1 of 9
ADJ // Mega Par Profile Plus
2 of 9
Mega-Lite // Outshine T100
3 of 9
Zylight // Newz On-camera Light
4 of 9
CHAUVET // ColorDash Batten-Quad 6
5 of 9
ETC // ColorSource PAR
6 of 9
GLP // Volkslicht Spot
7 of 9
Blizzard LIGHTING // HushPar Theatrik
8 of 9
Elation // Satura Spot CMY
9 of 9
APOLLO Designs // Avere 5 Par Can
After over a century of dominating the lighting market, the incandescent lamp is seeing a serious challenger in theatrical use from LED lighting. LED theatrical fixtures have been around for a while now, but only recently has the use of them in theatrical applications started to see significant growth. While tungsten lighting isn't going to disappear tomorrow, more and more churches are making use of LED technology.
CPM sought out a few experts in the LED lighting arena to cover the basics of LED lighting technology, and perhaps get a glimpse of what's coming down the road.
Changes in Technology
Peter Maurelli of Barbizon Lighting in Denver agrees. “LED Lighting has improved vastly over the past few years. We have seen improvements in color temperature, color rendering [index] (CRI), color mixing, as well as optics and control technology.”
Maurelli continues, “When LEDs were just entering the market place we would see essentially the same thing from every manufacturer: surface-mounted LEDs with red, green and blue emitters. These fixtures could create six colors well: the three primary colors and three secondary colors. Now we are seeing fixtures with five to seven LED colors and fixtures that are able to duplicate most of the colors in the spectrum, even subtle colors such as pastels and warm white tones for lighting subjects. Manufacturers that serve the broadcast market have developed all-white LED fixtures that have wonderful color temperature to match either tungsten or daylight sources. They have also improved the CRI to make the subjects look realistic on camera.”
Advantages of LED Lighting
So what are the current advantages of LED lighting?
“Certainly power savings is one of the biggest advantages touted for LED lighting,” states Ryan Winstead, sales and design consultant at Advanced Audio & Lighting Systems in Peoria, Ill. “However, what isn’t as clear to many is that we’re not talking merely about the power consumed by the fixtures.”
Indeed, for straight white key lighting, while some LED fixtures can save you on electricity, it’s possible you would not see any savings on the power consumed by the fixture itself.
“Not all LED fixtures offer a power savings over traditional lighting,” notes Uphoff. “A standard ETC Source Four fixture can get up to twice the output efficacy of some of the LED counterparts we have seen.”
So where is the power savings happening, if it’s not always from the fixture itself?
“There is also a thermal aspect to the savings that LED fixtures provide,” Winstead states. “LED fixtures are far more efficient, turning more of their power consumption into light than tungsten fixtures. Tungsten fixtures are really heaters that also provide some light. Therefore, with LED lighting, there’s less waste heat that needs to be removed from the venue via the building’s air conditioning system, and this produces substantial savings.”
However, when you get outside of white lighting, there you see a remarkable increase in energy savings from the fixture itself. With tungsten lighting, you start with your full white light, and remove the color you don’t want from the beam using a filter, wasting all the energy that went into creating the unwanted colors. With LED lighting, you are only generating the color you want in the first place. “Doing rich saturated color is far more efficient with LED lighting,” Winstead says. “When you consider Roscolux Congo Blue I'd need many thousands of watts in PAR fixtures to achieve what I can do with 100 watts of LED.”
“So with LEDs, the brightness you get in a color, the fact that you select the color from your lighting console instead of putting gels in the fixture, the fact that no dimmers are needed, and the ability to get instantaneous changes to new colors are all excellent advantages,” adds Bobby Harrell, product specialist for Philips Entertainment, based in New York.
Intelligent Fixtures Join the Ranks
LED has also made great inroads into the intelligent lighting arena. Profile, beam and wash fixtures are all available with LED light engines.
“The primary advantage of the LED technology in a moving light is the significant reduction in heat and the lack of UV emissions,” states Maurelli. “Heat and UV emissions are the primary cause of damage to moving light motors, wiring, reflectors and other moving parts. By removing this source of heat, LED moving lights gain great reliability. That is not to say an LED source does not create heat, but the heat is extracted from the back of the fixture and never enters the fixture body.”
House Lighting
In recent years, the use of LEDs for house lighting has also come of age.
“Advancements in LED technology and fixture design have made it possible for LED house light fixtures to have fully homogenized lenses,” states Fred Mikeska, vice president of U.S. sales and marketing for A.C. Lighting based in Toronto, Canada. “A fully homogenized lens eliminates the color separation and shadows that are synonymous with individual and quad-chip LEDs while providing a single shadow, gorgeous mixed colors, and soft whites. With advancements in technology, LED house lights are now capable of providing a bright 30 foot-candles of illumination at 30 feet of output with a comfortably warm 3200K white light. The reduced total cost of ownership and maintenance in both new build and retrofit scenarios can be significant. With rebates from energy companies, churches can see payback on their investment in LED house lights in as little as one to two years. Perhaps more important ... is the use of color. Whether soft pastel or bold saturated colors, color is a very powerful tool to help capture, convey and express emotion to the congregation.”
