LED Lighting?

I'm with Andrew, I think that for now, the led cheaper units are really the way to go, and use them for color wash, etc, you can get a lot of them they are cheap, use very little power and no Dimmer channels.

I think the higher end units are not there yet, and it will be a while before they can really complete with your larger pars/fresnels and lekos.

I think the only way to get white today with led's is to get a unit that is ONLY white, trying to mix to white just does not look very good.


Sharyn
 
We're using 16 ColorBlaze 72s at the concert hall, and I love them. There are 6 on the cyc, 3 on the 1st electric, and 3 on the 2nd electric. Two in each of the SL and SR galleries for side light since we get a lot of ballet groups in here. I'd like to have 2 more for the SL/SR galleries for more coverage upstage... but that'll happen next year.

The LEDs are replacing our Altman MR-16 zip strips. The old MR-16 units would have to be relamped daily at an approximate cost of $9500 per year in lamps.

We spent about $45,000 for the ColorBlaze units, and we estimate that between the savings in electricity, lamps, and gels, they will pay for themselves in under 3 years. Note that we got the ColorBlaze units at a discounted price because we're a 501c3 non-profit organization. Full price would have been somewhere closer to $60,000 for 16 units.

I can't rave about them enough. These LED strips are amazing in every possible way.

As for house light lamp life, try running your house lights at 85% instead of 100%. That should effectively double your lamp life.
 
Even the 'white' LED's have a HUGE spike in the blue. Look at the Lumens output of Warm white LED's its rubbish! But they are a decent white.
 
Andrewr said:
Even the 'white' LED's have a HUGE spike in the blue. Look at the Lumens output of Warm white LED's its rubbish! But they are a decent white.
Click to expand...

I've got one word for you, the hope and salvation of all things LED ...... Nanodots.


I agree it's my primary issue with led lighting the colors just don't look "right" I don't know if it's because some wavelengths are too pure and others are not or that everything is too mixed.
 
Its because its all pure colours. Compare the tranmission spectrum for a red LED and L106. All the other bits in the gel's spectrum are the bits that make it look 'right' and the LED 'wrong'

Its part of the reason people are developing stuff like 7 colour mixing for LED's that way you can begin to get near gel colour matching.
 
Ive used hole hog LED panels but was not very satisfied by the results. It was pretty nice to aviod gell or scrollers to get the desired effect. However it didn't like the coverage. The light that was throw was weak and i was forced to use 12 pannels for a stage 30ft wide and about 15ft deep, from bars behnind the main. Another disadvantage was the price, luckily i had them donated from a friend of the troop i was working for who does trade shows, otherwise i would not have been able to afford them.
 
I've heard that some companies are developing RGBA and RGBAW mixing for more true color matching, but I haven't heard of 7-color mixing. RGBAW is Red Green Blue Amber White, so that you have alot more flexibility. I know that the PixelLine 110's have RGBA mixing, but they cost alot more than the colorblazes, if I remember correctly. The PixelRange from James Thomas has got the LED fixtures down pretty well for what can be done right now...I'm still waiting for people to start using the 10 watt LED's, though, they exist...but they're about 50/ea if purchased individually.
 
soundlight said:
I've heard that some companies are developing RGBA and RGBAW mixing for more true color matching, but I haven't heard of 7-color mixing. RGBAW is Red Green Blue Amber White, so that you have alot more flexibility. I know that the PixelLine 110's have RGBA mixing, but they cost alot more than the colorblazes, if I remember correctly. The PixelRange from James Thomas has got the LED fixtures down pretty well for what can be done right now...I'm still waiting for people to start using the 10 watt LED's, though, they exist...but they're about 50/ea if purchased individually.
Click to expand...

I refer everyone reading page three talking about the issue of mixing a good white, back to my post on page one of the thread. Selador kicks Color Kinetics butt, with their 7 color LED mix. The white is dramaticly better and the range of colors is much larger as well. check out www.selador.net
 
Aha. Now I want to see ten watt LED's in Sealdor's. That'd be the most killer LED fixture ever.
 
soundlight said:
Aha. Now I want to see ten watt LED's in Sealdor's. That'd be the most killer LED fixture ever.
Click to expand...

