Help me choose LED par cans

[Chris Pflieger]

I got about a 20-30 foot throw to wash the stage. Right now there's a pair 56 cans and pair 2K fresnels (typically run at under 50%). I'm looking at replacing these with six new fixtures. Nothing fancy, just need a decent mid-range (cost & performance) wash.

On my short list is:
· Chauvet Pro COLORdash PAR-Hex12
· Chauvet Pro COLORdash PAR-Quad18
· Chauvet Pro COLORado 1 Quad Zoom
· Lightronics RGBW F18x8W
· Lightronics RGBAW 18x10W
· ElektraLite Dazer LED Par
· ETC ColorSource PAR RGBL

Any thoughts about which ones would or wouldn't work? Any other fixtures I should look at?

This is a photo of the stage area. This was before I came on board and the stage is much brighter in this picture than in reality.

 

[StradivariusBone]

You might want to also check out Blizzard's RokBox lineup. We bought five for downlighting at 20' and 5 are enough to cover the width of our 40' stage. They cut fairly well through our front wash. I was also looking at the Quad 18's at the time and if I recall they are comparable in specs, but I think the Blizzard might have a wider beam angle? Don't have my notes in front of me at the moment.

 

[RickR]

The ETC are making a lot of people happy. They are the top price of that set because they work really well and accept accessories to make them adapt as needed.

 

[gafftaper]

I have ETC Colorsource PARs for downlight. The ETCs are beautiful at accurately producing the soft pastel colors you want in theater, but they don't go really far into the deeper saturated colors. The dark blues and purples are rather weak... Probably better to go Chauvet for those colors.

 

[JohnD]

I have ETC Colorsource PARs for downlight. The ETCs are beautiful at accurately producing the soft pastel colors you want in theater, but they don't go really far into the deeper saturated colors. The dark blues and purples are rather weak... Probably better to go Chauvet for those colors.

Or consider the "Deep Blue" versions for top and back light.

 

[Chris Pflieger]

So, I think my options are the ColorSource or the Chauvet COLRado zooms or solos. On paper the Chauvet units look brighter, but I imagine the ETC units look just as bright.

On the other hand, if I Chauvet Rogue washes, I should have very good color uniformity with the COLORado's as they should have the same leds.

 

[gafftaper]

On the other hand, if I Chauvet Rogue washes, I should have very good color uniformity with the COLORado's as they should have the same leds.

@Ford can you comment on how LED's match up across the Chauvet product line? My guess would be that it depends on the generation. I would guess that you work really hard so that all the products introduced in 2016 would match really closely, possibly even the same LED's. However, a product introduced in 2015 might be a little different from a 2016 as technology and sources of LED's change.