Thoughts on Equinox UV Power Flood?

[Amy Worrall]

https://clubtek.co.uk/equinox-uv-power-flood-light-p-4983.html

These are available from various places for about £80-£90. I'm looking for cheap UV to drench a village hall for a techno dance event — so I want wide beam angle, and I want cheap. But these are suspiciously cheap!

Anyone used them? Or any other recommendations?

Also, how many d'you think I need for a 16x10m hall? (Don't need to get right into the corners.)

 

 

[sunray]

Couple of 4ft fluo blacklight tubes  😃

[themadhippy]

for that sort of money you could hire 4  400w uv cannons

[timsabre]

I have used one in a sensory room setup, beam spread is massive but (as a result) they are not very bright. The sensory room was about 16ft square with a low 8ft ceiling and the effect was good in there, with no other light on and the fixture in the centre of the ceiling. How big is your village hall?

As Hippy says if this is a one off you would do better hiring something a bit more powerful.

[Amy Worrall]

Hall is 16 x 10 metres, and I'm considering getting four of these. I also considered some Showtec UV LED Bar 120cm, but the seller told me their beam angle is rather small so lighting a hall might not be successful.

Regarding the old school 400W UV cannons, I actually own two of them. One issue is they're big, and I don't have much car/van space. But the other issue is, at the times I've tried to use them, I was really not impressed with their output. It may have been to do with the light level in the hall, or the angle, or whatever, but last time I tried them they didn't seem to be contributing much. I mainly wanted some UV reactive tape on the floor to glow, and that just didn't happen.

[ANDYLASER]

Lots of visible light with these. The 400w UV cannon is far superior.

[Amy Worrall]

I wonder why I got such poor performance from my UV cannons? They were second hand and the lamps are of unknown provenance -- do the lamps get worse as they age?

[themadhippy]

Quote

but last time I tried them they didn't seem to be contributing much.

how long did you let it warm up? There not an instant on  jobby they take a good few minutes for the lamp to strike and produce full output

[Amy Worrall]

They were on for hours. 

[indyld]

I don't really rate LED UV although I've been told that there are good ones at the pricey end. In general, too much visible light and not much punch in the important part of the spectrum. 

Always preferred old skool canon or fluoro tubes for max impact.

Edited January 11, 2023 by indyld

[sunray]

29 minutes ago, indyld said:

I don't really rate LED UV although I've been told that there are good ones at the pricey end. In general, too much visible light and not much punch in the important part of the spectrum. 

Always preferred old skool canon or fluoro tubes for max impact.

Hence my earlier comment about flou lights, several years ago I did sound for a panto, lighting had a row of comething like a dozen slimline UV PARs (150ish 10mm LEDs per fitting) for a scene with a skeleton painted on a black head to to lycra suit. for the second show I rigged a 4ft fluo blacklight which blew the PARs out of the water.

I don't have personal experience with other products mentioned in this thread to make a comparison.

[ANDYLASER]

I agree the 4 foot flourescents are good. If you go that route, I would recommend one of the metal fixtures with built in reflectors.

[sunray]

2 hours ago, ANDYLASER said:

I agree the 4 foot flourescents are good. If you go that route, I would recommend one of the metal fixtures with built in reflectors.

Yes I picked up some rather lovely fittings during a ripout at work basically a steel 'tray' 200x75x1250 mm with a curved reflector and tube contained within the size. I fitted lift of hinges and catches so 2 fitted front to front for transportation.

[timsabre]

It depends what you are doing, for a village hall disco as specified by the original post, where you just want fluorescent colours to "pop" then the LED stuff is fine and the purple visible light output wouldn't really matter. Those fixtures originally suggested would not cover a 16x10m hall though, you'd need a lot more than 4 of them.

I agree if you are trying to do a panto blacklight scene (does anyone do these any more?) the visible light output from UV LED would spoil the effect.

[sleah]

Perception and expectation.

UV tubes/cannons are subtle effect compared with LED UV which puts out more visible light as mentioned.

I recently was lighting a yoof show using ETC Colorsource deep blue fixtures. The director asked for UV for a scene, I explained I couldn't do 'proper' UV, but could simulate it with the fixtures. As soon as I flooded the stage with the deepest blue, she was delighted with the result - the whites and colours flouresd(?) rather well. To me it was quite different to what I'd have expected with a pile of UV cannons as the entire area had a deep blue glow - I quite liked it!

A (rather naughty) example is the 'Bra' effect. With blacklight the blouse/top will almost vanish, with LED the bra tends not be as visible. Or maybe blouses/tops are made of better UV blocking material these days and bras less reactive! 😂 Guess who used to mobile DJ with blacklight 'back in the day' 😁