For those working in educational, non-profit, or other low-funding areas, what are you replacing your par64s with?
My situation:
I am the tech person for our student center. We currently use an express and host a variety of events in a multi-purpose space: mostly award/appreciation ceremonies, conferences and meetings, but also concerts, small theatrical performances, and dances. We have 40 or so Par64s hung on a fixed grid. Finances are rough in higher ed, but esp at public institutions (where I am).
I'm a sound person by training, but I grew up in theater and worked in AV/event support, so I have basic lighting understanding, but I in no way consider myself an LD. I have an LD to consult but A: he's on break and B: I want to understand this myself and increase my skill set. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how to account for the loss of brightness when switching from conventionals. I am leaning towards recommending we switch most of our cans to source 4 pars because I suspect the bulbs will continue to be available for quite some time, but I would like us to gain the versatility of color for our backwash, for example. Right now we have 10 Wide angle 1000W pars 5 each in red and blue as our backwash fixture across the stage (which no one has actual measurements on) but I'm guessing 25' high? The make a beautiful punch for concerts and I am just confused as to what we should switch to.
I started with looking at ETC colorsource deepblue and they are as pricey as I'd want to go for a stationary fixture unless there was one where we could reduce the overall number of fixtures needed. I've looked at Chroma-Q Color One 100, which I like because of the lack of dots for something staring at the audience (we have no proscenium or wings), but see folks saying it's not very bright. I also looked at Elation SixPar, which look to be nice and bright, but again with the dots. Then I looked at the Circa Scoop, which is super expensive, but if it was really a "scoop" I thought we might get great coverage for less... but I'm guessing it's mostly just eye candy.
In a perfect world I might hang a bunch of moving lights like the rogue r2 or r3 for front wash/town hall/dance parties, but we are still working on an express, so that is part of a larger and longer term plan if at all... since we have been doing OK for so long with stationary contemporary fixtures, making that jump would be a hard sell. Also, I have student techs so whatever board we eventually upgrade to would need to be something I could master and easily train folks on. In addition to the obvious (but semi-pricey) choice of going ETC, I'm looking into Chamsys and Titan mobile. I also am glancing at dot2 software, but the price of the board is probably prohibitive. We do some cues, but a lot of stationary looks as well as "busking" for small concerts. The students like setting faders and additive subs and I usually throw in some effects subs for them. They tend to shy away from the keypad, so it would be a tough transition for them, no matter what.
As far as the leds on stage, I was thinking the most economical solution would be to replace one-two of our D20 packs with R20 so we could use the existing stage-pin electrical and run either wireless dmx or ArtNet (still need to pull the ethernet cables, but seems a more economical option than running dmx). I have enough open faders if we switch the board to one scene mode to run led from the express, so that would be one way to make it a more economical transition at first.
I've been spiraling on this stuff for a week and don't feel any closer to an answer which makes me lean back to "just buy source fours because it's easiest"... but that also doesn't seem like the most strategic and long term answer. I will talk to some install/sales folks, but I need to know what is a real need and what is them preying upon my ignorance... which after talking to a dude on the phone yesterday asking about a fixture and throw distance and him literally reading the google results I had already seen off the screen as if he had insider info... makes me think it is a real danger.
So... all that said... what are you all doing/have done if you still had a fully conventional setup with Pars in the rig? Are you just buying new conventionals or planning on making the switch? What have you seen/liked? Is there an easy lumens # I should be using as a minimum when looking at fixtures?
My situation:
I am the tech person for our student center. We currently use an express and host a variety of events in a multi-purpose space: mostly award/appreciation ceremonies, conferences and meetings, but also concerts, small theatrical performances, and dances. We have 40 or so Par64s hung on a fixed grid. Finances are rough in higher ed, but esp at public institutions (where I am).
I'm a sound person by training, but I grew up in theater and worked in AV/event support, so I have basic lighting understanding, but I in no way consider myself an LD. I have an LD to consult but A: he's on break and B: I want to understand this myself and increase my skill set. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how to account for the loss of brightness when switching from conventionals. I am leaning towards recommending we switch most of our cans to source 4 pars because I suspect the bulbs will continue to be available for quite some time, but I would like us to gain the versatility of color for our backwash, for example. Right now we have 10 Wide angle 1000W pars 5 each in red and blue as our backwash fixture across the stage (which no one has actual measurements on) but I'm guessing 25' high? The make a beautiful punch for concerts and I am just confused as to what we should switch to.
I started with looking at ETC colorsource deepblue and they are as pricey as I'd want to go for a stationary fixture unless there was one where we could reduce the overall number of fixtures needed. I've looked at Chroma-Q Color One 100, which I like because of the lack of dots for something staring at the audience (we have no proscenium or wings), but see folks saying it's not very bright. I also looked at Elation SixPar, which look to be nice and bright, but again with the dots. Then I looked at the Circa Scoop, which is super expensive, but if it was really a "scoop" I thought we might get great coverage for less... but I'm guessing it's mostly just eye candy.
In a perfect world I might hang a bunch of moving lights like the rogue r2 or r3 for front wash/town hall/dance parties, but we are still working on an express, so that is part of a larger and longer term plan if at all... since we have been doing OK for so long with stationary contemporary fixtures, making that jump would be a hard sell. Also, I have student techs so whatever board we eventually upgrade to would need to be something I could master and easily train folks on. In addition to the obvious (but semi-pricey) choice of going ETC, I'm looking into Chamsys and Titan mobile. I also am glancing at dot2 software, but the price of the board is probably prohibitive. We do some cues, but a lot of stationary looks as well as "busking" for small concerts. The students like setting faders and additive subs and I usually throw in some effects subs for them. They tend to shy away from the keypad, so it would be a tough transition for them, no matter what.
As far as the leds on stage, I was thinking the most economical solution would be to replace one-two of our D20 packs with R20 so we could use the existing stage-pin electrical and run either wireless dmx or ArtNet (still need to pull the ethernet cables, but seems a more economical option than running dmx). I have enough open faders if we switch the board to one scene mode to run led from the express, so that would be one way to make it a more economical transition at first.
I've been spiraling on this stuff for a week and don't feel any closer to an answer which makes me lean back to "just buy source fours because it's easiest"... but that also doesn't seem like the most strategic and long term answer. I will talk to some install/sales folks, but I need to know what is a real need and what is them preying upon my ignorance... which after talking to a dude on the phone yesterday asking about a fixture and throw distance and him literally reading the google results I had already seen off the screen as if he had insider info... makes me think it is a real danger.
So... all that said... what are you all doing/have done if you still had a fully conventional setup with Pars in the rig? Are you just buying new conventionals or planning on making the switch? What have you seen/liked? Is there an easy lumens # I should be using as a minimum when looking at fixtures?