How bright can LEDs be?
A lot of people complain that it is hard to see the indicators on a digital mixer when used outdoors. Well I have had the exact same problem and sometimes even worse seeing them on an analog mixer outdoors. But usually on an analog mixer there is a physical button that you can (not always easily) tell if it is up or down. With digital you are really relying on being able to see the indicators.
Are LEDs just not capable of being bright enough? Every digital mixer that I have used to the best of my knowledge has the ability to change the intensity of the indicators and it is usually a separate control from any other. You don’t want it to be too bright when used indoors but they never seem to be bright enough outdoors. There is or was one analog console that used blue lights as indicators that indoors they were just too bright and there wasn’t any way to turn them down. That wasn’t good and it was the only thing I didn’t like about the mixer.
So why are the LED indicators not bright enough? Is it too expensive to use brighter LEDs or are they not made as bright as they would need to be? Or do the manufactures not realize these products are used in sunlight situations where it is critical that we be able to see the LEDs and we can’t?
I don’t want any discussion about tents, I always use one because I don’t want to get sun burned and I want to be prepared in case of a popup shower. But even with a tent it is difficult to see the LED indicators. That is until the sun goes down and then I many times need to turn down the intensity of the panel lights. I have even turned down the monitor indoors when the house lights all go out. On one console I used the external monitor had no overall intensity control there was just separate R/G/B controls so I turned them down one at a time.
