Chauvet Ovation Reve E-3 Demo Review

[gafftaper]

I had a chance to attend a demo of the new Chauvet Ovation Reve E-3 yesterday. They had it setup side by side with a Source 4 with an HPL 750 and A Source Four Series 2 Lustr. The E-3 was VERY impressive. The colors were beautiful. The white was excellent. The red shift simulation was very good. It was significantly brighter than both the HPL 750 and the Series 2. They have had some clever design additions too. I really like that they have essentially taken the best parts of their white only LED and their color LED and combined them into one fixture. It's got an awesome new yoke design that allows you to easily adjust the position of the fixture in yoke. They have a twin gobo rotator add on that plugs directly into the fixture for power and data. They have some cool software settings that let you do things like program it to be a 1 channel DMX device and you can set what feature DMX controls. For example it can be set to be an only 5600 degree white fixture which is pretty cool for rental shops. It also has two nice handles on the back that they put on there to make it easy to use as follow spot. A great upgrade to the classic S4 on a stick. They had a photo they showed me from an install with an E-3, a Source Four Series 3 Lustr, and a HPL 750 all 125' away. The E-3 was clearly the brightest fixture. That really surprised me.

@JChenault walked in for his own demo just as I was about to leave. So we'll see if he will comment as well. He noted some issues with the fading up from black. I'm not sure if it was the fixture or the console operator as the console operator was definitely having some issues programming things on the fly.

Overall this is a serious contender that you should consider if you are looking for an LED Elipsoidal. Your actual price in a package bid is going to be around $1,800-$1,900 without a lens (depending on the usual pricing factors).

 

[Ben Dickmann]

@JChenault walked in for his own demo just as I was about to leave. So we'll see if he will comment as well. He noted some issues with the fading up from black. I'm not sure if it was the fixture or the console operator as the console operator was definitely having some issues programming things on the fly.

@gafftaper and @JChenault : I was actually alerted to this after your demos, and dug in headlong. Long story short, we did find a little bug in the dimming algorithm, so we went back and re-wrote the whole thing. A patch was just released to our team, and I think the dimming is phenomenal now. If the rep that demo'd it doesn't send you a video, hit me up in DM's.

Thanks for the review, needless to say I'm really excited to bring this level of performance and value to the market. It's been, no lie, years of work to get here. As soon as we launched E-910 I was already working on the next goal which was this, a full-color fixture that can outperform and HPL-750 in any color or at it's native CCT, plus all technician friendly innovations we're known for (like sensible lens tube marking) and then add some new ones like you mentioned.

I know I'm biased, but, if you're even remotely considering any upper-end profiles, you need to see this. Don't take my word, please. Get a demo, get demos of anything and everything on the market, and let your eyes and wallet make the decision.

Just wait till you see what else we're dreaming up in Reve..........

 

[gafftaper]

@gafftaper and @JChenault : I was actually alerted to this after your demos, and dug in headlong. Long story short, we did find a little bug in the dimming algorithm, so we went back and re-wrote the whole thing. A patch was just released to our team, and I think the dimming is phenomenal now. If the rep that demo'd it doesn't send you a video, hit me up in DM's.

Thanks for the review, needless to say I'm really excited to bring this level of performance and value to the market. It's been, no lie, years of work to get here. As soon as we launched E-910 I was already working on the next goal which was this, a full-color fixture that can outperform and HPL-750 in any color or at it's native CCT, plus all technician friendly innovations we're known for (like sensible lens tube marking) and then add some new ones like you mentioned.

I know I'm biased, but, if you're even remotely considering any upper-end profiles, you need to see this. Don't take my word, please. Get a demo, get demos of anything and everything on the market, and let your eyes and wallet make the decision.

Just wait till you see what else we're dreaming up in Reve..........

That's great news!

 

[JChenault]

Glad to hear you are addressing the dimmer curve issue. I really want this thing to succeed.

one thing I was impressed by was the indigo emitter. We turned on just indigo and compared it to the etc LED3 and found that it was the same frequency, bit much brighter ( so bright that we had to take it way down on dimmer to see thatitwas the same color)

not sure if I would want to use it by itself for face light, but I am getting a quote. I’ll keep you all informed.

 

[almorton]

Couple of questions - what's the warranty period, on both the fixture and the LED engine?

Which gels series is it emulating?

Looks very interesting

 

[Ben Dickmann]

Couple of questions - what's the warranty period, on both the fixture and the LED engine?

Which gels series is it emulating?

Looks very interesting

- 3 years "Bumper to Bumper", 5 years on the engine. Our warranties do NOT have a laundry list of exceptions like some others...just a couple obvious ones. (aside, I do encourage everyone to actually read the warranty statements, especially on those that have BIG timeframes attached to them....)

- We respect the intellectual property of gel manufacturers and the work they did to create their colors, so, we do not specifically emulate any one series or specific color. Years ago when we launched Ovation we surveyed a lot of people (mostly unknowingly at shows like USITT) and developed a palette that was similar to colors from all the different makers. Of course, you can never perfectly emulate what a tungsten or discharge source looks like through gel, with this being additive instead of subtractive, but we did try. To that end, we do have a cross-reference sheet that will tell you what our color approximate. I've attached it here.

- It is very interesting and worth a look AND a listen....

 

[almorton]

I shall check the small print on some warranties, as we are currently considering a number of options to replace (some of) our conventionals with LED.

