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[Bob Joseph-Kearns]

Alright, I'm don't know much about LED lighting but I'm slowly educating myself...I don't know what will best suit my needs. I book shows occasionally in a church with 250-300 capacity. I need around 6 (preferably LED) fixtures that could replace our current ERS lighting set up. I need something with RGBA or RGBW colors because color is important in this situation. I'd like to keep the budget under $400 per fixture. These will be mounted on a pole 50-60' above the stage so they need to be able to light this 2 tier stage at that distance.



I plan on completely eliminating the ERS lights out of my rig because they seem like they're power suckers and are very limited to what they can do.

If you'd also like to recommend me a controller under $300 along with the lighting suggestions. I would appreciate it. Any info will help. Thanks in advance!

[Mark Cadwallader]

You can get a full color (RGBA-lime) LED fixture from Chauvet Pro that replaces a Source 4 type fixture for about $1200. That's 3 times your desired budget BUT you can replace your ERS fixtures on a roughly 3:1 ratio because you no longer need three separate lights to give you a full color wash.  If you already have S4 instruments, you can save a bit of money by ordering the fixtures without a lens assembly, and use your existing lenses.

Because LED lights need more dmx channels per fixture (7 to 15 channels each is common), you will need a controller that will handle a fair number of channels. In your price range, you are likely to be looking at a software-based controller (run from a laptop, typically). A suitable hardware controller is usually more expensive.

$300 LED lights won't have the intensity you are used to, and will not give you the beam control you currently have. You might have to start with a pair of lights and add to that as your budget allows.  Please note that besides your energy saving in the lights themselves, you have a lower thermal load on your HVAC system (which will also provide noticable savings).

Best wishes on your project.

[Woody Nuss]

I think you can buy retro-fit kits to change your old lekos to LED.

[Steve Kosiba]

ERS/ellipsoidal fixtures may seem very limited at what they do, but for this application, they are the right tool.  You should add to the ERS fixtures instead of removing them, or replace them with LED color changing ellipsoidal units such as the Ovation E-910FC.  The church function of the building still needs a nice warm white stage light framed to the stage, and nothing in your price range will provide that.  All RGBW/RGBA fixtures in that price range will provide splotchy, horrendous-looking warm white.  Also, given your throw distance (50-60' or more), you need fixtures with beam control, and that's where ERS fixtures are great.  Consider adding side-light trees to add color on stage for the music performances.  For music I'm usually using a warm white or other light, warm color that cheap LEDs can't make for front light, and then more saturated for side/back/top light.

To borrow a quote from the signature of a poster above that I believe is very applicable here, "Good tools are expensive, but cheap tools are damned expensive."

[Mark Cadwallader]

The Chauvet Pro Ovation E-910FC (full color) is the specific light I was thinking of for Source 4 replacement.  I agree that you should keep the Source 4 instruments to use as additional "specials" as needed.  They're paid for, so if you have the storage space, you might want to keep them. (That's a big "if", however.)

The zoom lens from an S4 will fit on the Ovation, btw, if you need or want that feature.

Thank you, Steve. I'm flattered.

[ProSoundWeb Community]