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It seems that the days of the tungsten-halogen lamp are numbered. Just viewing the exhibit floor at this past year's LDI Conference just confirms that LED's have taken over as the primary light source for entertainment lighting. It was downright difficult to find many fixtures at LDI that still use the power-hungry incandescent and HID light sources.
So what do you do if you have already own an inventory of ETC Source Four lekos with tungsten-halogen lamps, but want to convert your lighting fixtures to LED? Well, you could spend approximately $2,000 to replace each older incandescent fixture with a new LED leko, or you could spend significantly less converting your present lighting fixtures to one of the several LED source conversion products available on the market.
The latest product that allows you to do this is PRG's ReNew LED retrofit light engine. This product essentially replaces the entire back end of an incandescent-powered Source Four with a new LED light engine. It still allows you to use your older lens barrel and shutter mechanisms with a new LED light source. Therefore, you only pay for the new LED light engine, and not for replacing perfectly good lenses and shutters.
The PRG ReNew LED light engine comes in two models. One is the ReNew Tungsten, a warm white model that best replicates the incandescent color temperature of 3,000 Kelvin. The other model, the ReNew Daylight, is designed to produce a daylight color of 5,700 Kelvin. This is to match closely the color temperature of daylight and arc discharge lamps. The PRG ReNew produces 8,200 lumens of output and consumes only 190 watts (compared to the 575w of a typical Source Four lamp). It works with all ETC Lens tubes including their standard and Enhanced Definition tubes.
Under Inspection
PRG sent us the 3,000 K ReNew Tungsten version to test in our theaters and light lab at California State University Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif. We installed the ReNew Tungsten into one of our standard tungsten ETC Source Four spotlights. The installation was very easy and painless. PRG's Quick Start Guide was a huge help; it took us only a few minutes to complete the assembly.
"We found it difficult to tell the original Tungsten-Halogen Source Four from the ReNew Retrofit LED version."
David Martin Jacques
Reviewer
We discovered some interesting new features while setting up the ReNew fixture. As in most LED fixtures, constant AC power must be supplied to the fixture. But the ReNew has daisy chain capability that allows you to group four fixtures onto one AC line. An AC Thru port and an optional special daisy chain jumper cable allows you to achieve this.
Once powered on, I recommend digging into menu to set the fixture to your own needs. Menu items include choosing the DMX address of the fixture, setting the bit rate of the intensity from eight to 16 (for smoother fades including strobes and flashes), setting automatic intensity reduction or increase in case the DMX signal is lost, DMX dimming curves to replicate conventional dimmer curves (to match fades when mixing LED and conventional fixtures), and DMX Smoothing that replicates other conventional dimmer and fixture characteristics, like reducing flicker and slowing the output response.
You can also set the intensity manually if you just want one level of intensity without dimmer control. The ReNew fixtures can operated with one, two, or three channels of DMX. It can also be operated in standalone mode without DMX.
Findings
Our tests against a conventional tungsten Source Four fixture were quite revealing. We found the color of the fixture matching the Source Four at full intensity. In fact, it was difficult to tell them apart. Some of the subtle differences could be due to lamp life or other idiosyncrasies of the fixture, but the color and field were impressive. We also found the dimming very smooth with no stepping at the lower end.
One thing to keep in mind is that unlike a conventional tungsten lamp, the ReNew does not change color while dimming. This is a good and a bad thing. It's good because you get consistent color while the lamp fades … but bad if you have a mixture of ReNew fixtures and tungsten halogen fixtures in the same group of lights. The conventional fixtures will get warmer at lower intensities, whereas the LEDs keep a constant color. This is easily remedied by grouping LED fixtures together and separate from groups of tungsten fixtures.
The dimming curves are smooth and accurate (especially at 16-bit resolution). We also found that the strobe and flash effects were very cool. I am sure that many users will find these functions very useful for lightning effects.
We found the gobos and shutters just as sharp as a conventional Source Four. This is tricky [since] some other LED light engines have a difficult time focusing into the gate of the fixture. The ReNew light engine had no problems with the optics of the Source Four. We found this to be true with multiple lens configurations.
Trial Opportunity
PRG is offering a unique way to try a ReNew light engine for yourself. They have a new program called “Take and Try DIY Demo Program” where PRG will send you a ReNew light engine and you can install it and try it for two weeks in your house of worship. This is a wonderful way for you to see if this product will work for your own needs. For more information, check the PRG website at: http://www.prg.com/take-and-try. Kudos to PRG for offering this program.
In all, we found the PRG ReNew an exciting and cost-effective way for houses of worship to convert their older ETC Source Four's into power-saving and maintenance free LED fixtures. With very long lamp lives in the 10,000s of hours, the time standing on ladders to replace burned out tungsten halogen lamps are over.
