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Author Topic: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc  (Read 5474 times)

Jeff Lelko

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #20 on: June 19, 2020, 08:11:56 PM »

I guess it might also be possible to design a light where there were two channels used for each color, giving you 512 levels or 65,536 levels depending on how you combine the two channels.

Yep, and it's been done this way for years already, giving you 65,536 total steps of control.  This has been done for even longer with moving lights, as 255 steps applied to a pan range of 540 degrees is quite poor and will result in choppy movement for anything other than high-speed DJ effects.  You have 2 channels for each attribute - a course and fine command.  Any modern light console that's beyond entry level will integrate control of both channels seamlessly though so it's rarely something you need to worry about from a programming perspective.  Hope this helps!
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Debbie Dunkley

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #21 on: June 19, 2020, 08:27:02 PM »

To Debbie's point, I have (4) of these plastic lights mounted on each T-Bar. They are ultra-light, and very easy to raise or hang and transport. This is huge for me. Because they are so light, I've got the time & energy to hang more of them, provided there is enough space.

I have not had to replace any of mine, and I'm surprised to hear of the housing failure. I've got ton's of shows on mine, and I don't even have them in cases.

Steve, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason you haven't encountered the housing breakage is BECAUSE you don't have them in cases. Mine are in soft - reinforced but still soft - cases and I think this might give a slight but unrealistic sense of security when loading and transporting.
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JohnPinchin

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #22 on: June 20, 2020, 06:08:52 AM »

Steve, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason you haven't encountered the housing breakage is BECAUSE you don't have them in cases. Mine are in soft - reinforced but still soft - cases and I think this might give a slight but unrealistic sense of security when loading and transporting.

There is a lot of truth in that.    We had added 8 adj megapar profile led washes to use as cheap uplighters and thought the padded bags would be handy.  Several breakages later we ditched the bags as they offer hardly any real protection if they are dropped but it's easy to think they will.
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Mark Scrivener

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #23 on: June 27, 2020, 09:11:26 PM »

Just a quick update, my Gamma LED Vision Starburst Pars arrived yesterday -  https://gammaledvision.com/product/starburst-7x10-rgbw/

These were almost exactly the same cost as my Chauvet DJ H6 Slim Pars. Both are small RGBAW+UV Pars, so I thought I'd give you a quick comparison:

Build quality:
The Gamma's are built like tanks, industrial quality professional looking units. All metal casing, metal back plate and front bezel, big rugged buttons, big LED display, nice glass, powercon in and out...everything you need and nothing you don't.

The Chauvet DJ H6 is your typical budget "prosumer" par. Metal casting, but plastic back panel. small buttons and display, cheaper feeling glass, IEC/Edison power in/out, and of course connector for Chauvet's proprietary wireless DMX (which I've never even considered using).

Light output:
using a smartphone light meter (suspect I know, but ok for crude relative measurements), I aimed each of the pars at the "meter" from about 6' back. With all channels on full, the Gamma was over 2x the lux of the Chauvet. Using the red channel only, the Chauvet was about 70% of the Gamma. The Gamma has a slightly narrower beam, but not a huge difference. The LED elements of the Gamma are larger, and there are 7 per unit, vs 6 on the Chauvet.

Both output smooth nice beams and pleasing colors. I haven't really played with the Gamma's enough yet to comment on the light quality.

Bottom line, the Gamma looks, feels, and acts like a professional piece of gear whereas the Chauvet feels "prosumer". Having used the Chauvet's a few times I can say they work just fine and are good little lights for the money, but the Gamma's are much more bang for the buck (based on my limited experience with them).

Jeff Lelko

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #24 on: June 27, 2020, 10:47:45 PM »

Glad to hear they're working out for you so far.  Time will tell how long they'll last, but I don't disagree that Direct from China units offer better bang to buck at face value.  There's a thread over at Control Booth where I challenged the manager of a Direct from China brand a few years ago with interesting (but not unexpected) results.  My biggest concerns when buying off-brand or no-name equipment are things like warranty support, product consistency, and parts availability...not to mention the business side of the equation such as rentability, replaceability, and rider friendliness.  Even "in between" brands like Artfox haven't seemed able to overcome this hurtle of true acceptance within the industry.  Granted most of these concerns don't apply to the weekend warriors and junior varsity consumers, but it represents more of where your money is going when inventing in name-brand industry-standard fixtures.  Best of luck though!
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Mark Scrivener

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Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #25 on: June 28, 2020, 12:16:39 AM »

Glad to hear they're working out for you so far.  Time will tell how long they'll last, but I don't disagree that Direct from China units offer better bang to buck at face value.  There's a thread over at Control Booth where I challenged the manager of a Direct from China brand a few years ago with interesting (but not unexpected) results.  My biggest concerns when buying off-brand or no-name equipment are things like warranty support, product consistency, and parts availability...not to mention the business side of the equation such as rentability, replaceability, and rider friendliness.  Even "in between" brands like Artfox haven't seemed able to overcome this hurtle of true acceptance within the industry.  Granted most of these concerns don't apply to the weekend warriors and junior varsity consumers, but it represents more of where your money is going when inventing in name-brand industry-standard fixtures.  Best of luck though!

Actually Gamma LED Vision is a US company that has been around for awhile. From what I can tell they service big tour operations with things like lifters for line arrays and other items us small guys would never need, in addition to all sorts of lighting. As far as country of origin, there were no markings anywhere on the unit or packaging that I could find indicating place of manufacture. I'm assuming they they were assembled in Asia, simply because almost everything is these days, but could have been Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, who knows. I'll ask next time I talk with them. My lights shipped from Florida...though I'd be shocked if that's where they were built.

I totally hear you on warranty and replacement parts, not to mention being able to get an identical unit a few years down the road if needed. From what they told me their philosophy is to keep units around for a long time so replacements are available and not come out with new units every few years. We will see how that holds up....I can't justify spending $1k/Par for what I do. As long as I'm relegated to the $200/light type price point, Gamma seems like a reputable company that will be around for a while and their lights are way better than what I've seen from others in this price range.

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Good cheap lights for bands, smaller events, weddings, etc
« Reply #25 on: June 28, 2020, 12:16:39 AM »


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