeh2]

Not surprised at all, there is some EU legislation in the works that would scupper selling tungsten too, although they may put in an exemption for theatre use.

 

Venues will eventually just have to bite the bullet and go LED, which sounds easy but of course the infrastructure changes can be difficult to swallow.

[Ynot]

Not surprised at all, there is some EU legislation in the works that would scupper selling tungsten too, although they may put in an exemption for theatre use.

Pretty sure we dodged that bullet (at least for a while) last year when the exemption was extended for entertainment lighting needs...

 

https://www.ald.org.uk/resources/savestagelighting

 

 

 

 

[sandall]

Not surprised at all, there is some EU legislation in the works that would scupper selling tungsten too, although they may put in an exemption for theatre use.

All a bit irrelevant if nobody is making them any more (or at least not of a quality you might consider buying) :(

[adam2]

More and more incandescent lamps are becoming hard to find. In some cases manufacture or import is prohibited, but other types are being de-listed for want of demand. Large PAR lamps are expensive to make, bulky to ship, and expensive to run.

 

I suspect that imported large PAR lamps of doubtful quality will be available for some years, but manufacture by reputable brands looks as though it is about to end. It seems that well known brands outsourced production to China, with rather variable results. I very much doubt that the factories in China will be scrapping the production lines just yet.

 

Consider alternatives if you can, and if not stock up on spare lamps. If you have spare lamps and do not expect to use them then I urge storing and then offering them for sale rather than dumping them.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ynot]

It does surprise me to an extent, not least because the faithful PAR 64 has been a staple for so long and there's really nothing practical in the LED market that replicates the 'look' of a PAR bank in a rock show.

 

OK, the advent of decent quality RGBAW/whatever means that the same instruments may be replaced by multi-coloured options, but it's not really the same...

[empyfree]

The odd big rock and roll tour or show won’t come near the sales needed to maintain production I guess. The schools, village halls and thousands of little AV companies that used to go through a dozen lamps every six months would have added up to a huge volume that has been completely lost to LED.

[adam2]

And of course demand for large PAR lamps would always have been much less than for popular d0m3stic or vehicle lamps.

 

If demand for a popular lamp drops from a hundred million lamps a year to a few million, then production might still be worthwhile. If demand for an already relatively uncommon lamp drops from a thousand a year to a few dozen, then continued production may not be justified.

 

BTW, I can remember when GLS lamps were available in DOZENS of different voltages ! 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 200, 210, 220, 230,240, 250, and 260 volts for example plus at least a dozen others. And most of those in a good selection of wattages, with a choice of clear or pearl, and with B22 or E27 bases. All but a handful of the most common types are now extinct.

 

 

 

 

 

[indyld]

It does surprise me to an extent, not least because the faithful PAR 64 has been a staple for so long and there's really nothing practical in the LED market that replicates the 'look' of a PAR bank in a rock show.

 

OK, the advent of decent quality RGBAW/whatever means that the same instruments may be replaced by multi-coloured options, but it's not really the same...

 

 

Taking the hint from the much larger and more influential D0mest1c lamp industry into account, whether it's not really the same is irrelevant to both policy makers and equipment makers. This week I needed a lamp of the correct base and wattage for a bathroom fitting. It was unreasonably hard to get even a CFL on the high street, so with a heavy heart I spent a chunk of money on an LED equivalent. Yay, dull green which purports to be 'warm' incandescent equivalent. I'm sorry public space lighting designers, specifiers and jobbing electricians, but people CAN tell the difference and many work places and public spaces now have vile lighting that flickers and is a horrible colour.

 

Coming back to the point, relatively few people care about PAR cans in the grand scheme of things and I'm not aware of 'magic' physics on the horizon that will ever make LED sources an 'equivalent' due to the plain business of how the light is created.

 

Over time, I'm sure our eyes will adjust/evolve to the new world and no one will remember what a tungsten looked like anyway so it won't matter.

