Looking for a new cyc light

[Clubitz]

I've recently been hired as the tech lead at a high school (Lead electrician, TD, Set and Light designer combo), we're looking into upgrades to our poorly maintained cyc lighting. The cyc is 30'h x 50'w, and is currently being lit by 3 Strand Aurora 4-cell Cyc lights, at a distance of 7 feet. We're looking to move on to LED's, as we're stuck with a 48 dimmer Strand CCR 600 rack and a patch board. Any suggestions?

 

[SteveB]

Chroma-Q Color Force.

 

[gafftaper]

I have a set of Chauvet Ovation Batten B2805FCs that I love and recommend to everyone.

And then the immediate follow up question, what kind of board do you have and how many spare dmx addresses do you have. There's nothing sadder than buying new lights with amazing capabilities and then finding you only have enough room to pair them all together into 5 channels.

 

[Clubitz]

I have a set of Chauvet Ovation Batten B2805FCs that I love and recommend to everyone.

And then the immediate follow up question, what kind of board do you have and how many spare dmx addresses do you have. There's nothing sadder than buying new lights with amazing capabilities and then finding you only have enough room to pair them all together into 5 channels.

Running an obsidian NX2, with a full universe available to run with and ability to expand that if needed

 

[JohnD]

Just curious but do you have an upstage black traveler? One of the great things that gafftaper can do is throw enough light on it to give the illusion of them being colored draperies.

 

[almorton]

Also might be worth a look at ETC's offering too, Colorsource Cyc.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

We put in some SL-BAR660's about 5 years ago, and we like 'em a lot. You *can* run them up as far as 18 pixels per, but we generally have ours configured as a single strip (of 6 in a row) top and bottom, in our rep plot.

 

[Footer]

Chroma Q Colorforce II 72. There is no question about it. If you can buy used, you can pickup used of the V1 fixture that is also fantastic. I've owned them since 2015 and they have been amazing.

 

[JohnD]

One bit of advice that always pops up in threads like this, get a demo in your space.

 

[Kevin Statham]

At the school theatre I manage, we invested in ETC Colorsource CYC fixtures. They have been great.

 

[Dan Saladbar]

Vari-lite SL BAR 640
https://goknight.com/vari-lite-sl64...dlNTI3W373JTSK5VIPkm_Rst6zhLHaBhoCRhkQAvD_BwE

 

[EdSavoie]

We use Chauvet COLORBAND T3BT units so we could bin the halogen stick lamp cyc units we had. 12 Top, 12 Ground row. *just* wish it had a little more oopmh to evenly fill the roughly 36' x 24' visible opening, we have a slight dip half way up between the two sets. A couple feet less vertically and it would be nearly perfect. If you go that route, I'd go with the slight price bump for either the Q3BT (Giving you dedicated Amber on top of it) or the H9 (RGB, Amber, White, UV). The UV is a bit silly for a cyc light, but the dedicated Amber + White is nice.

There's also the ADJ Ultra Hex bars, which are only RGB + White + UV, but significantly more output power. Not used those, but I have worked with it's bigger beefier cousin, the 15 Hex Bar IP, which has a tighter beam angle, and comes with a glare shield and diffusion strip, as well as a notable bump in output power. MUCH more expensive per unit however.