Color Blasts will in a few years hit the resale market and be readily available to all. They were a big step up over what even five years ago was some attempts at
stage lighting washes which were more like
cyc lights that had 150w
RSC lamps in them as opposed to similar ones in use using 1Kw lamps. Could do for the theater in low light levels but not for rock and
roll. At the moment, Color Blasts retail at about $400 to $600.00 each new. A few tours have the novelty of being lit only by them and other
LED’s and other similar types at the moment supplement by way of them, but these days it’s more
effect than primary light source as a norm still. Sure there is
LED audience blinders, even took a
call this week from someone with a
LED light curtain wall wising for a
transformer to convert for a Euro tour. There is
Mac 300's modified to be
LED that just went on a major tour, even prop fixtures for another tour lit by stuff like the Colemar
LED PAR 56 in the housing of a 10Kw
Fresnel for
effect. Otherwise Colorblasts mounted inside 4x4 light boxes or entire
truss based cages lit by
LED strip lights out on tour..
LED is the new thing. Believe there is a
LED Leko if not on the market, about to come to market.
Still in choosing a
LED it’s a question of output and what is not as much advertised
CRI (Color
Rendering Index.) A Color blast might have in use a new use for it by way of mounted on
truss ladders and suspended down from a
truss on 18" centers, but it’s
CRI even if
intensity is good, the
CRI takes one back to the early days of arc source intelligent lighting since it’s not very good at reproducing by way of
reflection all colors on
stage and will be somewhat difficult to reproduce all colors of light with. In not checking, it’s
CRI is probably in the 70's instead of 90's as most moving lights or 100 as per a
filament source of light.
As for the Color Blast itself, it’s an architectural
fixture that is used for rock and
roll. The little set screws that mount it’s
yoke to
fixture fall out, it has no means of
safety cable, and the only mounting to clamp hole is a ½" NPT (7/8" dia.) hole. Not much you can do in mounting say a half cheseborough that uses a ½”
bolt, to a 7/8" hole. Urr, a fender washer? A fender washer in making up for hole size has what for a
shock loading
rating before it cones or fails in if not allowing the
fixture to fall, no longer allowing sufficient tension on holding the
fixture in it’s focus. Given a
fixture yoke/bracket with a 7/8" hole, only a 3/8"
bolt to a half cheseborough in using a 3/8" SAE washer between the cheseborough and fender washer will prevent the clamp not tight enough to move freely but loose enough to move in focusing from moving about in that hole. You than have a fender washer to
cover for the hole but use also a 3/8" USS washer to act as if leaf spring in better preventing the fender washer from coning out. (Just did some custom brackets to hang these fixtures on a 3/4"x2" display booth
track thus I remember what best fit.) So for this specific
fixture, countering it’s architectural connection to 1900 box ½" NPT hole in it is a hastle.
After this, it’s a enclosed in frosted soda lime
safety glass
fixture that the manufacturer does not service. Someone stores away this
fixture in the wrong way and you get a $400.00 and much more piece of junk the manufacturer won’t touch in replacing it’s broken frosted
lens. Once broken, they would rather you just buy a new
fixture or might
send it to me in being the only service center as it were that would scrape off the old
lens and replace it with a new one. Nope, it won’t be a cheap thing to replace. Out of lots in the inventory, I normally get about 20 fixtures a year that I need to replace broken lenses on. Some of them if given a sufficient blow will never work again in a
LED no longer working. Others in the
lens being replaced work again as designed. Can’t say or depend upon what was sufficient to break the
lens if it was also sufficient to break some link to the
circuit board in making it now trash. On average, break one
lens and you possibly are throwing away a very expensive lighting
fixture.
The Color Blast these years are a very popular
fixture. Not many using the
Mac 500 or
Mac 600 fixtures these days yet I also remember them as very popular. Intellibeam for a tour???? I don’t think it has too much more a life before it’s replaced by something more efficient, much less designed for
stage use rather than architectural use. Even the
power supplies by them... absolutely no safe way to rig them short of re-structuring them for the hang.
Fixture is designed for architectural install. Wait a while and they will be better designed by way of how it clamps and what lamps are in it. /while waiting,
LED's are constantly getting better and even more cost effective. WAit for them.