LED Powered Lights

[F_Swift 0]

Also to say Leds aint bright enough is stupid man..

Halogen is very bright we know.

But the advantage i think with leds is the bulb type is circuits like a Laser

So you get better striaght clear Sound to light beams then hazey and blury bulb projectors or gobos..

the patterns might not be as bright but the Beams certainly are..

Also this is why you cannot look at an Led light with the naked eye directly because its the same as a laser beam very direct and is Bright

So to say an led lighting effect isnt very bright is plain stupid

 

[Gary 0]

QUOTE (F_Swift @ Jan 28 2005, 06:32 AM)

And i had complaints from the venue manager about my lighting...

Hi, firstly WELCOME TO -THE- FORUM http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/042.gif

 

What was the nature of the venue managers complaints about the lighting? eg: Too bright / Shining into peoples eyes / too much strobing / too much smoke (if any) etc? I'm curious, and always pay more attention to complaints than I do about compliments.

 

LED's are less powerful than bulbs - thats a given fact for the moment. No doubt that will change over the next few years.

 

As Brian mentions above, some parcans are around now which offer bright output from LED's, but these work by using dozens, sometimes hundreds of hi-brightness LED's. As you can imagine, having dozens of lightsources (LEDs or bulbs) within an effect, would cause multiple images to be produced, and currently a lack of sharp focusing. However, I've no doubt that this will improve on single LED's in the future.

 

I've been looking into LED lighting (not directly http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif ) for some time now, as I'm keen to replace several "ordinary" GLS/Pygmy and RO80 bulbs in certain disco, and domestic applications. Currently the most efficient single LED array thats around (in a bulb-like shape and size) is an array of 36 LED's, which offers a light output comparable to a 40watt "traditional" bulb. This is fine for some of my applications, but I'll have to wait for LED technology to evolve a couple more years before I can replace all my traditional bulbs with LED arrays.

 

Once again, Welcome the the forum.

Edited January 28, 2005 by Gary

[ChrisPointon 0]

QUOTE

I recently did a couple of gigs at a local venue and i used hi tech lighting such as 4 Martin mac 550 moving head lights , dmxed into my laptop with 2 simple mojo Scan 1 mirror heads as fast back up.. And i had complaints from the venue manager about my lighting...

 

Maybe this was due to the fact that the lighting was moving beyond the dancefloor and into the eyes of the audience and staff = complaints. Every lighting effect you list on your first comparison is a scanning or moving head effect which will scan well beyond the confines of your dancefloor.

 

I use halogen effects, but they are non scanning and all aimed at the dancefloor, and do not stray into the eyes of seated guests or bar staff http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif . When I used scanners at private functions I also got complaints, I got rid of them - reserving their use for larger venues and now only use moonflower and ambient wall / ceiling wash effects and get no complaints.

 

However I sell both LED based and halogen effects everyday, and there is a big comparison between the output of an LED core and a 250W halogen or 575w Discharge Lamp - run the two together on the same rig and compare the difference between like for like effects. Yes, for ambient lighting LED lights have a role, but you couldn't use them in a large room or club environment, if that were possible every club and venue would be doing just that and saving £1000's a year on their utility bills http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif

 

I had stock of an LED ambient water ripple lighting effect for months, and it simply didn't cut ice with DJ's because it wasn't bright enough, and at the same time the halogen version was flying out of the door!. Proof enough that DJ's just aren't buying them................yet.

 

LED Technology flopped when they tried to replace the domestic light bulb with them, and this is more of a commerical opportunity than DJ equipment as the old saying goes 'Every home should have one' but they don't simply because the light output isn't significant enough to offer a drop in replacement.

 

Yes, the day will come when it will be advanced enough, but that day isn't here yet. If it was then every car would have LED headlamps, Every street lamp would have rows of yellow LED's and every home would be lit by LED Table lamps and the energy hungry halogen or incandescent lamp would be resigned to history books.

 

I remember the early days of the energy saving fluorescent lamps, in those days these were considered too dim to be of significant use and were restricted to path lights and amenity lighting, nowadays people are using them for everyday use in their homes, purely because the technology has improved.

