Replacing Par Cans

[bigMCben 0]

I currently have four 300W PAR cans with a sound to chase controller, so I have Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, etc, so surely I can replace them with ONE led PAR can (a 56 or possibly a 64) which will go Red, Green, Blue, Red, Green, Blue, etc.

[YourBigEvent 0]

Yes

[bigMCben 0]

But visually and asthetically, wouldn't you need at least two, and in terms of light output, would one LED can be as bright as a 300W bulb?

[McCardle 1]

I'm still not a member of the LED's are just as bright as halogen bulb camp.

 

I recently bought some branded LED GU10's for domestic use, these use a cluster of 1W leds instead of a 35W halogen and are marketed as being just as bright as the 35W it replaces and ten times the price.

 

What utter crap, since fitting them its so dark that the family are now bumping into each other on the stairs. LED technology may be catching up, but its still a long way from being practical, and whilst they may be okay for ambient / uplighting / small effects they certainly are not comparable in flood light requirements such as Par Cans.

 

Consider the NJD Quartet and NJD Spectre - four 300W lamps but in one single housing. The quartet runs on a bulgin lead and controller like conventional par cans, whilst the spectre has DMX capabilities and its own handheld controller which allows colour mixing, dimming, shade adjustment and has a built in sound to light controller.

Edited October 1, 2008 by McCardle

[dh140770 0]

I currently have four 300W PAR cans with a sound to chase controller, so I have Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, etc, so surely I can replace them with ONE led PAR can (a 56 or possibly a 64) which will go Red, Green, Blue, Red, Green, Blue, etc.

 

As with the others they are not as bright. There are some new 36 x 1W LED Par Cans out, albeit expensive. I would like to see what they can do.

 

For small dancefloor, 2 x very cheap stairville LED Par 64's provided anough fill. I have now swtiched to 2 x ADJ Megabars because they off strobing and are brighter.

 

you can see the dancefloor effect of the megabar here.

 

http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v316/40/91/797303081/n797303081_1331679_4491.jpg

 

Par 64's doing upfill now, see middle back of this pic

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v316/40/91/797303081/n797303081_1331680_5253.jpg

 

and older pic Par 64's on lighting rig showing Pink.

http://photos-081.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v265/40/91/797303081/n797303081_974437_8503.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kingy 0]

Some of the LED cans are very bright, the ones with the 10mm leds. If they have the throw....well thats another thing. Not quite, but for average use, they are sufficient.

 

I lit a 12 piece soul band with 8 cans recently and that was good.

[YourBigEvent 0]

...you could only see 8 of them though !

[bigMCben 0]

http://photos-081.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v265/40/91/797303081/n797303081_974437_8503.jpg

 

I like the look of your setup. It's similar to what I'm wanting. I'm planning on having a kam swingfire in the middle, two led par cans either side and then my led dynarocks outside of them, although I could be persuaded to change the par cans for the led bars. Do the have to be dmx controlled and can you link them master/slave and just have them running sound to light?

[norty303 0]

Ah, the old halogen vs led debate again!

 

The problem when comparing led's vs regular pars is that its often done on open cans which the led's will never compete with. However on very saturated colours such as deep blues and reds, the LED's often come out on top.

 

The regular pars win by virtue of the fact they have a much better beam control unless you start to get into very pricey 1w or 3w led cans.

 

The 5mm and 10mm cans are ok for smaller gigs (or discos) and are very useful for eye candy/environment lighting. Be warned about the 10mm ones from Eurolite if you're using them for lighting into the crowd. The leds are arranged in concentric rings so are less 'nice' to view head on than the ones with evenly distributed leds

 

HOWEVER, in the last month or so Thomann (Stairville) and Eurolite have released affordable 1W LED cans, each with 36 1W led's. the Stairvilles are about £110, the Eurolite (in a smaller, neater housing) for about £140. The only thing these seem to give away over more expensive 1W cans is the even balance of the diodes (12 of each colour) Thje more expensive ones tend to have a higher number of blue (or use 3W diodes) in order to maintain a reasonable white balance. That said, for discos, do you really care?

[stoke53 0]

ive recently sold my 10mm led par cans didnt think they were bright enough currently considering some 3watt ones from thomann

 

alan

[Kingy 0]

ive recently sold my 10mm led par cans didnt think they were bright enough currently considering some 3watt ones from thomann

 

alan

 

Can I ask what application you were using them for Alan?