Need advice on lighting fixtures to light a mirror ball

[soundguy99]

Hey guys,
Need some advice on which fixtures to use on a mirror balll. I know the traditional is the pin spot, and In the past in the club I worked at we use Martin CX4's but unfortunately they have since been discontinued.
Was looking for a super bright fixture, that is a color changer like the CX4, and possibly have a shutter, so I can do the strobbing effects.
I know there is led's options out there but I am nervous about them without some recommendations. Keep in mind that I am going with at least 20' inch mirror balls probably 3 of them and its a huge room. with some ambient lighting so with or without fog I need them to cut through.
Any thoughts,
Are greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
soundguy

[derekleffew]

...Was looking for a super bright fixture, ...

Syncrolite or Sharpy?

[soundguy99]

well maybe not that bright, but the sharpy close, exept it looks like an pretty wide lense.
Unless its around that 1000 dollar range, at this time I can`t justify a moving light at this point, were getting a bunch of revo 3's and Revo 4's and that might be even much, so I am trying to stay within the color changer type of fixtures.
Thanks,

[DMXpro]

well maybe not that bright, but the sharpy close, exept it looks like an pretty wide lense.
Unless its around that 1000 dollar range, at this time I can`t justify a moving light at this point, were getting a bunch of revo 3's and Revo 4's and that might be even much, so I am trying to stay within the color changer type of fixtures.
Thanks,

Why not just use a conventional fixture? I remember using two S4 jr zooms to light a mirrorball from two sides. If that's not bright enough, use a 750W fixture or an Altman Kleigl (if you have one)....no better use for those, anyway. :-p

[soundguy99]

Hey dmx pro,
Great thought, The only thing, this is a verry large room with hardly any lighting as it stands right now. Although the S4 JR zoom, may be bright, anything I adding to the room because theirs not allot of lighting, needs to be versitile, hence the color changing option. The mirror balls will be a cheap way of creating allot of beams to fill out the room while the color changing and strobbing option gives me flexibility to program various effects to keep the lighting fresh with minimal lighting.
Thanks for the suggestion though,
What I do find funny though is looking around at various company's the color changers that you would norally use with a mirror ball such as the Martin CX 4 CX 5, Martin CX 10 Extreme, American D.J Accu Color 250 all great color changers would be great option with 250 watt bulbs, around that $800 range which works good as I am looking at getting 3 of them, but unfortunately all discontinued lol.
I am a hard time trying to find out what I use in place of them.

[beardedbil]

How about the American DJ trispot?

http://www.americandj.com/ProductDet...temNumber=1852

[soundguy99]

Another Great Idea, I have looked at the LED options, but I haven`t used the LED color changers or moving head lights, so I am not sure on power output conversion between the LED output vs a 250watt fixture.
You see fixtures with a 10W or 20 W LED output, but how does that compare to a 250W discharge bulb. Its a faiirly large bowling alley and I am planning on 3 20 inch mirror balls to fill it as its a wide room, so I want to make sure that whatever I throw on them is bright enough to not only to stand out on their own right, but cut through some of the ambient lighting as well hence a 250watt minium. Also if I am using the color changer, I need to know that when I am using the Blu's and Red's they don`t get washed out, other wise why get the color changer. So if some one can give some of their experience comparing lets say a 10W Led to a 250 watt fixture, or better yet on mirror ball itself, and can give me some assurance that it comparable, then I don`t mind looking at all the led options.
Thats why I am trying to get some advice, the LED option vs a "non discontinued 250watt or greater color changer"
Thanks guys I continue to appreciate the help and discussion,
soundguy

[StNic54]

You'll be surprised at the intensity of the current LED fixtures on the market. There are many companies that produce small led moving heads, much less fixed leds. The Sharpy would possibly melt your mirror ball, so if you try it, please record it and post on this site. Otherwise, peruse all the vendors - chauvet, american dj, elektralite, martin, clay paky, and even the conventionals like etc, strand, and the rest. You've got a lot to choose from these days. Start with the chauvet LED pinspot for your mirror ball - that's all you really need to make it pop.

[soundguy99]

I appreciate, the advice,
As I was looking around and talking to a few people some one also suggested the American DJ Vizi Spot LED or Vizi Spot LED Pro which is a 50Watt LED fixture, and looking at the Chauvet side of things the Q-Spot™ 260-LED is 60 Watts Now we have Martin Smart Mac's currently, which is 150 discharge bulb and they are getting washed out with the ambient lighting so, being a mirror ball and allot of space to fill I definitely need something brighter than that especially if I want to use the darker colors. So that being said that I want to use a 250watt discharge bulb as a benchmark.
So to try and narrow my choices some what, what would you recommend as a baseline led wattage as I try and use the 250 watt baseline for the Discharge bulb side of things. I am seeing every thing from 22 watts up to 60 watts right now.
Again I appreciate all the advice you guys are offering.
Thanks,
soundugy

[FlashPointLighting]

American Dj X-colors could be a good choice. Not sure they have shutters but they have a 20 or so watt led and a colour wheel so would probably be bright enough. I don't know if you have Acme in Canada but the Acme 10W Quad Colour LED Pinspot wopuld also be a good choice if you value colour mixing.

Hope this helps,

Tim

[urban79]

I would suggest trying to find a vendor who can bring in some demo fixtures. That would probably be the best way to determine if a fixture is bright enough for your space...

[LavaASU]

I would suggest trying to find a vendor who can bring in some demo fixtures. That would probably be the best way to determine if a fixture is bright enough for your space...

This would be by far the best option! Often lights are comparatively less intense than they seem, and "bright enough" is a very subjective term.

American Dj X-colors could be a good choice. Not sure they have shutters but they have a 20 or so watt led and a colour wheel so would probably be bright enough.

Uh, no. The Mac 350 was 350W of Leds plus a color wheel and it was roughly equivalent to a Mac 250 Krypton or Entour. My 36 x 3W RGB Led Pars are roughly equivalent to a 250W wash unit in intensity. Also using additive color mixing (RGB or RGBAW or whatever) as opposed to subtractive (white + color wheel) will boost your intensity. Perhaps look for some narrow beam angle LED units. I haven't seen one, but I know Blizzard (and I'd assume others) can do 5 or 10 degree LED pars, don't know if that would be close enough to a spot to work for your application. Blizzards would run you around $400/ea with the specialty lenses kits.