help choosing cyc light

DeadDeer

New Member
Hello - I am a director of a diy black box theatre in Detroit. We recently hung a 12(h)x40(wide) white traveler. I would like to purchase "cyc" lights for this. I had one colleague recommend several Chauvet DJ H9 strips. I'm open to traditional lamps (many avail on ebay) but of course the easy color changing of led is a plus. Would like to have a light that manages a soft white. The lighting would be hung in the air and about 8 feet away. I could theoretically add a pipe closer. Excuse the post redundancy of this request but I just wanted to share a pic and hear any feedback on my particular situation. Which product, how many, how far back... We want to spend less than 3k on this.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!



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Be aware of long lead times on most new lighting fixtures. Also, try to get a demo in your space.
This is above your budget but you might want to take a look at it:

EDIT: You really should get a demo of that H9 fixture, it might work great.
Consider also similar products from Elation/American DJ.
 
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I have a friend that swears by his Blizzard HotSticks. They have the same LEDs that they put in their RokBoxes. Certainly not the best on the market, but for the price I can see a set of them easily reaching a 12' drop. He uses his on a 20' cyc and it looks good.
 
I would recommend choosing a fixture that has an asymmetrical lens option, so the beam can spread vertically more than horizontally. The Top-Of-The-Line version is a Colorforce 2 72 with the Border lens, I know that the Strand Aurora 12 also would be a good option and has a 60x30degree lens. That aforementioned Chauvet Ovation Cyc looks pretty nice.

one word of caution putting the units 10' away from the cyc, with that far of a distance, the light that illuminates the cyc will also illuminate the actors in front of it, and you won't be able to get any color separation. I would recommend getting the units closer to the cyc if you can
 
Not available any more, but I use blizzard toughstick RGBAW. One thing that really smoothed them out was that I made diffusions from cut down suspended ceiling troffer "pebble" pattern material. Made some 3d printed custom clips to hold them on after gaff and elastic were disappointing over time.

Eye protection is a must, but a slow pass through the table saw will get you there. Very little loss.. very good spread for fixtures that were not meant for this express purpose. So have some of this ready when you are testing.

Regular gel diffusion frost material has monumental loss with LED.. but they do make holographic film that you can but in gel frames for LED pars, or get in bulk roll to cut yourself.. Very little loss very smooth spread that depending on the material
you can have some control over the plane of spread.

Bottom line.. try some of the cheaper LED strips available in your space but don't forget that the right diffusion will get you much more bang for your buck.
I light my "pseudo cyc" from about a foot out just skimming the surface. Here they are on just a painted wall
The painting is just flat black base with the clouds being a dark grey.. the rest is the lights They are on about 25% here.
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diffusion.JPG
 
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I should add.. that's 8 fixtures covering 36 foot width.. so we were about 4K all up for the fixtures.
Bought the first off ebay for testing then the rest new.. Maybe 6 or 7 years of use now.
 
One of the most popular LED Cyc lights ever made, Altman Spectra Cyc 200. The patented lensing/reflector is what really makes this fixture special. They’re not as low cost as a lot of the other options here but they are convection cooled (big plus) and come with a 5 year warranty which many of the aforementioned fixtures don’t. You would probably need to stretch your budget a little further if you wanted to go with these fixtures.

We usually recommend placing the fixtures 4’ away from the Cyc in most applications but I think 8’ might be manageable. Like others have said, you should try to get a demo of the fixture in your space no matter the fixture you decide on. Hit me up if you need an Altman demo.

 
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I have a similar "wide but short" space (12'3" grid, 40' wide cyc).

I use Chauvet ColorBand T3 units across the bottom. While they do die off a bit as they go up, they're still VERY bright (we usually run them under 20%) and very even.
 

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Hello - I am a director of a diy black box theatre in Detroit. We recently hung a 12(h)x40(wide) white traveler. I would like to purchase "cyc" lights for this. I had one colleague recommend several Chauvet DJ H9 strips...
Hey @DeadDeer, we'd love to hear what you've tried/demoed, and decided on.
Please update us when you've got anything to share.

thanks!
 

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