Choice of lamp is important and one to be considered within your situation to be considered within the bounds of how you use the lamps. Lots of choices in lamp and a good start in deciding the intent of long life. Next is to refine this concept in possibly by help by way of an electrician community member or the church maintenance people. For starters are your fixtures
fed by way of dimmers or switches? Architectural or theatrical control? Very important for the choice of lamps if your
fixture sees realistically a 115v or 120v loading, than beyond that
voltage drop and
dimmer chopping. Also what
dimmer level those lamps most likely will stay at?
If at full most of the time, and especially if at 120v or near that, you won’t get as cost effective a lamp life out of a 115v lamp, instead a 120v lamp would be more cost effective in balancing output with expected lamp life. Have someone check with a multi-meter the
voltage at the lighting
fixture, this will tell a lot, as with knowing the
system. Also if you frequently go
thru lamps elsewhere and it’s not
fixture lamp
base or maintenance related the 120v lamp would also be a better choice in covering for say
voltage spikes and other strangeness.
Next is luminous output. Want the expected output of the lamp in covering for it’s maximum need in output but making that lamp get closest to the wattage needed. 400w/115v and 120v, 500w/120v, 575w/115v, 750w/115v and 120v are all available as with a TBA 375w/115v. If it’s a short
throw and you don’t need to
blind people, perhaps a lesser wattage lamp would be more appropriate without need to dim it much in losing
color temperature. Than of course, perhaps you need max output for what you can get given the longer life intent.
That’s for the
axial Lekos lamps. For the other Fresnels and radial Lekos... such a lack of lamp choice is known to the industry and that’s all I can say for now. But I recently did have in my
hand and
play test an experimental model of one lamp and it’s gonna set the world on fire when and if it does come to market. It’s a now known problem and coming thanks to
Controlbooth and my pushing of it by way of the idea. That and the head of entertainment with that company that is a theater person and got it. Wait on those lamps for higher output given a
voltage status 115v or 120v. Long life versions of these new class of lamps will follow.
Onto stuff to do when hanging over the heads of people...
safety cabling each and every
fixture new to you or old is absolutely necessary for all fixtures no matter the type. After that, next important is never to hang the
gel frame slot up side down. In servicing these older fixtures - recommended before you use them, if you have budget
send them to an expert is the primary recommendation. It’s liability. Just as you don’t make your own
safety cables, unless you have an expert on staff that can sign off for this new gear inspected based on experience - don’t use them, it’s not safe to just look about it and
cover your rear in liability.
There is lots of little things to look for all I would hope would recognize, little cracks in the frame that could be important, corroded lamp bases, solidly rusted sheet metal screws that sheer on testing of them, trashed reflectors not as dangerous but important, broken clutch cams
etc. Above the audience or a danger to those plugging the fixtures in, this much less
asbestos whips, it’s still important for qualified service people to have a look at the gear before you use it.
Such people can have a look at your gear, tell you what to fix, teach you how and perhaps sell you the parts to fix it, that’s a concept of business model or more likely they will want to supervise and or do the work themselves which is just as responsible.
None the less, ya still don’t
plug in high wattage lighting gear short of inspection by people qualified to inspect it. Can read all the stuff on this and other forums you wish but it while giving hints in what to look for still won’t as also hinted at allow for eyes on the project observations. I would overall recommend you negotiate a qualified service person from the retailer in your area or large lighting company come out to inspect the gear and teach a quick fix it class for you. Otherwise budget getting the gear into them. Better yet, get into that service station where they have the tools and parts to service the gear and learn under optimum conditions.
As for parts,
Altman for the most part sells all the replacement parts to their gear and it’s often standard parts with other gear, and they for parts are available on-line or
thru your local
Altman dealer. If no longer available
Altman can advise on replacement parts or post away in this and other websites posting advice in the limited parts no longer available.
On
bench focus... been discussed a few times on this forum and other forums such as stagecraft. Read the
manual you can get from
Altman on
bench focus - if having trouble finding it, go on
line to the live help and have them direct you to that
bench focus manual. Than also follow the advice here on frequently inspecting where that lamp is in relation to the
reflector. This by way of opening up the
fixture and having a look at the results of your
bench focus. A lamp hitting the
reflector, than especially being torqued against the
reflector is a bad expensive thing. Best to look at lamp to
reflector ratio and if not even pre-bench focus by way of what the lamp looks like in relation to being observed to be centered on the
reflector frequently. At that
point it’s more or less fine tuning that center and working on up and down within that centered opening you will find.
Finally, all lamps for the
360Q are within a range of reasonable price. For long life in 120v the EGE and EHD are where it’s at. At 115v, the GLA and GLE are where it’s at. Otherwise for 400w, GE/Thorn does the 115v and Ushio does the 120v.
What else should be covered besides aligning the lamp? What type of cleaning should I do? What can I ignore? I'm certain there's enough instruments for me to choose from that I can pass over anything that'd be out of my league, though I am desiring to expand my knowledge of these things and learn some new skills. I fully intend to ignore the radials, as I know the 360Q's should outclass them, and we'll have plenty to go around. 
] So, I'd like to add 2 to 4 more 360's to the mix, to 
