This week we finally got our LED houselights commissioned. We installed ETC/Arc system, and I recall some time ago when I mentioned this that there was some interest in how they compared to our previous lighting using 75-100W screw in PAR lamps.
The good news is, they compare well. At full brightness, they're pretty much the same as the old halogen PARs, and unlike d0m3st1c LED replacements, they do, of course, dim properly, smoothly and without popcorning, steppiness, flashing at low level or sudden off/on at low levels. The curve, as supplied, is a little different to the old halogen lamps, being lower at first then catch up at around 80%, but that can be addressed, and we can set the level of each fixture individually from the lighting desk, which gives us some interesting flexibility in using the houselights creatively during a performance.
The good news is, they compare well. At full brightness, they're pretty much the same as the old halogen PARs, and unlike d0m3st1c LED replacements, they do, of course, dim properly, smoothly and without popcorning, steppiness, flashing at low level or sudden off/on at low levels. The curve, as supplied, is a little different to the old halogen lamps, being lower at first then catch up at around 80%, but that can be addressed, and we can set the level of each fixture individually from the lighting desk, which gives us some interesting flexibility in using the houselights creatively during a performance.