[mick 0]

As Brian says LED's are used on stages in the new PAR can lamps, most of the modern stage sets use LED's in big flat screens and of course the tubes already mentioned. They look very good and the mood can be changed very quickly. They can also chase and do loads of strange effects you could not do with conventional lamps. I dont think they will be as good as or as a real replacement for the halogen projector lamp for a good few years but having seen two shows in the Local Theatre I thing they are here to stay so far a stage work is concerned.

Mick

[F_Swift 0]

I agree with you chris 100%

 

 

Some great points there man.

 

But all im sayng is i will continue to push these led effects like zagdot,moondots in small venues..

 

yes it was a small venue that i setup the macs in , lol i didnt rigg them either , just positioned them on the base below my dj setup (1210s mixer etc)

I dont think this pub type small venue had seen anything like em , aspecially when i had them doing a strobe sequence , beaming around the venue. so it must of been going in peoples faces and eyes.

so from now on im just going to use led moondots and zagdots and couple of dmx gobo effects that use H bulbs..

I do disagree tho with that person who said the moondot led is bad , i thought it was great and i havent seen a moonflower effect like it? i mean come on for 34.99 each and u buy about 4 or 5 of them and set them up into a small venue your bound to have great results...

best way to get that Led ripping water effect to work good , is to direct the unit and project into a big mirror ball or a mirror type unit and believe you me , your see a stunning effect if positioned correctly , it should magnify into all the walls around the room.. thats what i do anyways...

Chris ive seen Led Head scanners and Moving heads what do you think of them ?

[Jimbo55 0]

Looked at the aqua dot today. Great looking effect but could not see it if I held it 4' high and pointed it at the floor. It was under shop lighting. I agree they may be advantagous in small relatively dark areas. Potential Yes, for me at the moment No.

 

 

Jimbo

[Tom 0]

Uhmmm its very interesting what peoples perspective on this is.

 

LED's can be very bright, you have confurmed this as they are used in stage and TV. And those LED torches are very bright.

The industry will not move to LED any time soon, you just have to compare it to halogen and the up take on that was slow mainly due to its cost.

 

LED lighting will not be pushed untill there is a need an LED will last much longer than a halogen lamp so every time you have to buy a new one you spend money its not economicaly viable to make a bulb that never burns out (the put ever lasting bulbs in fallout shelters - they use differnt collection of gases - will never go on the market).

 

The only + a company has with useing an LED lamp is the heat reduction but why are they bothered about that if your fan fails you have to get a new one (more money 4 them) etc

 

Simple

[Gary 0]

QUOTE (Tom @ Feb 1 2005, 05:35 PM)

Uhmmm its very interesting what peoples perspective on this is. LED's can be very bright, you have confurmed this as they are used in stage and TV. And those LED torches are very bright. The industry will not move to LED any time soon, you just have to compare it to halogen and the up take on that was slow mainly due to its cost. LED lighting will not be pushed untill there is a need an LED will last much longer than a halogen lamp so every time you have to buy a new one you spend money its not economicaly viable to make a bulb that never burns out (the put ever lasting bulbs in fallout shelters - they use differnt collection of gases - will never go on the market). The only + a company has with useing an LED lamp is the heat reduction but why are they bothered about that if your fan fails you have to get a new one (more money 4 them) etc Simple

One huge advantage with LED lights is that their power consumption is tiny, compared to regular lighting.

 

For example: A lighting effect with a 250watt bulb will probably use a further 50 watts (approx - and keeps the numbers "round") for the running of its cooling fan, and the electronics inside. So, that lighting effect presents your mains supply with 300watts. You could therefore plug in 10 (well 11 really) of those units into a single 13amp wall socket.

 

IF they could make an LED fixture just as bright, and solve the focusing problems associated with LED arrays (eg: several LED's in close proximity to each other to make more light), you could feasilbly get the same amount of light output for one 40th of the power loading PLUS, no fan would be needed to cool the product as LED's run alot cooler.

 

Effects would be smaller, lighter, cheaper (less design issues with regards to heat venting etc), and since you could run more of them on your show, the companys could sell more, as it would be easier/safer for DJ's to use them in multiples.

[Dukesy 0]

Perhaps the industry will make 'LED BALLOONS' first! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/071.gif