The energy-savings of LED lighting can be quite dramatic in LED house lights and work lights. “These are the fixtures that are on for eight to twelve hours a day,” adds Maurelli, “so significant savings can be found by replacing a 500-watt down light with a 50-watt LED. We have done a number of architectural upgrades that have saved the customer on their power bill and provided greater illumination.”
Why not?
With all these advantages, there are few reasons not to go with LED.
“Cost is the main reason to steer away from an LED product,” comments Maurelli. “If a customer has a limited budget and needs to light a lot of area, I will recommend a good quality incandescent fixture over an inexpensive LED product.”
“If you are replacing tungsten lights and already have the infrastructure in place for that type of system (dimmers, distribution, etc…) the fixture-to-fixture costs can be prohibitive,” adds Uphoff. “Also, for certain uses, light output may not be what it needs to be yet.”
So, installing LED lighting in a new construction situation can bring the initial investment costs down by eliminating the need for dimmers and reducing the high-voltage wiring infrastructure.
“Generally, you get what you pay for in LED lighting,” Winstead reports. “While high-quality fixtures are out there, there are still fixtures that have poor color rendering, will flicker on video, and have poor dimming curves.”
Therefore, if you’re not able to invest in fixtures with the light quality you need, postponing a move to LED might be wise. “One thing to look for that can be a clue to fixture quality is a photometric report from the manufacturer,” Winstead adds. “If they aren’t providing one, the fixture probably isn’t worth owning.”
Winstead continues, “Also, there’s been a trend lately for PAR replacement LED fixtures to have a much narrower beam spread. This means you either need more fixtures, or have a much longer throw distance to cover a given area. And with churches frequently renovating spaces with lower ceiling heights to be their worship centers, achieving the right throw distance at the proper down angle isn’t always possible.”
“Things are changing, though,” adds Uphoff. “There will be a time when there isn’t much of an argument for anything but LED fixtures.”
1. ADJ / mega par profile plus
ADJ’s Mega Par Profile Plus offers a lie-flat design and 30-degree beam angle. This compact, low-profile par was designed for up-lighting, truss warming and general stage lighting. In addition to RGB color effects, the Plus version adds three-watt UV LED black lights for adding UV lighting effects.
2. APOLLO DESIGNS / Avere 5 Par Can
This compact Par 38 LED fixture is machined from aircraft-grade aluminum. Designed for architectural, broadcast or theatrical applications, the Avere 5 offers 12- to 30-degree beams and can be painted at the factory in custom colors.
3. BLIZZARD LIGHTING / HushPar Theatrik
Blizzard Lighting calls the Hushpar Theatrix “the easiest way to replace a par can in your venue.” The Blizzard Hushpar Theatrix uses existing 0-10v dimming. No DMX needed, no programming needed, just remove your Par can and replace it with the Theatrix.
4. CHAUVET / ColorDash Batten-Quad 6
The ColorDash Batten-Quad 6 from Chauvet Professional has quad color LEDs that combine red, green, blue and amber in a single light source. By blending these LEDs together in different combinations a church can reportedly create a wider array of colors than it can get using gel filters and standard tungsten fixtures.
5. ELATION / SATURA SPOT CMY
The Satura Spot CMY from Elation houses a complete professional feature set including CMY color mixing, zoom and plenty of graphics possibilities in an energy-efficient LED package that the company says is as bright as a 700W discharge fixture.
6. ETC / ColorSource PAR
According to ETC, the ColorSource PAR’s RGB-L (red, green, blue, lime) mix produces a broader color spectrum than other budget LEDs, especially in warm colors. Its flattering, adjustable white light and bright beam are designed for the altar or broadcast. The company says it maintains color quality at any intensity, and compensates for thermal droop.
7. GLP / Volkslicht Spot
Part of GLP's LED range includes the Volkslicht Spot fixture that can project images and beams from a color mixing LED source. With LEDs using less power, creating less heat, with longer lifetimes than conventional lamps—churches can save on initial investment infrastructure, running costs and require less manpower for maintenance.
8. MEGA-LITE / Outshine T100
The Mega-Lite Outshine T100 is made to the church’s specifications by selecting the lens angle, the body color, and DMX connection type (3-pin or 5-pin). Adjust the concentration of the wash by selecting from a 35- or 51-degree LED lens angle. The Outshine T100 housing is powder-coated to each church’s requirements, with over 200 color options.
9. ZYLIGHT / Newz On-camera Light
The Newz variable white light includes brightness settings from tungsten (3200K) to daylight (5600), and an articulated arm design allows shooters to adjust its height and angle.
