Are there beam-shaping lenses that would work on LED pars or fresnel other than ETC? Would the ETC lenses, designed for colorsource pars, work with other pars like Colorado 2 quad?
I've been reading this forum for over a month now, starting to get a headache from information overload and indecision, so I decided to post a question. I know a little bit about conventional fixtures (learned about them 12years ago from here) and new to LED stage lighting. I could not find a discussion regarding the beam-shaping lenses for LED pars.
Here is what I am trying to achieve. (I will include as much info as I can per forum policy.)
We are faced with electrical issues in our congregation. The current electrical setup for our conventional pars needs to be completely redone (need to install a new dimmer rack as well) due to fire safety. When we bought this building, previous owners had some lighting fixtures so we continued to build on it, but it was not done correctly. Comparing the cost of installation of new electrical to run current conventional fixtures or converting to using the LED setup, the leadership decided to upgrade (not sure if it is an upgrade) to LED fixtures. Our current setup is 14 ETC pars with various beam-shaping lenses and 2 ETC parnels. All fixtures have 575w lamps and on average they run at 70%. (People on stage do not like bright light or we have too many fixtures for this stage.) Also, we have 5 ellipsoidals that I use for special events like Christmas plays. We are a traditional congregation, we do not use things like moving heads, strobes, colors, and ect. (Although I would not mind adding some color to the back wall.) We do HD video recording so we prefer softer shadows.
After initial research, I decided to go with 14 Colorsource pars, and retro the 2 parnels. When I went to demo the colorsource and others (no wonder it is highly recommended here to do so before purchase) I did not like the fan noise. Our fixtures are approximate 20-22ft above the public seating area thus they would add noise. So I decided to use conventionally cooled LED fresnels with barn doors instead, but it seems like on this forum pars are recommended over fresnels for the purpose we are using them for. So I still have a dilemma. I do not mind the par with a zoom feature and would like to see if there are beam-shaping lenses that can be used to add some width to make it easier to focus points. The 14 pars are old and are not compatible with source 4wrd retro, that was my first option.
Our stage is small and congested, 37ft wide by 30ft deep. (Draft pictures attached.) Currently, the pars are hanging approximately 30ft away from the stage. Approximately 2/3 of the stage is choir seating area, approximately 70 people. We have 4 focus points in the choir, and 3 on stage. We have two-point lighting but I would love to get backlighting, maybe next year. The choir is lit up only when they are performing, front of the stage usually stays lit constantly. We use MagicQ software with mini wing to run dmx to 4ch dimmer packs. Budget wise, I kinda have permission spend up to 14k, I can attempt to convince for more but it might be difficult.
I am open for any suggestions if using the beam-shaping lens with LED pars is not a great idea. Since we have lights dimmed up to 70% only, I am thinking to get powerful LED pars but use fewer fixtures to cover the same area. I appreciate the feedback in advance. Thank you.
*Attached are layouts of our stage. These were done by our sound engineer when he upgraded speakers, sorry for all the extra lines.
I've been reading this forum for over a month now, starting to get a headache from information overload and indecision, so I decided to post a question. I know a little bit about conventional fixtures (learned about them 12years ago from here) and new to LED stage lighting. I could not find a discussion regarding the beam-shaping lenses for LED pars.
Here is what I am trying to achieve. (I will include as much info as I can per forum policy.)
We are faced with electrical issues in our congregation. The current electrical setup for our conventional pars needs to be completely redone (need to install a new dimmer rack as well) due to fire safety. When we bought this building, previous owners had some lighting fixtures so we continued to build on it, but it was not done correctly. Comparing the cost of installation of new electrical to run current conventional fixtures or converting to using the LED setup, the leadership decided to upgrade (not sure if it is an upgrade) to LED fixtures. Our current setup is 14 ETC pars with various beam-shaping lenses and 2 ETC parnels. All fixtures have 575w lamps and on average they run at 70%. (People on stage do not like bright light or we have too many fixtures for this stage.) Also, we have 5 ellipsoidals that I use for special events like Christmas plays. We are a traditional congregation, we do not use things like moving heads, strobes, colors, and ect. (Although I would not mind adding some color to the back wall.) We do HD video recording so we prefer softer shadows.
After initial research, I decided to go with 14 Colorsource pars, and retro the 2 parnels. When I went to demo the colorsource and others (no wonder it is highly recommended here to do so before purchase) I did not like the fan noise. Our fixtures are approximate 20-22ft above the public seating area thus they would add noise. So I decided to use conventionally cooled LED fresnels with barn doors instead, but it seems like on this forum pars are recommended over fresnels for the purpose we are using them for. So I still have a dilemma. I do not mind the par with a zoom feature and would like to see if there are beam-shaping lenses that can be used to add some width to make it easier to focus points. The 14 pars are old and are not compatible with source 4wrd retro, that was my first option.
Our stage is small and congested, 37ft wide by 30ft deep. (Draft pictures attached.) Currently, the pars are hanging approximately 30ft away from the stage. Approximately 2/3 of the stage is choir seating area, approximately 70 people. We have 4 focus points in the choir, and 3 on stage. We have two-point lighting but I would love to get backlighting, maybe next year. The choir is lit up only when they are performing, front of the stage usually stays lit constantly. We use MagicQ software with mini wing to run dmx to 4ch dimmer packs. Budget wise, I kinda have permission spend up to 14k, I can attempt to convince for more but it might be difficult.
I am open for any suggestions if using the beam-shaping lens with LED pars is not a great idea. Since we have lights dimmed up to 70% only, I am thinking to get powerful LED pars but use fewer fixtures to cover the same area. I appreciate the feedback in advance. Thank you.
*Attached are layouts of our stage. These were done by our sound engineer when he upgraded speakers, sorry for all the extra lines.