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At our church, lighting positions are complicated by the peaked roof. Getting the right angle sometimes requires very short throws. For example, when we need to light an area on the platform steps or on the floor right in front of the platform, some of the throws are in the 5'-10' range. Real short throws would seem to require lower-power lights.
The bulb ban is on hiatus since they withheld funding for enforcement, but even so, it's hard to find a PAR 38 lamp in 100 or 150 watts. There are relatively few options for PAR 46, mostly at 200 watts. For lots of selection, you need to go to PAR 56, but then you're at 300 watts minimum. Even with more expensive lights like the S4 PAR or the S4 Jr., you can't get below 300 watts. As best I understand it, you avoid running lights at very low dimmer percentages so as to avoid amber drift. I think ideally we need 100 watt lamps for some positions. Right now we have a small budget with which we need to get a complete working system in place, so we're starting with PAR fixtures. How do we choose fixtures in this situation?
Thanks for any suggestions!
The bulb ban is on hiatus since they withheld funding for enforcement, but even so, it's hard to find a PAR 38 lamp in 100 or 150 watts. There are relatively few options for PAR 46, mostly at 200 watts. For lots of selection, you need to go to PAR 56, but then you're at 300 watts minimum. Even with more expensive lights like the S4 PAR or the S4 Jr., you can't get below 300 watts. As best I understand it, you avoid running lights at very low dimmer percentages so as to avoid amber drift. I think ideally we need 100 watt lamps for some positions. Right now we have a small budget with which we need to get a complete working system in place, so we're starting with PAR fixtures. How do we choose fixtures in this situation?
Thanks for any suggestions!