Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Spot. Photo by Chauvet.
As a lighting designer who works with churches, I am always on the search for new moving lights with a high light output, a low price, and that will require a minimum of maintenance. The reason I look for these traits is it seems that churches want their fixtures to be bright and inexpensive—and then chances are good they will probably only be minimally maintained once they are hung.
Recently, I was asked to review the new Rogue R2 Spot from Chauvet Professional, which is a moving head spot fixture that has a 240-watt white light LED as the light source.
The first thing I noticed when taking the fixture out of the box is that it is not lightweight. Weighing in at around 47 pounds, the fixture is solidly built. Why I expected it to weigh less, I don't know. I suppose I figured that the replacement of the arc lamp power supply would make it lighter. And it probably does. But you also have to add a hefty heat management system to vent the heat of the 240-watt LED. So the weight is shaved off in one area, but added back on in another. Having said that, the fixture has all of the same functions as a professional-grade, arc-lamped moving light, with all of its corresponding stepper motors, drivers, and mechanics, minus the mechanical dimming and shutter strobe, that is electronic in this fixture.
Under inspection
When you first fire up this fixture you immediately notice how bright it is—and how flat the field of the light beam is. The brightness is due to having a 240-watt LED and a good optical system in the fixture, while the flat field is a characteristic of the LED light source, making it a great looking light.
Arc-lamped fixtures might be brighter when you look at their peak brightness, which generally is the level in the very center of the beam. But when you look at the beam as a whole, the intensity falls off rapidly as you move from center to the outside of the beam. However, with the Rogue R2 Spot and its LED source, the beam has the same brightness from the center to the outside of the beam—and it's the same color. There isn't any brown banding caused by artifacts in the arc lamp envelope or the reflector, just bright white. In my testing this flat field and high brightness makes the Rogue R2 Spot brighter than some 575-watt, arc-lamped fixtures. In addition, some of the perceived brightness has to do with the Rogue R2 Spot's color temperature of 8,250 degrees Kelvin, which is a daylight color temperature.
The flat field and high brightness makes the Rogue R2 Spot brighter than some 575-watt, arc-lamped fixtures.
Greg Persinger
Reviewer.
The Rogue R2 Spot has a rated LED emitter life of 50,000 hours. This is equal to roughly 25 arc lamp changes or 32 years of lamp life using the fixtures an average of 30 hours per week. This means the Rogue R2 Spot can provide major cost savings by not requiring lamp changes when you figure that most arc lamps cost $150 or more.
Dimming is accomplished using electronic means rather than mechanical. This has several distinct advantages. First the dimming curve is more even from 0% to 100% than most mechanical dimmers. And second, the strobe function is faster than you can get a mechanical dimmer to open and shut. And because it's electronic, you don't have to worry about wearing out stepper motors or burning and warping dimmer leaves, minimizing maintenance.
Color is accomplished via two seven-color color-wheels. On the wheels there is the standard array of colors. In addition to 14 single colors, there are some colors on the wheels that mix between color wheel one and color wheel two, giving you a few extra variations. You can also achieve split colors on the wheels, and there are some nice split color combinations. The folks at Chauvet spent the time to think through how the fixture could be used, and they laid out the wheels accordingly.
In addition to the two color wheels, there are two gobo wheels: one fixed and one rotating. I like the gobo load. Chauvet has come up with a gobo pallet that works great as stand-alone gobos, and is also a good complement when you mix the two wheels together. Not only is this gobo load useful, but it is also somewhat unique—not copying other gobos on the market—which gives the Rogue its own unique look.
Another interesting feature on the Rogue R2 Spot is the gobo morphing. Essentially this is done by putting in a gobo from each gobo wheel. First you focus on one gobo wheel and then you change your focus to the gobo on the other gobo wheel. Just by changing the focus level you can do some great special effects morphing from one gobo look to another. In addition, as you do this the unit stays bright and punchy and doesn't lose its output—something not every fixture out there can accomplish.
Gobo notables
This brings up the one oddity that I found in the light. It's one of those quirks that doesn't really stop you from using the light; you just have to be aware of it. When you are focused on the gobo in the second gobo wheel position and then go to an open beam with no gobo, you get a funky square-ish beam shape. Of course the solution is to simply adjust your focus, which brings the beam back to a circular form, but if you aren't aware of this quirk, you may think that there is an issue with the light. Instead, it just has to do with the gobo wheel placement in the optical path and the focus level. It's one of those tradeoffs that Chauvet made to give the Rogue R2 Spot a great morphing effect.
One other great feature of the Rogue R2 Spot is the easy access gobo door on the side of the fixture. This allows you to change the rotating gobo load without having to pull out tools and take the side cover off the unit. In essence, this makes it incredibly easy to change out gobos and is a nice touch, furthering the functionality of the unit.
The Rogue R2 Spot also features an iris and a three-way rotating prism. The iris allows you to make the beam smaller, as well as being able to be used for an effect. The rotating prism is a great addition to the already nice gobo load, adding one more layer of effects to the unit. It's doesn't have super-fast, make-you-sick-to-your-stomach spinning effects like some units, but the prism is very functional and looks good either alone or with a gobo.
From a physical standpoint the Rogue R2 Spot is smaller then the typical 575-watt arc lamped fixture, yet larger then a typical 250-watt, arc-lamped fixture. I think it falls into the small end of a medium-sized fixture measuring 16.1 inches wide, 13.5 inches tall, and 19.25 inches deep—and weighing in at 47 pounds. The unit has a Neutrik PowerCon input and output for power allowing five units at 120 volts to be chained together, as it only pulls 2.6 amps per unit at 120 volts. It has both three-pin and five-pin XLR inputs and outputs for DMX, and setup is done through a great looking color LCD display. The unit uses either 18 or 21 channels of DMX.
At a $2,599 list price, the Chauvet Rogue R2 Spot is definitely worth a look, delivering great value for the price. It's bright enough to be used in a larger room and will look spectacular in a smaller room. With its LED light source, maintenance will be low, offering a great return on your investment. If you are in the market for a great little moving light, the Chauvet Rogue R2 Spot should be on your short list.