 

:-)

 

(PS. My own solution to my personal hatred of modern light sources is to live as much of my life in daylight as I can. Hey, it's also 'eco'!)

[bigclive]

(PS. My own solution to my personal hatred of modern light sources is to live as much of my life in daylight as I can. Hey, it's also 'eco'!)

#

Not that "eco" since many of these short-lived LED lamps involve significant chunks of aluminium as heatsinks.

And don't forget the new era of disposable floodlights where the user can't change the lamp, but has to get an electrically capable person to replace the whole fitting each time it fails. (Roughly after the same time a traditional lamp would have lasted.)

 

Even aside from the terrible flicker from many of these lamps, the appalling power factor and the tendency to fail in a sustained stroboscope mode they're generally a bit of an ecological disaster.

[indyld]

I've yet to really get my misgivings about the LED trend, both in production lighting and more generally, a really good airing.

 

However, I do find myself dealing with a lot of the wasteful consequences of failures in LED based lighting gear.

 

Ideally, working by the light of a window. :-)

[sleah]

LED really isn't living up to the promises we were sold on, in particular the staggering long life. Though I suspect this is more due to manufacturers pushing them beyond 'normal' limits, thereby shortening their life.

 

With regard to good old Rock'n'Roll, turn it on it's head.

 

So, you want to acheive a look with banks of bright, punchy, focussed, soft edge beams, also split in to banks of colour (and area in red, area in blue etc) using the technology you have at hand, which is the LED PAR - ETC Colorsource PAR as an example. You just can't get that look you have in mind, the technology just can't do it.

 

What do you do? It's all doom and gloom and a massive disaster, and you have to rethink and come up with something you CAN make work with the technology at hand.

 

Go back 40 years.

 

You want to acheive a look with banks of bright, partly focussed but not well defined edges, maybe lots of small sources of light, you want them all to be almost any colour you choose (not restricted to areas of colour), strobing them would be nice, using the technology you have at hand, which is the 1KW Halogen PAR can. You just can't get that look you have in mind, the technology just can't do it.

 

What do you do? It's all doom and gloom and a massive disaster, and you have to rethink and come up with something you CAN make work with the technology at hand.

 

 

I too like the 'traditional' rock'n'roll look, but the death of the halogen PAR isn't the death of rock'n'roll and it's spectacular shows. It just moves on and changes with the technology.

 

The reality is that it's only us old farts that really could give two hoots about the end of the halogen PAR - audiences won't even notice - they may even think how much better shows are with modern technology :o :o

[Brian]

If demand for a popular lamp drops from a hundred million lamps a year to a few million, then production might still be worthwhile. If demand for an already relatively uncommon lamp drops from a thousand a year to a few dozen, then continued production may not be justified.

 

And that's the problem. You might have a factory which can make PAR lamps but once it's made enough to fulfil a year's worth of demand what is it going to make for the other 51 weeks of the year?

[bigclive]

If demand for a popular lamp drops from a hundred million lamps a year to a few million, then production might still be worthwhile. If demand for an already relatively uncommon lamp drops from a thousand a year to a few dozen, then continued production may not be justified.

 

And that's the problem. You might have a factory which can make PAR lamps but once it's made enough to fulfil a year's worth of demand what is it going to make for the other 51 weeks of the year?

 

I'd say the glass globe factories are doing just fine with their LED inserts like the very popular filament types. Same machines, just tweaked to the new market.

[timsabre]

You would have thought it would be possible to make an LED-filament version of a PAR lamp. Would be great for static/architectural applications - I went to a large church last week which is entirely lit by 300W PAR56 narrow beam lamps, about 280 of them, they want to replace them with LED but there is nothing similar available without doubling or tripling the number of fixtures to get the same light levels.

 

There is probably not enough market demand though. It would be a fun thing to try if you didn't need a glass processing factory to assemble the outer PAR envelope.