PAR 64 lamps getting hard to get?

Any thing new, non-led on the event horizon for par56 & 64 or are they simply a product of a bygone era? ... most of my customer aren't interested in changing to $$ LED yet.... (thrifty, yes!)

Chef Greg @TLC said:

Any thing new, non-led on the event horizon for par56 & 64 or are they simply a product of a bygone era? ... most of my customer aren't interested in changing to $$ LED yet.... (thrifty, yes!)

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I consistently order Par 64 lamps, ours come from B&H most of the time.

Most of the PAR 64's that I've seen lately were being used to house another lighting fixture for some reason or another.

Fascinating, I have not seen that done yet. What sort of light housed in the now prop can? Thanks in pre-knowledge of what might hit me next. Next thought on my part, given the under water LED foutain source rings with a hole in the center... do they fit inside a PAR Can and lots of options for what can fit in that center ring. No LED PAR 64 bulbs on the market at this point, and indeed would be better to do a DWE LED replacement.

As for Halogen PAR 64 lamps, at this point more a Mark (Osram) question in the only manufacturer of PAR 64 lamps left (verified) - when they will come to production given some problems to overcome, verses stocks of lamps at suppliers. Honestly I am sweating a bit and stocking up a little more. But this is not the Corning lamp panic of like +15 years ago - when LED's were not viable and a ANSI 1Kw PAR 64 lamp was still the main can fixture in only the S-4 PAR to compete.

I'm told in asking, mainly the medium and wide focus are lowest in stock thus such lamps should be the first Osram comes on line with, if of help to them in production. The ACL lamp #4595 GE lamp is a question as with the DKZ/DSE for further production I don't know about. Osram makes neither of them. Further question the DWE and FCX..

Hi All,
I'm just learning of the Par64 backlogging issue. Suppliers all around here have ceased shipments and/or have little to no stock. We are now pushing for retooling budget and looking at possible options of LED Par replacements or maybe s4 Pars to replace our 60+ Unit inventory. Researching options helped me to find this forum. Thanks for all that posted.

There are other retrofits, but this seems to be the early leader: http://www.onsiteled.com/ .

Welcome @Pc2 , the latest info is in this thread:
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/large-par-46-56-64-lamps.45336/

Thanks Derek, will be play testing these and hopefully the TMB source next week if we get them.

Curious what you thought of those retrofits if you tested them @ship??

TMB, All Bulbs, TechniLux... probably Creative Stage Lighting, in believing I heard they have them... and by now most other suppliers Fixture or lamp I would expect have or can get them now.

Main difference is GE/Corning no longer is making the globes for GE/Osram/Philips. Ushio and Eiko both on their own stopped making them in their own globe suppliers given the lack of volume.... slightly before Corning stopped I would suspect. A good question in thru the years we have heard of front lens popping from reflector, and or in general failures in lamp capsule.

Eiko I would watch in possibly they might have come back in supplying them or as per an alternate source - Eiko tends to linger on incandescent's, or their factory might have been shut down or re-started or shut down than restarted by a different company. One should well respect potential of that company as per the Hyundai of the lighting industry for building in quality.

In not having asked or being told the story, large PAR Can suppliers no doubt were onto this problem as soon as the news Corning was shutting down. Could be a question of one or more of them perhaps buying out the Corning factory in Mexico.... possible - don't know where the outer globes were made. Or just bought out the design for the lamp if no longer patent - probably. Certainly was a quick turn around time to start making lamps overall - kind of like faster I would think than the war time turning around of factories that once made cars in now making at least jeeps.

As for the quality of the lamps, finally I think got my last pallets.. cannot tell and will not be able to tell for months. Some of the new lamps probably shipped out to tours. Problem being I have no idea of what's used on them or sestemic problems on them yet, or if still filtering thru old stock - a lot of that still in stock.

That said it does become an interesting question of how well they are working. How to mark the lamps - which often came in marked over GE cardboard boxes/cases so as to send back for evaluation if they fail? This also given I believe a 800hr lamp how to track lamp hours for remote shows.

Assuming I should not put a sticker on the reflector, suppose some sort of smaller high temperature sticker on the porcelain lamp base would be appropriate with date installed and date removed. If I have an average amount of days the cans were used per week and hours... which I can if specified which leg of the tour info, I might be able to get this info.

Above nearly impossible to track.... but not impossible given a TV "entertainment" tour, done by our shop staff, and the tour/show and our guys have just as much worry about when they will have to change the system as I do. Thanks in a good question that I will look into. Never tracked PAR 64 lamps before... but might just start giving them a serial number in lamp tracking to find this out.

Thanks. Something to look into.

Where does ETC (and others) get their S4PAR (and others)?

BillConnerFASTC said:

Where does ETC (and others) get their S4PAR (and others)?

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I'm guessing the missing word is "lenses".

I don't think we ever heard the final disposition on this topic: https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/source-four-par-lens-question.41229/#post-356500

Jim Uphoff said:

I have a quick question for anyone that would be willing to take the time to answer. Our supplier for the lenses we ship with all S4 Par fixtures is stopping production of those lenses. We are being forced to source a new supplier and have found an alternative. The lenses, however, are not exactly the same. Most notably, the MFL and WFL would go from being oblong to being round. (see the chart below) Thoughts? Would this negatively impact your ability to use the fixtures? Is the oblong quality of those lenses the reason you use them? Would there be any advantages to the new, round beam? Also, you could just answer the poll. One thing to note is that the other lenses we have been shipping have always been round.

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I'd always heard that S4-PAR lenses were the front part of PAR56 lamps, before they were wedded with the reflector and filament assembly. Not sure that's true, but it makes a good story.