I recall speaking to a Chauvet representative at PLASA in London, and the impresion I came way with was that to all intents and purposes the built in colours of the 910 lanterns at least were very closely modelled on Rosco colours.

This next question is veering off to "down the rabbit hole" territory; the colour wheels I guess gives you a jumping off point, that you can then start to make your own colours from, especially if you're mixing LED with conventionals. We are very much a Lee house, so matching to a Lee colour would be a starting point for us. Is it possible to get the proportions of each emitter that each preset colour uses, so that the desk can be set to give the same output as a colour wheel preset, to then use that to tweak on to something near to what you're using. For instance, some colours we use regularly are L201/L501 L103 L152 L162 L120 L132 L716 L601 L137 L117 and with the best will in the world, we're not going to replace the whole rig in one hit, sao we're going to have to try to mix and match for some time to come.

Thanks.

 

[Ben Dickmann]

Well....I'm the one who did the initial mixes on the E-910 and developed the fixture, so, I'd trust me on this A lot of colors were modeled on Rosco as the US market is far and away our largest, but, not all, and again, those specific shades are those company's IP, so, we choose to respect that, others don't.

The "recipes" used for the colors in our Virtual Color Wheel are printed in the Quick Reference Guide online as they are for all the Ovation Series that feature a VCW. As for extending that, and doing custom requests for specific color matches, that's just not something we are set up to do. I know that some console companies have algorithms to make approximations of most gel colors based on the X,Y coordinates of the emitters in the fixture (ChamSys has the best model of this for 5 color systems in my opinion). But we just don't have the resources to spend to try and replicate every gel on the market...so much of that is subjective to the eye of the beholder anyway. I know several theatres here that when they got their E-910s took it in to their space with a a S4 and their gel libraries and made their own palettes. I know that's not the quick easy way....

 

[derekleffew]

one thing I was impressed by was the indigo emitter. We turned on just indigo and compared it to the etc LED3 and found that it was the same frequency, bit much brighter (so bright that we had to take it way down on dimmer to see that it was the same color)

Perhaps I'm blind, but I don't see that the fixture HAS indigo emitter(s)?

• Light Source: 91 LEDs (12 red, 19 green, 3 blue, 9 royal blue, 24 amber, 24 mint) 3.5 to 10 W, (2.4 A), 50,000 hours life expectancy

 

[almorton]

Well....I'm the one who did the initial mixes on the E-910 and developed the fixture, so, I'd trust me on this A lot of colors were modeled on Rosco as the US market is far and away our largest, but, not all, and again, those specific shades are those company's IP, so, we choose to respect that, others don't.

The "recipes" used for the colors in our Virtual Color Wheel are printed in the Quick Reference Guide online as they are for all the Ovation Series that feature a VCW. As for extending that, and doing custom requests for specific color matches, that's just not something we are set up to do. I know that some console companies have algorithms to make approximations of most gel colors based on the X,Y coordinates of the emitters in the fixture (ChamSys has the best model of this for 5 color systems in my opinion). But we just don't have the resources to spend to try and replicate every gel on the market...so much of that is subjective to the eye of the beholder anyway. I know several theatres here that when they got their E-910s took it in to their space with a a S4 and their gel libraries and made their own palettes. I know that's not the quick easy way....

May not be quick and easy, but it's likely what we would do, using built in colours as a starting point, and building our own palettes as we need to. Useful to know that the "recipe" is available. Thanks.

 

[almorton]

Oh, one other question - any estimate of the inrush current at switch on? I couldn't see it in the specs.

 

[Ben Dickmann]

Perhaps I'm blind, but I don't see that the fixture HAS indigo emitter(s)?

It’s semantics… we call it Royal Blue as we did in previous models. Others call it indigo.

 

[gafftaper]

Glad to hear you are addressing the dimmer curve issue. I really want this thing to succeed.

one thing I was impressed by was the indigo emitter. We turned on just indigo and compared it to the etc LED3 and found that it was the same frequency, bit much brighter ( so bright that we had to take it way down on dimmer to see thatitwas the same color)

not sure if I would want to use it by itself for face light, but I am getting a quote. I’ll keep you all informed.

To be clear the demo had a ETC LED Series 2 not a 3.

 

[gafftaper]

And to wrap up the review, @Ben Dickmann sent me a link to a 20 second fade down and 20 second fade up video. The issues we spotted in the fade up appear to have been solved by some firmware adjustments and its very clean and smooth now.

So in conclusion, the Reve E-3 is a very solid choice that you should definitely consider for your LED Ellipsoidal options and it would also make an excellent alternative to a follow spot in some applications. It's freakin' Bright!

At a price that is between an ETC Colorsource and an ETC Series two Lustr, the Rev 3 is a fixture that in my opinion beats the Colorsource and competes with Series two in all categories, winning brightness without doubt. I haven't personally seen it compared to an ETC Series 3 Lustr, but the photo I saw suggests that would be a VERY competitive shootout. I can't tell you which is best for you, that depends on your eyes, your needs, your budget, and your space. But the Chauvet Ovation Reve E-3 should definitely be on your short list of fixtures to see in person.

As always you need to see with your own eyes before you buy. So, contact your local dealer and ask for a demo in your own space, preferably with the opportunity to compare several products from different manufacturers.