Dude you don't need 10 watts, the 3 watt Seladors are enough already. The Selador Booth at LDI had a set of 1 watters lighting the wall 30 feet in the air. They had a small two foot 3 watter they were using to show how good their white is and it was also lighting the ceiling... which is impressive in a conventional hall that size. The rep said they recommend the 3 watters for washes up to 70 feet.

I was really disappointed with the total light output when I saw a demo of Color Kinetics. The Seladors on the other hand are easily as bright if not brighter than a standard zip strip especially in the fully satured colors. There's no way a zip strip with really dark blue gel in it comes close to a 3 watt Selador. Find a dealer and get yourself a demo.
 
Way on the other end of the spectrum, but has anyone looked at the led par38 medium base replacement lamps? Supposedly there seem to be simply screw in replacements from about 200 to 340 lumens. Recently prices seem to be plunging from the $50+ range to around $10.

Sharyn
 
To bring back an old(ish) topic for more recent discussions, and kind of related to the LED PAR shootout over on the prosoundweb lighting forums (which I've been keeping an eye on).

Which LED units have people actually used in a practical situation, and how did they work? Also, what have you heard about some of the other low-cost LED units from AMDJ and Wiedamark and other companies? I know that CenterStage Lighting brands their own RGB and White cans (possibly made by the same people that supply AMDJ with theirs? They look about the same), and Wiedamark has a P38 can, a P64 can w/o gel frame, and a P64 can w/gel frame. Chauvet also makes a few colorsplash units, and including the 196 and 200B. The 200B looks to be a promising wash unit. Wiedamark also has a low-priced wall washer unit that looks to be packaged in a strobe casing, which looks promising, as well as some LED strip lights in the lower price range. I also noticed that Omnisistem has an LED wash unit that is a meter long, and lots of them are being sold on eBay under other names for ~600-700 bucks.
 
We're actually looking into the possability of repalcing our strip lamps with all halogeena lamps right now, but we're still pushing for some LED fixtures.
 
Sylak said:
We're actually looking into the possability of repalcing our strip lamps with all halogeena lamps right now, but we're still pushing for some LED fixtures.
Click to expand...

I did that with my old high school's big stage. It was amazingly expensive but VERY worthwhile. It dramatically improved both the amount and quality of light.
 
Well, the idea first came about when the middle school vocal director wanted to know what he should get for his aud, and since our TD had a class right then and i didn't, i got msrp prices for two smartbars and a few S4 Zooms, and made sure our TD knew that the first thing should be to make sure all their strips have lamps, and if not start replacing them with Halogeena or CFL to get brighter light, and im like "wth, why not get that done here." having a house lit in all but two places with either a CF or Halogeena lamp, i already know the improvements that SHOULD happen by switching :p
 
I would strongly recommend that before blowing a heap of money on technology that will be out of date in a couple of years that you at least have a full demonstration in your venue of the proposed rig.I predict you will be disappointed as the sales pitches haven't mirrored the results I have yet seen.The "savings" calculated over 100000 hour life are meaningless they are electronic devices which will corrode and age and lose efficiency and if the experts are to be believed will increase in quality of light and become very cheap, just like computers have over the last 20 years.
I do use them for indirect wash lights and they are great but for illuminating people---yuk
 
Sylak said:
Well, the idea first came about when the middle school vocal director wanted to know what he should get for his aud, and since our TD had a class right then and i didn't, i got msrp prices for two smartbars and a few S4 Zooms, and made sure our TD knew that the first thing should be to make sure all their strips have lamps, and if not start replacing them with Halogeena or CFL to get brighter light, and im like "wth, why not get that done here." having a house lit in all but two places with either a CF or Halogeena lamp, i already know the improvements that SHOULD happen by switching :p
Click to expand...
With all the talk of CFL's, you need to ask:
ARE THEY DIMMABLE?

If they're not, they really are not a suitable replacement for the lamps on dimmed circuits.

--Sean
 
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