To me it says that the person specifying the theater knew what they were doing.
Could on the other
hand be that the
ParNel was not on the market yet in not doing the
ETC package.
Otherwise a
ParNel is not a
Fresnel - different type of beam by way of look and it's own animal.
I like the concept of paint brushes. Add to the list a plano
convex spotlight and a
scoop and
cyc lights.
All kinds of paint brushes and each has a specific
wash or beam of light use. Many lights can for the most part emulate or be sufficient, at other times you really need or want what was engineered to be the right tool. A
PAR 64 for me falls somewhere between a
Leko and
Fresnel by way of sort of soft tapering edges but a for the most part parallel beam of light. It at times can emulate the beam of light from a
Leko - in fact my old high school almost threw out all their Lekos and went
Par instead at one
point..., or it can create a fairly soft
edge wall of light.
A further trick to all the
Fresnel,
Leko and
PAR fixture uses is adding the accessories such as top hats and barn doors to the mix. A
top hat as say a down light on each of the above fixtures will have very different or unique beams of light any of which and each individually could be more appropriate for a specific look.
On the
PAR 64, you have the various VNSP, NSP, MFL, WFL lenses in 500w, 1,000w or 1,200w. and equivolent S-4
PAR fixtures with the same lenses that will do a higher
color temperature, lower
voltage beam of light roughly the same as the 500w and 1,000w beams of light on a
PAR 64
bottle. The GFD 1.2Kw
PAR 64 is also an extra wide flood beam similar to that on the new S-4
Par lenses. S-4 fixtures can't touch the output of a 1.2Kw
PAR 64 lamp...
About this time next year I believe, Osram will have their next versions of AlimiPar lamps available for the
PAR 64 lamps. Benefits of them will be more luminous output and a higher
color temperature. Possibly even a 750w or 800w / 115v lamp instead of the standard 1Kw lamp so as to get three per
circuit as an advantage with the S-4
PAR. At that
point also, the rock and
roll PAR can with lamp might become lighter than that of a S-4
PAR also.
Beyond the
stock bottles on a
PAR 64, there are other lamp types that are not available for the S-4
PAR...
In the
PAR 64
fixture will also fit ray light kits that could do 300w, 600w (DYS), or Ushio's 800w version. Such ray lights will do a
beam projector like parallel beam of light.
Than there is
ACL lamps available that are kind of like a flash light in converging beams for use with a
transformer or with series wiring in sets of four for the
PAR 64 that will do a 8x7
field angle beam of 500,000
candlepower light out of a #4552 250w/28v lamp, or 765,000
candlepower out of a slightly larger and upgraded to
halogen #Q4559X that's 600w/28v with a 11x7.1/2 beam of light. Old school
par cans have uses and options. There is lots of other
PAR 64 lamps out there beyond these also.
I prefer if I'm doing any accessories or buying for the
stage, steel
PAR can fixtures over a rock and
roll aluminum
PAR fixture. Steel ones are much more rugged, weight often is not as much an issue, and the frame slots, plus
yoke breaks are normally much stronger. For the most part steel
PAR fixtures for
stage usage - as
UL listed for that purpose and aluminum ones often not as a
stage lighting device, I prefer.
By the way, I did mention beam projectors as another type of
fixture that can be really useful. Wyborn recently came out with a nice
beam projector in the BP-2.
As with other fixtures, you get a different feel with any specific type of
fixture.