New Chauvet Ovation RGBA-L Lekos

[Max Warasila]

Alright, I know that ETC makes by far the nicest and most natural looking LED ERS, and that Altman has been on their tail for a while now, but still ever so slightly behind. However, Chauvet have recently tossed their hat into the ring with these new fixtures and (knowing Chauvet) they could be something special or utter crap.

Has anyone had a change to see them or compare to the other competition? Their Ovation line has been fairly solid in the past. I don't expect them to be better than the Source4 or Pheonix but do they reach that "good enough" point that Chauvet thrives at?

 

[JChenault]

I saw the new Ovation E919 on the LEI show floor and was impressed. ( it is an RGBALime fixture, not "RGBA") I have not been able to do a side by side yet, but the next time I am looking I will be comparing them to the ETC Colorforce series. That is the market they are shooting for, and I think they have a credible contendor.

Some things they do that I like:
- They give you control of all four emitter colors instead of just giving you simple RGB color controls. IE you get four DMX channels for color, not three)
- They give you a virtual color wheel. IE a DMX channel you can set to give you a color that they believe matches a Rosco or Lee color.
- They publish the DMX values for their color wheel so you can set up your board to fade to colors if needed.
- They added a vary visible tag to the lens tubes so you can see what the beam spread is from the ground.
- The guys in the boot feel that their lenses are superior to the colorforce. I have not hand the chance to examine myself, but they look pretty good.
- The color output was quite rich
- nice attention ot detail. The output on the display is easy to read. The support five and three pin DMX. I believe you have power in and out so you can daisy chain.

In short my feeling is that it is probably better than the Phoenix, may be as good or better than the ETC ColorSource.

 

[Les]

Alright, I know that ETC makes by far the nicest and most natural looking LED ERS, and that Altman has been on their tail for a while now, but still ever so slightly behind.

Really? Sounds debatable. I've been hearing that many people prefer the Altman PHX.

 

[Max Warasila]

I saw the new Ovation E919 on the LEI show floor and was impressed. ( it is an RGBALime fixture, not "RGBA") I have not been able to do a side by side yet, but the next time I am looking I will be comparing them to the ETC Colorforce series. That is the market they are shooting for, and I think they have a credible contendor.

Some things they do that I like:
- They give you control of all four emitter colors instead of just giving you simple RGB color controls. IE you get four DMX channels for color, not three)
- They give you a virtual color wheel. IE a DMX channel you can set to give you a color that they believe matches a Rosco or Lee color.
- They publish the DMX values for their color wheel so you can set up your board to fade to colors if needed.
- They added a vary visible tag to the lens tubes so you can see what the beam spread is from the ground.
- The guys in the boot feel that their lenses are superior to the colorforce. I have not hand the chance to examine myself, but they look pretty good.
- The color output was quite rich
- nice attention ot detail. The output on the display is easy to read. The support five and three pin DMX. I believe you have power in and out so you can daisy chain.

In short my feeling is that it is probably better than the Phoenix, may be as good or better than the ETC ColorSource

Good to hear. I'm especially curious about the lenses, since I remember the Altman lenses were often switched for EDLTs.

Really? Sounds debatable. I've been hearing that many people prefer the Altman PHX.

Oh really? Last time I looked into these the S4 was still a little ahead. Just wanted to prevent the usual, "if you're really serious about these things you have to go S4" kind of response, but perhaps that was unwarranted.

 

[MikeJ]

Keep this post updated if anyone gets a demo soon. I don't even care much about a shootout between brands, but a comparison to a HPL 575, and 750 would be great.

The white version of the Chauvet is equal to a 575 HPL, so if the colormixing one can match that output at 3200k, I would guess in colors it would be as good if not better than an equivalently gelled conventional. But only a side by side test and a light meter will tell us for sure.

 

[Les]

Good to hear. I'm especially curious about the lenses, since I remember the Altman lenses were often switched for EDLTs.


Oh really? Last time I looked into these the S4 was still a little ahead. Just wanted to prevent the usual, "if you're really serious about these things you have to go S4" kind of response, but perhaps that was unwarranted.

Seems like it has been a close race. ETC has more fixture choices, but the PHX is well-rounded and (last I heard) was cheaper.

I have heard good things about the Ovation and will hopefully be getting my hands on some for a retrofit soon. I'm excited to see what they're all about, and will reply back when (and if) it we move forward on the install!

I will say that I'm a big admirer of the Altman gear. I just installed some SpectraCyc 100's in a space last week and they really impressed me.