Nowadays everyone is concerned with power consumption for two logical reasons. One, we want to save ourselves some cash, either at the pumps or in our house with heating oil, and, two, we want to save our planet by lowering our fossil fuel consumption and emitting less toxic waste into our atmosphere. I firmly believe that the time has come to start getting rid of incandescent light bulbs, not just in our households, but also in our stage work. We are facing obstacles in doing this, but really, is it something our industry cannot overcome? I don’t think so. It seems we are well on our way. These days you can pay a lot of money for special household bulbs with long life, even years of constant use. They are more expensive than normal bulbs, so many people don’t use them. While using long lasting bulbs will save us money, they still use up our natural resources. The new compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) technology is helpful. They use way less energy, are just as bright as a conventional bulb, and they can plug into any standard light socket. But of course, they break easily too. Why is this? After 100 years you would think that somebody could invent a light bulb that doesn’t break when a lamp is accidentally tipped over.
Getting rid of dead fluorescent bulbs used to be a hassle. Now you can take them to Home Depot and they will safely discard them for you. We’ve all heard of the dangers the mercury in these bulbs cause when they break. But can anyone tell me what these dangers actually are? Is it if we breathe the dust we’ll get cancer? Or do the toxins in these bulbs cause more gaping holes in our ozone layer? Actually I don’t need to know the answer. I just want to get rid of them all and replace them with something else that lasts 100,000 hours and doesn’t break when it’s tipped over — the LED.
Architectural lighting has grasped this concept in a big way. The video world and the influx of pixel mapping various LED instruments have taken a big step in stage and convention lighting. So what’s the holdup for us stage lighting folks here? Two words: lumens and light beams.
Since the 1200-watt lamp was introduced about eight years ago, manufacturers have been racing to keep up with each other and figure out how to make their beams visible in front of video surfaces. Every fixture seems to be getting bigger physically and much brighter at the same time. And what do we have? Fixtures that eat up tons of energy, and can’t fit in any automated truss. I love the technology and new effects that come with them, but hate this whole concept of bigger and brighter. I am downright sick of all these “better” fixtures.
This month I have a tour going out with many of the usual touring fixtures. The lighting vendor called me all excited to let me know that they will be sending out the new Martin XB washes instead of the standard MAC 2000 Wash fixtures I spec’d. The only problem is…I don’t want them. They are too bright. I want to see the beams from the Robe 2500 hard edge lights I spec’d. To do this I will have to run these “Extra Bright” MACs at lower than 100 percent intensity. I realize I am in the minority on this issue, but every time I read a sales blurb that says all of us designers are demanding brighter lights I cringe. When all we had were Vari*Lite VL1s and Morpheus Panaspots, nobody complained about brightness. It’s all relative, isn’t it?
I have to admit that I spent a few years wondering why High End Systems stopped competing in this silly race. They were smart enough to start heading in another direction. Even now when I’m wondering what use I could possibly have for this new fixture of theirs, “the Showpix,” I realize it’s just the tip of the iceberg and in time I will not only grasp this concept, I will embrace it.
Every manufacturer is building something with an LED light source. But where are the moving heads? Of all the companies out there, Elation has jumped to the head of the line. They have come up with the Impression. This light is huge in concept but small in size. It can pan and tilt faster than everything else I’ve used. Its 16-bit color system gives you more colors than all the other dichroic color mixing systems out there. And the sucker weighs all of 16 pounds. My grandmother could hang them one-handed.
More importantly, they have the same lumen output as a 575-watt discharge lamp like the Studio Color. And the light source will last 100,000 hours before it fades. Plus, it won’t break when it’s kicked over. Okay, they have a list price of $8,500, which is indeed high. But you do not need to constantly open and clean the lens or buy new bulbs when they go brown. And the electricity bill is a fraction of what it would be to use a competitive fixture like the MAC 600.
My friend went to see a Radiohead concert last month. He said it was the first show he’s been to where there were no light beams. And it still looked cool. They are using 100 percent LED lighting fixtures and video elements to light their touring show. I heard that they hired a company to do a carbon audit, and they were able to cut back on power requirements from about 700 amps per phase on previous tours and draw only about 135 amps per phase with the LEDs. I even heard that some of the fixtures are running on battery power to reduce emissions, with the hopes of someday using solar or wind power. Kudos guys, for being innovative enough to do this, even to the extent of requiring all flashlights be LED.
I’m no physics guru, but if I had to guess how to make these LED fixtures brighter, I would concentrate on optics and lenses. I say this because in the early 1990s, Light and Sound Design created a moving light called the Icon. This fixture was using the same bulb that many other competing manufacturers used, yet it was way brighter than any other hard edge fixture on the market. This company dumped a ton of time and cash into R&D’ing the optics. So to me, it just seems logical that superior optics can add lumens.
The price difference in LED products is unreal. It’s hit or miss on many products. I spent $1,000 on some LEDs that a band wanted to place inside their kick drums. The effect didn’t work and money was wasted. But then I spent a hundred bucks lining a marching bass drum with some LED tape running from a battery in the musician’s pocket, and it worked great. I’m looking at a site now from a company called Jam Star. They have an RGB version of a PAR, like many others out there. It has no optics, just a clear lens to protect about 80 LEDs. It’s made of steel, no fancy aluminum or plastic, but they sell for $200 (less than many light bulbs). I’m thinking of what I can do with some pods full of these lights.
Would I rather buy 42 of these or one Impression? Hmmm…not sure.
