I am a K-12 music teacher. Our lighting system on our "stage" (also in the gym) was put in 20-30 years (no one really knows). I want to upgrade our conventional lights to LED. We have 4 ellipsoidal lights and 12 Par Cans running through 2 NSI DDS 9800 dimmer racks that are controlled by a Leviton MC 7016 light console. My question is can I just buy new LED lights and plug into the old system or do I need new bones as well?
Want to upgrade to LED lights...
- Thread startertr5music
- Start date
First off, you wouldn't need the dimmer racks for the LED lights. You would also want to have power to the light positions, you would also want to be able to turn off that power when the lights are not in use. Power surges and near by lightning strikes can do bad things to LED lights. You won't need to have an outlet next to each fixture, within limits they are designed to have both power and data daisy chained from fixture to fixture. You also want to get demos of fixtures in your space. That's also a good time to get to know your possible dealers in your area.
microstar
Well-Known Member
You may have an issue with your MC7016 controlling LED fixtures.
First, LED lights use the DMX control protocol. Does your MC7016 have the 5-pin XLR jack on the back panel? Many of these use the Microplex protocol which uses a 3-pin XLR and Microplex itself is NOT compatible with DMX fixtures.
So you may currently have Microplex communication to the DDS9800 dimmers. If you happen to have the optional 5-pin XLR DMX jack, a power supply that plugs into the console is also required for DMX; it is not required for Microplex.
Second, your console can operate in either 2-scene 16-channel, 1-scene 32 channel, or 1-scene 16-channel + 16 preset scene mode.
The 16 preset mode is handy because it allows you to save 16 scenes or looks and fade them in or out independently, but then you only have 16 channels to operate the LED fixtures.
You can get white light only LED DMX fixtures and they will use 1 or 2 channels EACH, so your console would possibly just have enough channels for 16 fixtures (assuming 1 channel per fixture).
However, one advantage of LED fixtures is the ability to change the color of the light to whatever you want, and that requires a minimum of 3 DMX channels per fixture, so those same 16 fixtures would now require your
MC7016 to control 48 channels, which is a problem. You can set the DMX fixtures to the same addresses and use fewer channels, but then they will not be able to be controlled individually, only as a group.
So, kind of depends on how many fixtures will do the job and how you intend to use them. In addition, you will need a DMX infrastructure, meaning control cables from the console to the fixtures, and, non-dim power
to the fixtures (NOT from the dimmers) as mentioned above.
First, LED lights use the DMX control protocol. Does your MC7016 have the 5-pin XLR jack on the back panel? Many of these use the Microplex protocol which uses a 3-pin XLR and Microplex itself is NOT compatible with DMX fixtures.
So you may currently have Microplex communication to the DDS9800 dimmers. If you happen to have the optional 5-pin XLR DMX jack, a power supply that plugs into the console is also required for DMX; it is not required for Microplex.
Second, your console can operate in either 2-scene 16-channel, 1-scene 32 channel, or 1-scene 16-channel + 16 preset scene mode.
The 16 preset mode is handy because it allows you to save 16 scenes or looks and fade them in or out independently, but then you only have 16 channels to operate the LED fixtures.
You can get white light only LED DMX fixtures and they will use 1 or 2 channels EACH, so your console would possibly just have enough channels for 16 fixtures (assuming 1 channel per fixture).
However, one advantage of LED fixtures is the ability to change the color of the light to whatever you want, and that requires a minimum of 3 DMX channels per fixture, so those same 16 fixtures would now require your
MC7016 to control 48 channels, which is a problem. You can set the DMX fixtures to the same addresses and use fewer channels, but then they will not be able to be controlled individually, only as a group.
So, kind of depends on how many fixtures will do the job and how you intend to use them. In addition, you will need a DMX infrastructure, meaning control cables from the console to the fixtures, and, non-dim power
to the fixtures (NOT from the dimmers) as mentioned above.
Good advice so far. Yes, you should probably get a new control console. And yes, you will need to get data to the LEDs to tell them what to do, in addition to non-dimmed power, assuming you want them to change color; that could be wired or wireless, depending on the details of the space.
We can help you more if you give us some idea of what events you'd like to support (music and... plays? musicals? dance?...) as well as the size of the stage, distances and directions from the stage to the positions the lights are installed, and your budget (whether specific $ or just "we want long-lasting, quality equipment" versus "we need this to be cheap"). Also, are there plain old electrical outlets convenient to the lighting positions, and where are your dimmers right now and how do you get power from there to the lights right now (the DDS9800s just have outlets on the back to plug into, right? That'd be a good thing).
Photos of things are great!
Depending on budget, you may find the quality of whiteish light you get from LED stage lights on skin, or for reading music, or rendering color in any kind of pigment, to be pretty awful. That aspect has improved a lot, but still it's possible you may want to keep your ellipsoidals for front light and just do LEDs for color shifts from above the stage.
We can help you more if you give us some idea of what events you'd like to support (music and... plays? musicals? dance?...) as well as the size of the stage, distances and directions from the stage to the positions the lights are installed, and your budget (whether specific $ or just "we want long-lasting, quality equipment" versus "we need this to be cheap"). Also, are there plain old electrical outlets convenient to the lighting positions, and where are your dimmers right now and how do you get power from there to the lights right now (the DDS9800s just have outlets on the back to plug into, right? That'd be a good thing).
Photos of things are great!
Depending on budget, you may find the quality of whiteish light you get from LED stage lights on skin, or for reading music, or rendering color in any kind of pigment, to be pretty awful. That aspect has improved a lot, but still it's possible you may want to keep your ellipsoidals for front light and just do LEDs for color shifts from above the stage.
One other thing to consider is that a frequent issue with Thingamatoriums* is all sorts of people use the stage for many purposes. Then they don't bother to turn the lights off. You might consider keeping the existing light system for those people. That way you can keep the new light system for those who know how to use them and no how to turn them off and power the system down correctly.
*My generic name for gymnatoriums, cafetoriums, dojotoriums whatever.
*My generic name for gymnatoriums, cafetoriums, dojotoriums whatever.
Ford
Sr Product Manager, Chauvet Professional
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