The lighting industry has made some substantial changes in the past 20 years, and one of those has been the addition of LED fixtures to our lighting repertoire.
In 1994 if you went to a major rock concert you would have seen a lighting rig consisting of primarily PAR 64s and possibly some moving lights. Your average church would have had a lighting rig that consisted of PAR cans, ellipsoidals, or Fresnels. If its lighting rig were state of the art for that era it would have consisted of the then new ETC Source Four ellipsoidal or ETC Source Four PAR.
Jump forward 10 years to 2004. During this time, moving lights are all the rage and most concert rigs consisted of Martin MAC 2000s or High End Studio Spots and Washes and fewer PAR cans, but early adopters are beginning to use LED fixtures.
Although LED fixtures had been around since the late 1990s, LED fixtures are just starting to take off and are starting to make their mark on the concert scene in 2004. We see an explosion of first-generation LED fixtures. All of the major lighting companies are either offering or working on some type of LED fixture. Of course, larger churches aren't typically using LEDs yet. They are just starting to get into moving lights, and the ETC Source Four line has become the industry standard for conventional fixtures.
Jump forward another 10 years to present day 2014 and you find that LED fixtures are currently the most predominant fixtures in the lighting industry. They are on every concert tour in large quantities, found lighting TV and film, and churches both large and small use them as a staple of their lighting rigs.
Technology maturation
So what has changed in the LED lighting market to cause the entertainment industry to so heartily embrace the LED as the light source of the future? Generally speaking, it has been a maturing of the technology.
First, LED fixtures are much brighter than they were 10 years ago. This is because of advances in LED chip technology and better thermal management. While many of today's LEDs are rated at one watt like those of 10 years ago, today's LEDs have a higher lumen output at the same power input—making today's chipsets brighter and more efficient than those of the past. This translates to brighter lighting fixtures.
"...today’s LEDs have a higher lumen output at the same power input—making today’s chipsets brighter and more efficient than those of the past."
Thermal management also plays into this. Contrary to popular belief, LEDs create heat, and as an LED gets hot, its output drops. New PC board compounds and manufacturing techniques, as well as more efficient heat sinks and cooling methods, keep the LEDs cooler and keep them outputting at their maximum brightness.
Another technological improvement is improved LED drivers that do a better job of dimming LEDs. The better dimming has virtually eliminated the flicker that LED fixtures used to cause when shown on video, as well as create more fixtures with “theatrical-grade dimming” that will slowly and smoothly dim from off to full and back again without flicker or “stepping.” Better dimming also affects color mixing, as better control of the dimming of each LED color allows for more refinement of the colors that are mixed.
Other benefits of better drivers have been greater reliability, lower overall costs, and the ability to electronically color match fixtures so that all of the fixtures of the same make and model will look the same, regardless of when they were purchased.
Still more improvements include the addition of other colors, such as amber, warm and cool white, cyan, indigo, and orange red, among others, to the standard red, green, and blue (RGB) color mixing system. This allows a broader range of colors.
The ability for chip manufacturers to put all of the color LED dies on one chip, commonly called chip-on-board, three-in-one, or four-in-one LEDs create the look of a single mixed color output from the chip. This gives the appearance of one unified color coming from the face of the light—even if the light uses multiple LEDs. This is different from the discrete LED fixtures that use multiple red, green, and blue LEDs, giving the face of the light that “skittles” look.
The last major advancement in LEDs has been in the optics. A great deal of research and development has gone into various lensing and mixing systems for LEDs. As such, we now have wash fixtures with various beam spreads, wash lights that have variable zoom, as well as hard edge spot fixtures and ellipsoidal fixtures that work just like their incandescent cousins.
"LEDs still are not a perfect replacement for every lighting application..."
Church tech usage translation
So what does this all mean to you? LED fixtures are better than ever and [can be] a great investment. While LEDs still are not a perfect replacement for every lighting application, there are many areas that they do as well, if not exceed the performance of an incandescent fixture or an arc lamp in the case of a moving light.
Generally speaking, LEDs excel at creating bright light with low energy consumption. This is realized more when an LED fixture is used to create deep saturated colors, such as blue or red, and not as much when mixing warm white. This [is] why they are great for color washes and lighting scenery, [because] they are very energy efficient and have a lot of punch when in saturated colors. Also they eliminate the need for lighting gel to change colors, [since] most any color can be mixed from the lighting console.
LEDs also offer extremely low maintenance—with most LED elements rated for 25,000 to 50,000 hours of useful life. In addition, LEDs are not as susceptible to breakage from jolts and drops, making them more durable for portable use. This factor combined with low heat output and low power consumption makes LED ideal for portable video light kits.
Low maintenance, low energy consumption, and the ability to color mix is driving designers to put LED in as house lights in all types of venues, including churches. With LED houselights you can create an immersive environment by changing the color to whatever you want whenever you want.
Currently, many moving light manufacturers are moving all of their lower wattage (usually anything 575 watts or less) fixtures that have traditionally had arc lamps to LED. The full color mixing, low maintenance costs and long life of the LEDs make it a better value for their customers.
One area that LED is just starting to mature in is as a warm white incandescent replacement for PAR cans or ellipsoidals. At present, the fixtures that replace warm white with the same output as a similar incandescent fixture are just starting to come to market and are still expensive. However, as time goes on, prices will drop and we will see more and more of these fixtures used.
If you are looking for a new lighting system, or to retrofit an existing lighting system, LED-based fixtures are definitely worth serious consideration. LEDs are great technology—and one that is here to stay well into the future. LED is definitely worth looking into; it is a great technology—and one that is here to stay well into the future. Who knows what the next 10 years will bring, but I am betting that LED fixtures will be brighter, lighter, and more reliable than what we have today.
