LED Ellipsoidals

blalew

Active Member
I'm looking to update to LED in some of my smaller venues (throw distance 10-15') and in portable band setups with one FOH truss and I've typically used S4Jr for frontlight for these. I'd like to replace them with LED. Bonus would be a higher color temp, but I don't know how the fixtures below measure up in output.

ETC 4WRD - do these only work for full size S4?
Mega-Lite Drama W50 - http://megasystemsinc.com/shop/architainment/indoor-lighting/drama-led-w50/
Lightronics FXLE2032W - http://www.lightronics.com/led_ellipsoidal_fxle2032w.html
Chauvet Min-E-10WW - https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/products/ovation-min-e-10ww/

Any suggestions or experience with the above or similar fixtures for this application?

Thanks,
-Blanton
 
The 4WRD doesn't do color mixing, it's only an LED cap replacement for standard S4 ellipsoidals.

I'd also look at the S4 Color Source Spot. That's their LED color mixing unit that is not as punchy as their more expensive Lustre series.
 
You'll have to help us out a little with what you're looking for, what your console(s) is, and tell us more about your application and budget. Two of the fixtures you linked to are more like track-light fixtures than stage lighting fixtures. They have the output for accenting artwork in a gallery or a lobby but do not have the horsepower for cutting through gels and lighting up a stage.

The cost of quality color-mixing LED's has come down quite a bit. Unless you're not in a position to string some DMX cable out to your fixtures or you absolutely never need color, I would ignore the white-only LED options on the market. They may be the right fit for you but are becoming increasingly irrelevant every time a new color mixing LED fixture comes out at a lower price and a higher brightness output.

Source 4WRD only works for full-size. No dice for retrofitting your Jr's.

My go-to for color mixing LED ellipsoidals is ETC's Colorsource Spot. With a lens tube, you're looking at ~$1750/ea. If you don't need shutters, the Colorsource PAR can be pretty cost-effective at more like ~$800/ea. They have such a tight beam before you put diffusion lenses in front of them that they can act as an effective spotlight from a fair distance without casting as much spill all over the place like you'd get from a PAR (like I said though, no shutters).

I haven't tried it myself but I've also heard good things about Chauvet's Ovation E-910FC, which like the Colorsource fixtures has RGB/Lime emitters for color-mixing. Rumor has it these are fairly comparable in output to the Colorsource Spots. With a lens tube, in the neighborhood of $1350/ea. It's part of Chauvet's Professional lineup, which supposedly comes with a better level of quality, reliability, and customer support than Chauvet's DJ products. From the people I've heard have had to get Chauvet on the phone, the support's been stellar but I think it remains to be seen if Chauvet's professional products will have the longevity of the usual suspects over time. Seem to recall that the only knock I've heard against the E-910FC was that it didn't converge the colors of the various emitters quite as well as and thus was more likely to give you rainbow fringes in the shadows. Possible that's the kind of thing you only notice if you're looking for though.

As with everything, get a demo and try before you buy. Also get quotes. The pricing you find online is more targeted for buying one or two fixtures at a time and is based on the lowest level price manufacturers allow their dealers to publicly advertise at. This is so all the dealers play nicely together in the sandbox. They can almost always give you better deal in a quote and help guide you through the accessories you'll need (DMX cables, clamps, power jumpers, lenses, soft diffusers, frames etc.)

When comparing fixtures, be careful to avoid putting too much weight on specs. It's a big of a crapshoot how the different manufacturers measure and advertise their products. Makes it difficult to compare apples to apples by the numbers. Also doesn't speak the more subjective issues at hand. Smoothness of dimming, loudness of a fan if there's fan cooling involved, uniformity color mixing across pool of light at short and at long throws, side and relative clunkiness of fixtures, etc.
 
I would also highly recommend you look at the Elation Profile 5. It is an RGBAM array (Mint instead of Lime) I have been quite impressed with the output and color spectrum of the unit but the one thing that has impressed me most is the optics. The fixture is clean, I would put it up against the ETC EDLT lens any day, and it is much cheaper. MAP for the fixture and a lens is less than $1500.

http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/273825-Elation-Pro-Lighting-COLOUR-5-Profile
@rsmentele Any company spelling colour with a 'U' in it CAN'T BE ALL BAD!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
It means it's real English. :p

(Please don't hurt me)


@EdSavoie ; Further to your comment of: "It means it's real English." [And you even capitalized English] Just when I thought @Quillons had a brain in her head, she comes out with "I wanna". "I WANNA"? Boo! Hiss!! What kind of excuse for English is that??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
@EdSavoie ; Further to your comment of: "It means it's real English." [And you even capitalized English] Just when I thought @Quillons had a brain in her head, she comes out with "I wanna". "I WANNA"? Boo! Hiss!! What kind of excuse for English is that??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
I mean, I go to math school. Our writing standards are probably a little lower than most other places....
But I see your hissing and I bite my thumb at you, sir!
 
I mean, I go to math school. Our writing standards are probably a little lower than most other places....
But I see your hissing and I bite my thumb at you, sir!
@Quillons Just so long as you're not biting your nails.
Get that engineering degree then go change the world. [Optimistically by making it better.]
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
In response to @blalew ...

We recently purchased a handful of used ETC S4 575s and retrofitted them with ETC S4wrd. It was less than $1k per fixture.

Bonus would be a higher color temp, but I don't know how the fixtures below measure up in output.

The S4wrd has a slightly higher output that the incandescent 575 and the same color temperature (3000 K). We currently use 3/4 CTB in all of out S4s, including the S4wrds, to bring up the temperature.
 

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