CYC Lighting

We're remodeling a smaller room on campus and I'm a little out of my element when it comes to LED fixtures...
We're installing a 20-24' CYC in a room with 10' high ceilings. Can anyone give me some direction on what type of fixtures to look at purchasing to do a full color wash (I'm currently looking at the ETC Selador Series) as well as how many?
Will LED fixtures work with the Leprecon LP-600 Series Lighting Console?
 
If you can afford Selador's you can afford Chroma Q ColorForce 72's. Go with the ColorForce... and don't look back. I just bought 6 of them and they are by far the best cyc fixture out there. It is a tad bit overkill for a shorter throw but you won't have to worry about the cyc washing out.
 
We're remodeling a smaller room on campus and I'm a little out of my element when it comes to LED fixtures...
We're installing a 20-24' CYC in a room with 10' high ceilings. Can anyone give me some direction on what type of fixtures to look at purchasing to do a full color wash (I'm currently looking at the ETC Selador Series) as well as how many?
Will LED fixtures work with the Leprecon LP-600 Series Lighting Console?

LEDs will "work", but will effectively eat most or all of the console. If you have the 612, its going to be far more painful than its worth, with only 12 DMX addresses and 12 channels (1-12). The 624 lets you get a little more creative because it supports a soft patch, but that's still going to eat at least 3 to all your 24 control channels.

I'd look at including a console upgrade to something that understands LEDs/intelligent fixtures in the process.
 
LEDs will "work", but will effectively eat most or all of the console. If you have the 612, its going to be far more painful than its worth, with only 12 DMX addresses and 12 channels (1-12). The 624 lets you get a little more creative because it supports a soft patch, but that's still going to eat at least 3 to all your 24 control channels.

I'd look at including a console upgrade to something that understands LEDs/intelligent fixtures in the process.
Any recommendation on consoles?
 
LED only eats up all of your DMX addresses if you want individual control of each cell. If you want the same level of control you currently have then multiple cells could share a common address.
 
LED only eats up all of your DMX addresses if you want individual control of each cell. If you want the same level of control you currently have then multiple cells could share a common address.
So if the only LED lights were on the CYC and individual control of the fixtures was not required, but rather controlled as a "group" (sorry, not sure the terminology) they current console might be adequate? The rest of the room will be conventional fixtures.
 
Correct. By addressing each fixture the same, you control them as a group. There is also a setting within the fixture itself which controls how many channels it requires to control it - essentially the fixture can be broken up into multiple sections within it.

So for a 24 foot cyc you could either control it in 6 inch incraments (requiring 196 channels), or as little as 3 channels for the whole thing in RGB Magic Amber mode.
 
If you can afford Selador's you can afford Chroma Q ColorForce 72's. Go with the ColorForce... and don't look back. I just bought 6 of them and they are by far the best cyc fixture out there. It is a tad bit overkill for a shorter throw but you won't have to worry about the cyc washing out.

Kyle, curious if you did a taste test and tried the Seladors as well.

I've also heard very good things about the Chroma-Q's, but wonder about a 4 color mix vs. 7 for things like painted drops, which I know I'm not gonna have when I get around to trying.

Do you have yours in and running yet ?
 
Kyle, curious if you did a taste test and tried the Seladors as well.

I've also heard very good things about the Chroma-Q's, but wonder about a 4 color mix vs. 7 for things like painted drops, which I know I'm not gonna have when I get around to trying.

Do you have yours in and running yet ?

Yup. Installed them 3 weeks ago. One of my guys has a few of the seladors 11" units and I was not crazy about their output at our trims. We would have had to go top and bottom with them which we don't always get the chance to setup a ground row as we load in USC. With the Color Force units we don't even have to push them to cover the entire vertical. We have not had them on drops yet. In reality, the colors produced by the units are freakishly close to doubled up L119, R27, Lee 124, and a slightly lighter R22. I'm shooting them onto the front of my brand new Gerriets Opera Creamy White RP. It truly looks like the RP is producing light. It is just perfect looking and mixes amazingly. Even shooting onto our US black they look stellar. You get full travel of light even on that. I'm curious to see what some of the dance LD's do with them with both cueing them and how the deal with the saturation. They can do nice pastels but you have to know how to work with them. @MrsFooter has been doing a lot with them to make sure she can make them do what they need to for those type of acts. If it makes you feel any better, Bill T Jone's NYLA venue has gone to an LED cyc's... but they went with the Seladors top and bottom.

I'll have more of them in the coming weeks and months. We hit a situation where we had to get new cyc lighting and decided to make the jump. It was a 25k purchase but we are really happy with it thus far.
 
Altman Spectra CYC 100 specifies 4' spacing.

From Altman on that...
"Maximum recommended spacing is 6’ on center, 2’-4’ back from lighted area. For a brighter, more saturated efect, Spectra Cyc’s can be set closer or linked directly to the next via a joining bracket"

If you have the room to hang the cyc lights that far away from the cyc, the Spectra's are a good option. The Altman color engine is pretty good and the pricepoint is really good.

How much distance will you have between the cyc and the pipe you want to hang the lights on? Usually this is dictated by where you upstage most non cyc light electric falls and how deep your stage is. On deeper stages you can usually afford to "waste" the space on reflector cyc lights. On the other hand if you need an electric to do backlight and sidelight on the stage right up to the cyc then you will want to look at scraper fixtures that you can hang closer to the cyc.
 
Altman Spectra CYC 100 specifies 4' spacing.

It kind of depends where you see it written in the Altman literature. For horizontal spacing, on page 1 of the "data sheet" they say 6'-8' centers and on page 2 they say:
"Maximum recommended spacing is 6’ on center, 2’-4’ back from lighted area. For a brighter, more saturated effect, Spectra Cyc’s can be set closer or linked directly to the next via a joining bracket - SS-CYC-LINK." But yes , 4' away from the cyc is reasonable.
 
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You're right -- the 4' spacing assumes a distance from cyc of around 4'. At least that's the rule-of-thumb I've been told to follow.

It is indeed a bit like "how long is a piece of string".
 
Always use that rule as well followed by the "a cyc is never too bright" rule so use as many fixtures as you can not just the minimum. It's kind of like flair.
 
The Altman Spectra-Cyc fixtures have wonderful side to side blending and coverage. 8' apart 4' out is quite smooth and bright on a 10' wall, not that brighter would be a problem.
 

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