LED Pars

[The Magus]

Has anyone carried out an A/B comparison between the Showtec 64 and 56? I'd be very interested to know whether the light outputs are comparable.

[RichD]

Has anyone carried out an A/B comparison between the Showtec 64 and 56? I'd be very interested to know whether the light outputs are comparable.

Most websites say the same number of LEDs (153) and the same max power consumption (15W) so I'd be very surprised if there was any output difference.

[dfinn]

Hi,

 

Ynot - Where can you get them at that price?

 

Thanks,

 

Daniel

[Nicktaylor]

I suspect it was where I got mine from. that well known purveyor of second hand kit inn Beckenham , who now sell new gear :(

[dfinn]

Ah, gotcha - hmm I don't like the look of those, no colour frame.

 

Presume were talking cryptically about Used/newlighting.co.uk?

 

Thanks,

 

Daniel

[Ynot]

I suspect it was where I got mine from. that well known purveyor of second hand kit inn Beckenham , who now sell new gear :(

Nope

I get decent discount from Stage LX. They're on list for around £110, I think.

 

TD

[WiLL]

slx looked most dismayed when I told them used lighting were doing the same ones from new for £90.

Although I've seen a demo, and frankly, they ain't worth THAT much. Get a real par and a small monkey to change the gels.

[Nicktaylor]

I think they are. I know they are not good enough as "stage lighting" people shall we say, but they are great as set specials without the noise or heat of a par and a scroller. I use both now. And at "only" about £100 they are lot cheaper than the equivalent lantern/scroller set

[Earl]

Hi,

 

I have both Showtec P56 and P64 and I can tell you they are... exactly the same, except that the can's size. Thomann confirmed this to me when I asked them.

 

So, IMHO, there is really no reason to pay more for a bigger unit.

 

BR,

Earl.

[Ynot]

A new twist (I think) on the LED Par question....

(Scanned the thread and couldn't see any reference to my question).

 

How are people programming the LED pars?

Personally I've found it easiest to just take the same channel from each unit and patch them together on the outputs - ie

Fixture 1 RED LED ch 101

Fixture 1 BLUE LED ch 104

Fixture 1 GREEN LED ch 107

 

Fixture 2 RED LED ch 102

Fixture 2 BLUE LED ch 105

Fixture 2 GREEN LED ch 108

 

etc, so you get, with 3 units, all RED LED's on channels 101 thru 103, BLUE 104 thru 105 and so on.

 

As far as I'm aware (and I've not yet tried it) you can't (on the 300 at least) program colours as a profile..... Can you...?

 

Must dig out the manual and have a read up.

 

Tony

[paulears]

I patched them in fixture order, using single desk channels on htp, as if each colour ws a separate unit - wasteful of channles, but not a problem - leaving two unused control channels between each rgb 'block' then just grouped them up as a 3 colour cyc wash on three masters. I did this before I got the info on how to best write the fixture profile, and as I'd started to use them, it would have been a pain to delete it all and start again.

[Liam FitzG]

SNIP...

etc, so you get, with 3 units, all RED LED's on channels 101 thru 103, BLUE 104 thru 105 and so on.

 

As far as I'm aware (and I've not yet tried it) you can't (on the 300 at least) program colours as a profile..... Can you...?

 

Tony

 

If you are using a 300 (or 500) you can make a fixture up with just red green and blue atributes (14,15 & 16 as far as I remmeber). You can pop in intensity or strobe stuff also depending on the lantern. Then you will have the colours on the encoders.

Just be careful with running instruments with no intensity, as they don't respond to a grand master, or a "Cue 0 GO". Had an intersting time with Coemar I-Spot 150s (pre chip upgrade for shutter dimmer thing) on a 520i busking live with that.

 

Liam

[Ynot]

If you are using a 300 (or 500) you can make a fixture up with just red green and blue atributes (14,15 & 16 as far as I remmeber). You can pop in intensity or strobe stuff also depending on the lantern. Then you will have the colours on the encoders.

Just be careful with running instruments with no intensity, as they don't respond to a grand master, or a "Cue 0 GO". Had an intersting time with Coemar I-Spot 150s (pre chip upgrade for shutter dimmer thing) on a 520i busking live with that.

 

Liam

So I'd just need to set up a fixture which just has the 3 colours as you say, and the intensity channel would just be there, but redundant, yes? Suppose that would work.

Any thoughts about the other 3 channels? (Strobe, function & whatever the 6th was...)?

 

TD

[Liam FitzG]

You don't need to put in an intensity channel in, if you take a look at the older Strand fixture.lib files they had PAL units in there with just pan and tilt.

 

Strobe is 41, and you can take your pick with the names of the other two, something like Shutter (68), Reset (20) or FX(35); after all as long as you know what they mean. The names are only to help the operator know what is going on at the time. The desk dosn't care what you call the atributes (except intenstity, pan and tilt - which end up on the wheel and track ball!) Just call them something sencible. I use Macro (87) often if there is an odd atribute on a lantern that controles something weird.

 

Liam

[niclights]

For Pearl I wrote personalities assigning RGB to what is normally CMY. This allows the use of colour shapes based on colour mix should you wish to use. It also allows for selecting fixtures and applying palettes which is much simpler and less cluttered than having loads of faders.

For the strobe channel I overlayed all onto one handle as I could see no reason to keep separate. The other two channels seem pointless to me.