Leko/Ellipsoidal recommendations on a budget

[In-Sanity]

Hello everyone! First post 
I’m a high school student 
This year I was able to get a small budget to upgrade the systems in the auditorium of the old campus.

I have 750-1000USD left in my budget to figure out something for front lighting from middle of house (Yes I know I won’t be getting anything great with that amount of money)
I’m not looking for anything fancy, just need to be able to see people’s faces with white light 
The throw distance is roughly 14 meters (45ft)
I’m thinking to get 6 lekos, 3 each on left and right 

The Source 4 19deg seemed like a good option but is too expensive. 10kused quoted me 1300usd + import fees for 6 of them (expensive shipping)
I’ve also tried asking around some theaters and concert halls I’ve worked in the past, but they all said no.

I did get lucky once and a theatre offered me some Source 4 LEDs if I paid shipping, but suddenly changed their decision because some of his lights died 

Are there any half decent options for lekos that are cheaper? (And has cheap bulb options)

[paulears]

Hi - this is a common request, but the answer always depends on what you already have? Don't forget we're mostly European/UK, so while we do have members in the US, our answers have a bit of bias.

In schools here your budget would be blocked by two things - The supply of old fashioned lamps is drying up and increasing in price. Most pro theatre, events and even schools think buying old incandescent kit is foolhardy. Your school are crazy to spend money on equipment with very limited life. Electricity costs and the green lobby mean that old kit is being sold at dirt cheap prices- just look on ebay. 

LED is the only way, and it is expensive. Even Chinese LED is hardly cheap. 

Questions - do you need to be able to project gobos and have hard edges? If not, then tight zoom LEDs are much cheaper - and you can get Chinese ones for your budget - just. 6 fixtures is not a great deal of choice, but you have too little for Source 4 LED (or even Chinese versions) so even though you have a grand, that's not a huge amount of money.

Worse - as a student, it means you will blow the budget on what next year's students will see as a waste. It's nice they've trusted you with a budget, but you cannot buy what you need, so face the unhappy condition of blowing it on a compromise - effectively perhaps wasting it. Give the money back to a member of staff who's job includes making these decisions. It's really dreadful they've put the responsibility on a student. It always backfires. Comments down the line will be "we trusted in-sanity, and they blew the budget on junk" - when somebody next year needs 7 people to be lit, or your choice won't go wide enough, or the amazing deal on a job lot of source 4s needs $500 for new lamps and there is no money. 

Giving students real money to spend is ALWAYS bad news for the student. Duck out, and tell them you cannot get a good deal that will do what they want.

[In-Sanity]

Well my actual budget is 10,000 usd. This is my third theatre/space I’m fitting but this one is quite difficult with the very limited budget. (The other locations I’ve had 60k for main stage and 25k for gymnasium that they use for small shows) I’ve done work in a few other theatres/concert halls and do AVL for a jazz band

This is the layout I’m doing https://www.theatrecrafts.com/pages/home/topics/lighting/lighting-focussing-a-general-wash/ (Diagram in the middle. Idk how to attach images on iPad)

In the front, I’ll have Varytec fresnels (I’ve used them before, high output, high CRI, pretty good color mixing) Back will have some movers, and the Colorsource PARs we already have

 

I’m trying to figure out how cheap I can get the front profiles for. After the fresnels, followspot, trusses and some movers I have 1000USD left.
 

53 minutes ago, paulears said:

do you need to be able to project gobos and have hard edges? If not, then tight zoom LEDs are much cheaper - and you can get Chinese ones for your budget

I wanted the framing options so I decided for profiles. What zoom LEDS do you suggest? I don’t necessarily need hard edges.

57 minutes ago, paulears said:

a student, it means you will blow the budget on what next year's students will see as a waste. It's nice they've trusted you with a budget, but you cannot buy what you need, so face the unhappy condition of blowing it on a compromise - effectively perhaps wasting it.

There won’t be any other budget for this location (Apart for 500 a year for maintenance stuff). Anything will honestly be an upgrade for this location because the entire stage was previously lit with only 4 CS Pars. (Stage is 15 meters long so not that small). I’ve discussed with appropriate staff that I hold no accountability in case something goes wrong 

1 hour ago, paulears said:

Your school are crazy to spend money on equipment with very limited life. Electricity costs and the green lobby mean that old kit is being sold at dirt cheap prices- just look on ebay. 

Electricity cost doesn’t matter. And the profiles will be somewhat temporary (2 years or so) before I can either retrofit with LED 4WRD or change to something else.

[david.elsbury]

Do you have dimmers and cabling (and power) to support incandescent profiles?

[alistermorton]

Bit more info (from controlbooth) it appears the OP is in Japan (Tokyo), which could affect any answers. 

Edited December 29, 2023 by alistermorton

[In-Sanity]

7 hours ago, david.elsbury said:

Do you have dimmers and cabling (and power) to support incandescent profiles?

8 circuits of 20A @100V  Not much per circuit so I might have to stick to lower power bulbs 

 

[In-Sanity]

7 hours ago, david.elsbury said:

Do you have dimmers and cabling (and power) to support incandescent profiles?

8 circuits of 20A @100V  Not much per circuit so I might have to stick to lower power bulbs 

 

[adam2]

If the O/P IS in Japan, and the later post that refers to 100 volt circuits strongly suggests this, then that is another reason to go LED.

The market for 100 volt incandescent lamps was always rather limited, much smaller than the market for 120 volt or for 230 volts. Japan is the only major country that uses 100 volts. Lamp supplies are therefore likely to dry up before the more common voltages.

Most multi voltage LED lanterns will operate down to 90 volts (100 volt nominal supply, at about 95% of nominal, less about 5% voltage drop in the fixed wiring and in extension leads) 

An LED fixture should give full output down to 90 volts, a 100 volt incandescent lamp run at 90 volts will give about half light output.