LED v Tungsten

I would say the less fixtures argument isn't about reducing the number of systems you have in your plot, just the number of fixtures in each system. For example, i no longer need 2 or 3 fixtures next to each other ultimately doing the same thing just will a different color gel.
Fair enough in not needing 2/3 fixtures to do the same thing Broadway scale in doing the same thing. I'm as a past designer much more in smaller inventory scale... and before LED's looking at what I Install at times at smaller venues where the amount of lights is less than the full service three lights from each position + specials even main stage.
I frequently go on installs where I'm installing a few dozen RGB+W fixtures, that replace an inventory..

I remember designing in many venue's just neeing even a small wattage fixture to fill a hole caused by yes doing something like McCandless, but spreading the lights out a little more than the spec. "My Kindom for another Leko!" My concern is more in the smaller scale or small theater size thinking a single lighting fixture could replace three... If they have the fixtures sufficient to cover the stage, but instead of one was using multiple fixtures say 2' or four feet apart in spacing for coverage. Lighting the stage in general also.

If going LED shrinks the coverage of the stage from all angles in using all lights in inventory... I see this at times in installing new lighting. It's LED and will solve more problems, but we only have this amount in budget...

Learned some things above and thanks.
 
Mentioning to a tech in anothertheatre I was currently "Gelling" some cycs, he commented on how old fashioned. I'm guessing he was running multicolor fixtures.

According my scant knowledge LEDs produce very narrow emission bands. Looking a spetral scan one would see very narrow red, green and blues popping up around 600, 540 and 480nm without much in between.
This means colors on stage in between these might not get lit correctly e.g. a yellow shirt (580nm). A spectral graph of a tungsten bulb on the other hand has a very wided emission spectra thus lighting a wider range of colored objects.

I know we now have amber and white LEDs and even ones with lime in to help broaden spectra. So my question is: are LEDs ready to completelty replace more conventional tungsten stage lights?
Let me just say this....for a while now I was relying on LED fixtures for most of my color because its community theater and time/available budgets and gel just weren't there.

I was given a local production of My Fair Lady with enough advance notice to plan and because I just love classic shows and am sick of the modern musicals which suffice with "flash and trash", I got a 3x6 swatch book and did some homework.
I used my LED's for things like the deep blue base wash that's so in vogue and used gel for the rest.

It was like listening to purely analog audio after years of getting used to 48 kHz digital.

We have gotten used to the mediocrity of LED, at least the kind within most of our price ranges. Put your hand into a beam of R39 and tell me you can't just **tell** its different.

And forget it on yellows and ambers. We have amber channel Sixpars and while they've been around a bit a slightly burnt piece of R15 is still markedly superior.

To answer your question, no, the imitation will never be as good as the original. The imitations become acceptable. Even have their superior place. But until someone invents an LED that emits real broadband light from IR to UV, it will never be better.
More convenient? Sure. Cheaper and easier to source as gel and tungsten go the way of vinyl? Sure. Less energy? Marginally. Its not nearly as good as people think, but yes, cooler and less power.

But it will always be inferior light by definition. Its an imitation. Unless the physics of LED's fundamentally change, its just a microchip trying to pretend its a lamp.
 
Excellent. We are a volunteer, none profit local theater so low/no budget for the better LEDs. But al you said makes sense and If/When $$ is there I will propose something along the lines of the ETC Series 3. I've heard a grreat deall about them. Thanks for the input. We are always learning.
Since you're on a budget... consider stocking up on all these excessed tungsten fixtures that are for sale everywhere, cheap, especially (if you have a need for them) edison based PAR cans. You can always install a LED PAR lamp in them, and get them from 2400 - 6000K colortemp. Also in narrow beam to flood. Also, they make mogul plug based LED PAR 64s, 56's, and 40's. Also in 2400K - 6000K colortemp so you can convert to some to "dumb LED" and save on power costs and get a lot more bang from your existing dimmers. Most of the lamps have no issues dimming down to around 5% before they get the DTs.
 
We have gotten used to the mediocrity of LED, at least the kind within most of our price ranges.
Therein lies the problem. It's not that extremely good LED sources aren't available - they are, but they ain't cheap. Dismissing LEDs in general on quality grounds because an RGBAW Sixpar doesn't cut it is missing the point somewhat. We have colorsource fixtures - not the most expensive fixtures by any means, but side by side with a tungsten fixture you're hard pushed to spot the difference except a the extremes (L120, L181 equivalent, for example). The more expensive fixtures add more subtlety to the gamut, but we use mixes of LED and tungsten sometimes and they just blend in.
 
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