LED Retrofit

About the same time a Texas college did a similar study, with similar conclusions. Time is the forgotten factor. 12 hours a day vs 3 hours 3 days a week is almost 10:1

Commercial strips or 'low bay' fixtures are the answer to 'lots of light for low cost'. CCT choices and 80-90 CRI are normal. Gone are the greenish fluorescents and metal halides. A few hundred can get you 20,000 lumens of line voltage dimmable, decent color, large ugly fixtures that will flood all over the place.

A little more familiar would be the Altman worklight. 10,000 lumens, not dimmable, 90CRI and probably under $1000. So 2 Krieos in one.

Thanks for a helpful response. I did start looking at some low bay fixtures. Hopefully there are some good options, and maybe some other helpful suggestions from the group here.
 
re: I'd get the painters some big ol' scoop lights and your choice of 500w screw base lamps. Incandescent for the painters. Yes.

I don't disagree with the idea of using Scoops or other incandescnt sources (minus your maintenance time to replace bulbs) but I think the modern way of thinking about it is, how is your entire stage lit with the theatrical fixtures. If you are in an all incandscent rig, Scoops are great. A hybrid rig, still probably okay. A 100% LED/moving light rig, you may want work lights that match you source.

A related example from a different department that happened.
From the costume/makeup standpoint the makeup mirrors were all incandescent, but the director was unhappy when they came onto stage because it didn't look right. This was because the entire stage was LED and missing that last bit of incandescent red. The fix in this case was actually to change the makeup mirrors to LED bulbs that match the overall kelvin temp on stage...and it fixed that subtle difference.
 
re: I'd get the painters some big ol' scoop lights and your choice of 500w screw base lamps. Incandescent for the painters. Yes.

I don't disagree with the idea of using Scoops or other incandescnt sources (minus your maintenance time to replace bulbs) but I think the modern way of thinking about it is, how is your entire stage lit with the theatrical fixtures. If you are in an all incandscent rig, Scoops are great. A hybrid rig, still probably okay. A 100% LED/moving light rig, you may want work lights that match you source.

A related example from a different department that happened.
From the costume/makeup standpoint the makeup mirrors were all incandescent, but the director was unhappy when they came onto stage because it didn't look right. This was because the entire stage was LED and missing that last bit of incandescent red. The fix in this case was actually to change the makeup mirrors to LED bulbs that match the overall kelvin temp on stage...and it fixed that subtle difference.

This starts the rabbit hole of looking at a cutting-edge fixture e.g. the new Source 4. Even with eight semi-broad wavelength emitters, there will be wavelengths missing. I can't think of a stage fixture with a remote phosphor, but they're common for screw-base lamps; those are rather smooth but have a nice blue spike from their emitter.
 
I can't think of a stage fixture with a remote phosphor, but they're common for screw-base lamps; those are rather smooth but have a nice blue spike from their emitter.

Not remote phosphor, but both the amber and lime emitters used in S4LED are phosphor converted (PC). That's part of why they're so helpful at filling in gaps in the spectrum. It's an interesting trade-off between the selectivity and control that narrow band emitters give you vs. the broader spectral coverage of PC emitters. There's also an output benefit: narrow band amber is an option and would be a useful choice to have in your palette, but the PC version is significantly brighter.
 
I light my stage with 6 ETC Parnel CDM's that I got off eBay and apparently came from one of the Disney properties. 150w each, but probably as bright as a 1K par. If you don't mind the 5 minute warmup and odd colors that come with the warmup, the full output color temp appears indistinguishable from halogen to my eyes. CRI is apparently only in the high 80's on paper, but no one has ever had a problem with them, and they're certainly better than the short-lived solutions we had in the past.

Lamp life is extremely long, as I installed these fixtures several years ago and am running the used lamps they came with.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back