ETC Source Four Throw Distance

[RomeoTheatreCompany]

Hey All - We've got a 50' Distance from our Catwalk to the stage floor, about six feet upstage from the edge of the floor. For maximum brightness, and to cover a decent area, what degree barrel should we look at? We'd be replacing some LeeColortran's up there, and we currently have 15 of them, and we've devided the FOH into 5 sections (Left, Center Left, Center, Center Right and Right) and we have three lights pointed into each, having a Blue, Red and Open gel frame in it. Should we step it down to three points on the stage, rather then five? We used to ALWAYS set up FOH with three spots rather then five, but we still want to be able to cover the same area, and have the same or greater brightness, with some new S4's.

We're also buying ~22 S4Pars to hang on our three electric bars above the stage, probably putting 8 on each, and outfitting every other with a color scroller when we can afford it next season.

Thanks!

 

[DuckJordan]

Hey All - We've got a 50' Distance from our Catwalk to the stage floor, about six feet upstage from the edge of the floor. For maximum brightness, and to cover a decent area, what degree barrel should we look at? We'd be replacing some LeeColortran's up there, and we currently have 15 of them, and we've devided the FOH into 5 sections (Left, Center Left, Center, Center Right and Right) and we have three lights pointed into each, having a Blue, Red and Open gel frame in it. Should we step it down to three points on the stage, rather then five? We used to ALWAYS set up FOH with three spots rather then five, but we still want to be able to cover the same area, and have the same or greater brightness, with some new S4's.

We're also buying ~22 S4Pars to hang on our three electric bars above the stage, probably putting 8 on each, and outfitting every other with a color scroller when we can afford it next season.

Thanks!

What i was taught for ellipsoidals is that your ideal pool of light should be roughly 8', so looking at the 14* according to ETC, I personally would grab a 10* for that throw, you could even use a 19* which would give you roughly a 15' area of light.

ETC | Explore the Source Four | Photometrics
Theres the link to the photometrics page.

 

[jglodeklights]

At that throw, a 19 degree, even with a 750 watt lamp, will be a little big/weak especially with the blue. 10 degree lens tubes are the most ideal from the standpoint of size and power, but they also require huge cuts of gel and perform very poorly from an optical quality standpoint. Meaning they flare like crazy. You really need to make sure you have the space for them up there, too. Less kicky, but better optically and giving you more lee way regarding coverage, is the 14 degree. However, 14 degree lens tubes are more expensive because they only come in Enhanced Definition form, meaning if you ever put a gobo in it you should be able to get it pretty sharp.

 

[icewolf08]

Hey All - We've got a 50' Distance from our Catwalk to the stage floor, about six feet upstage from the edge of the floor. For maximum brightness, and to cover a decent area, what degree barrel should we look at? We'd be replacing some LeeColortran's up there, and we currently have 15 of them, and we've devided the FOH into 5 sections (Left, Center Left, Center, Center Right and Right) and we have three lights pointed into each, having a Blue, Red and Open gel frame in it. Should we step it down to three points on the stage, rather then five? We used to ALWAYS set up FOH with three spots rather then five, but we still want to be able to cover the same area, and have the same or greater brightness, with some new S4's.

We're also buying ~22 S4Pars to hang on our three electric bars above the stage, probably putting 8 on each, and outfitting every other with a color scroller when we can afford it next season.

Thanks!

How wide is the stage? That is the biggest defining factor for how many areas you need. Generally you want to average in the 8-10 foot area and you need to make sure that you overlap each area for the purposes of blending an even wash. So if you stage is 50 feet wide, then you would need more than five areas. If it is only 40 feet wide then five is a nice number. in general I always think that having an odd number of areas running the width of the stage is more useful as you will always have one dead center.

Don't forget that if it is 50' in a straight line perpendicular to the stage from the pipe, then the throw is longer when you actually set the units at an angle. You probably don't want them to shoot straight into each area. Most people use a 30-45˚ angle. Odds are that at that distance you are really looking at 14˚ or 10˚ units, as has been mentioned. Both are slightly more expensive than the "standard" sized source fours, but they fit they bill.

Also remember that you want to front-light more than just the downstage edge of your stage. Depending on the depth of your stage you might want to have 3-4 areas going US. Depending on where you have lighting positions, you may want to have one row on your catwalk, one on a proscenium position (if you have one) and one on your first electric. The goal being to keep the angles roughly the same as you move US. If you don't have a proscemium position, you might do your first two rown from the catwalk and then the third row from the first electric. In any case, you would need to pick the appropriate ERS units for the different throws.

 

[BGW]

What are the Colortrans you're replacing? Sounds like you're not happy with them if you're going for replacement.