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Author Topic: Newbie Question about Recommended Lighting Dealers  (Read 10139 times)

Randall Hyde

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Re: Newbie Question about Recommended Lighting Dealers
« Reply #20 on: January 22, 2013, 08:04:40 PM »

Randy (and others):

Of the three brands (blizzard, adj, chauvet) which is recommended for getting started?

Thanks so much everyone!

I've used them all, Blizzard is less expensive.
I would second the comment that the quality is a bit below Chauvet (maybe all my ADJ gear is from the "bottom feeder" days, but most of it is below the Blizzard stuff I've bought).

Thus far I've bought the following Blizzard products:

Rocklight RGBAW -- Phenomenal fixtures (25,000 lux @1m; too bright, actually. Wish I'd gotten the 40-degree optics).  List price is something like $399. Not hard to get them for $350 each. If you can live with PAR can style fixtures, this is a great choice.

Puck RGB (original Pucks) -- It's a $100 fixture. Need I say more? I bought 24 of them to use for uplighting purposes. The mode button was a little flakey on one unit and one unit just went back because four of the (dozens of) red LEDs weren't working. Not an amazing  experience, but it does demonstrate that you're going to run into quality issues when working down at the very low end of the spectrum; of course, two problems in 24 fixtures isn't that big of a deal. If I had it all to do over again and I wanted these pucks, I think I'd spring for the extra $50/fixture and get the Puck RGBAWs.

Puck RGBAW -- I bought 8 of them. They've all worked great. Could be a little brighter. I might buy some more of them at one point because they have discrete LEDs (separate R, G, B, A, and W) and you can do some neat-o effects on the back truss with them (where people see the actual discrete LEDs).

One thing cool about the Puck RGB and RGBAW fixtures is that they fit inside a 12" rectangular truss section. I've got 24 Puck RGB and 8 RGBAW units zip-tied inside four 3meter high vertical trusses that I set behind the stage for special effects. The pucks work perfect for this application. I kinda wish they were 4-in-1 or 5-in-1 LEDs because they'd be more flexible, but I have been able to pull off some neat effects (as mentioned above) with the discrete LEDs. The catch is this -- if the people can see the LEDs, their minds don't mix the colors, they see dots of different colored lights. I have to program my shows with this in mind and it really reduces the color palettes I can use with these fixtures as a result.

Fab5- Easily found for $250 online; I've gotten a special deal for just under $200 each.
I have one on order. It hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully I can also mount it inside a 12" truss. As it uses 5-in-1 LEDs, I'm also hoping that (when I place it on the back truss where the audience can see the LEDs) it produces a good color mix so I can produce more effects (beyond illumination) on my back truss. This thing is rated at around 12,000 lux at 1m (half that of the Rocklite RGBAW and about 3-4x that of the Puck RGBAW). That's amazingly bright for a $250 fixture.

Someday (probably next year), I'll get some Torrent F5 fixtures and see how well they work. Most of my gigs are outdoors (fog or haze just doesn't work) so moving head lights just aren't that important to me right now.

FWIW, Blizzard's customer support seem to be just fine when I reported the bad Puck RGB. Just sent it off, so we'll see how long it takes to get it back.

I'm hot on Blizzard Lighting right now because for the same amount of light they're about half the price of ADJ and Chauvet (particularly at the Rocklite and Fab5 level of output). I want a really bright stage with a minimal number of fixtures and weight (and of course, at a price I can afford). It remains to be seen how well the Blizzard fixtures hold up, but thus far they've done the job for me (btw, the defective Puck was defective when it arrived, it didn't die after operating for some length of time; it was actually usable [only 4 dead LEDs] but I figured I may as well get one that is 100% working).

Cheers,
Randy Hyde
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Re: Newbie Question about Recommended Lighting Dealers
« Reply #20 on: January 22, 2013, 08:04:40 PM »


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