Gels Burning Out, S4 Juniors...etc.

[drawstuf99]

Hi,
I know I've mentioned this before in some posts of mine, but I've got a small problem with gels burning out...

Now before I ask a question, I'd like to present what I know to do in order to minimize this. These are all ETC Source Four Jr 26 Degree fixtures...(I hate those instruments.)

-- Bench focus units so lamp is centered..etc
-- Put the gel in the furthest gel slot from the lamp
-- Don't use S4 Jrs.

Well, not much I can do about the S4 Jrs but here is my situation.

I have six total units (3 on each side tree of our theatre) that are geled Red Green and Blue (to make white) and that allows for easy mixing for last minute color changes and stuff. I've noticed that my two greens in those S4 units are burning out quickly, and one of the blue ones is starting to. The reds seem just fine. Is there any type of connection between color, saturation, and gel burn out. Obviously, its quite obvious when the gel is being burnt through because when mixed, the area lit starts to not be white any more.

This is a community show my school is putting on with like, no budget. We have very little money to invest, and of course the money has gone to set building and not to lights. I have a few spare cuts of those three gels but is this something I'm going to have to change every week? It's not doing this with 6 regular S4 19* units I've got with the same gel. I'm going into programming and we are extremely short on time so I need to know how many times I can expect to do this. Our show goes up in two weeks.

Any experience with this sort of thing happening? I've always hated those S4 Jrs, but they are the only things with a wider beam spread than 19* - all of our Source Four's are 19 degrees and the Altman units are 20.

Thanks for your help,
Andrew
(a very stressed designer having to hang and focus their own show within days)

[Footer]

Open up your gel book, look at the transmission, usually the lower the transmission the faster you will get burn out. There are a few things that make burn out happen faster such as how much air moves around the fixture and how much the fixture is tilted. You can buy heat shield for around 6 bux a sheet, and it helps if you put it between the gel and the lens in a separate frame. There are also high temperature versions of most saturated gel. But, the more saturated colors will burn through fast, and thats just the nature of the beast.

[SteveB]

Hey, don't feel so bad, I'm 31 fixtures into a re-vamp with S4 25/50 zooms (not Jr's), that will probably total 90 or so fixtures at finish @410 ea. plus $16 per lamp.

Every one of these otherwise terrific units requires a supplemental City Theatrical 3" long color frame extender @ $22 ea.

Just the way it is.

SB

[soundlight]

I think that Gel Extenders will fix your problem. Even the best fixtures sometimes need gel extenders for the really saturated colors (primary/medium hues of the primaries, dark purples, and so forth).

[Van]

Originally Posted by soundlight

I think that Gel Extenders will fix your problem. Even the best fixtures sometimes need gel extenders for the really saturated colors (primary/medium hues of the primaries, dark purples, and so forth).

I can second that.
Make sure your bench focus is as flat as possible. I don't want to tell you something you might already know, but it's not just about getting the lamp in the center of the feild it's also about getting the lamp < front to back > in the center of the reflector and the two are not the same. As others have stated yes with a highly saturated gel your going to burn color. It's just the nature of the beast, But you shouldn't be burning through color.

[gafftaper]

Ship posted a long detailed step by step of how to do a proper bench focus about 6 months ago. If you aren't 100% sure of your skills you might search for that as it was outstanding.

[drawstuf99]

Thanks for the advice folks. Hehe, it's not buringa hole in the gel, just getting lighter and altering the color a bit

[Van]

Ah, Yeah you can Kind of expect that with the more saturated colors. But I have, in the past, had fixtures so screwed up they would literally burn a hole in a gel in under 30 seconds. Who needs "sharks with frickin lasers"? give me a 360Q really tweaked out of focus.

[TupeloTechie]

Originally Posted by Van

Ah, Yeah you can Kind of expect that with the more saturated colors. But I have, in the past, had fixtures so screwed up they would literally burn a hole in a gel in under 30 seconds. Who needs "sharks with frickin lasers"? give me a 360Q really tweaked out of focus.

we had a "Star-Par" that would burn a hole in the gels before we could really even get them in the slot! turns out someone replaced the lamp with one that was ment for a S4

[drawstuf99]

That's almost as sad as realizing one day during a hang at school that all of our S4 Pars' lenses were somehow installed backwards on all 15 fixtures. They weren't going to fall out and the plot was accounting for the beam shape with them in backwards so we kept them. But who on earth would've done something like that?