We need two new Follow Spot.s. One to replace a huge, very old one for our main 240 seat theatre. Distance to stage from light booth about 70'. The other is for our smaller theater with about 40' to stage. Are LED Follow Spots bright enough now? Ideas welcome,
I've had my hands on both Zots, and am very impressed with them. I haven't had my hands on the 1280s yet, but have high hopes for those replacing my 1275s.
Followspots should be a buy once-cry once investment. I would not go with chauvet DJ or ADJ for such a thing. That's a buy once, never stop crying type of investment.
Lycian is the big name in the industry, I've heard good things about canto LED spots as well, but I haven't demo'd them personally (and the meter readings have been underwhelming--LED spots like to do things with color temp to make them look really bright in a shootout, but that all goes away when you want color correction)
The Lycian path does seem to be the way to go. The color correction caveats noted for the LEDs. My short list at the moment is the Lycian Clubspot 1239 750 Tungsten.
FWIW, we have a couple of the LED Zot in our rental inventory, and they're pretty popular. The couple jobs I've used them on, I've been happy with them at roughly 50' throw. Corporate events though, so I haven't personally seen them with theatrical stage light, just LEDs/Arc source moving lights.