Looking For affordable led cyc lights

TechNerd

Member
so my High school is locked in on buying a new cyc for are auditorium and we would like to also upgrade the lights that we have for lighting a a cyc.
so we were wondering if there is anything specific that someone would be willing to suggest to us. We would like them to have color changing capability and we need them to be able to hang from a batten on stage.
Currently we are only looking to spend about 1000 dollars on this lighting upgrade.

Any suggestions would Be GREAT thanks!
 
How big is cyc? How far away from cyc is batten?

I don't think even buying made in China from Amazon you'll get close. They won't dim well and will probably only last a year or two.

A half dozen ColorSource cycs are going to be near $10,000 - not sure 6 is enough - I just put seven on a 24' wide cyc but 5 would have been marginally acceptable.
 
Depending on size i have used a couple of things. For smaller theatres I recommend Chauvet Colorband (i bought the pix version because I also use them as eye candy). For a 24 ft tall cyc wall with a row of top and bottom and lights placed end to end they work well. However if you hit them with front light at all they disappear. I have this by using groundrows and higher angle lighting positions to minimize bleed. I once rented colorforce 72's for the bottom of the cyc for a show and they were so bright they washed out the colorbands that were at the top. Another plus to the colorbands so far is that I have bought them at 3 different points and they blend color wise very well i cannot tell by color output one batch from another. I will say that in the 4 years I have owned them I have 3 units that have died for one reason or another. When buying DJ level gear be aware that the failure rate will be higher than professional level gear.

I just demoed an ovation cyc 1 fc. I loved how they looked in the few minutes I was able to use it. I am planning to buy a few of them but have no real show experience with them yet.

In reality without knowing the size of your cyc it is hard to recommend anything. I will caution however with any of the tri or quad colored LED fixtures I have noticed a shortage of Deep colors on the cyc. No deep green, intense lavender, or deep red. The primary reason I want to upgrade to the Ovation Cyc Units is that they seem (in the 30 minutes I got to use one) to have deeper colored chips and deliver a much better field of light.

All of this being said, if you are able to demo units you will have a much better idea of how they perform in your space. If at all possible I would recommend this.
 

these are new on the market and seem to be priced well
 
I was not suggesting the purchase of the ovation cyc. They recommend a 5 ft spacing but are supposed to go up to I think 16 ft one sided. I don't know if they actually do. As I mentioned in my post I have played with them for 30 mins and they are a future purchase. However in the professional line of LED cyc lights they are about the cheapest offering, they seem to be a direct competitor to the colorsource cyc which you recommended. This was why i felt they bore mention.

Colorband fixtures are the lowest cost fixture I would (and did) recommend for a school purchase. If you look at my post the recommendation and suggestion was to buy colorbands. After recommending them i discussed their shortcomings and used another fixture which I have seen next to them as a comparison so as to give pros and cons. I have had great luck with colorbands under the conditions previously mentioned. They are less than $200 each and I have been very satisfied with them. You will also note that I suggested a demo to see if they would work for his situation. I also gave a real world reality check on the reliability of Chauvet DJ gear.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back