Stage Directions: At LDI Chauvet Professional will introduce two new fixtures that feature a built-in power supply that will enable them to run off traditional dimming as well as constant power/DMX. The Chauvet Professional ED190-WW and FD165-WW are ellipsoidal and Fresnel LED fixtures respectively, that work with SCR, IGTB, rheostat, and thryristor dimmers to support both LED and incandescent dimming formats. Each of the new fixtures has a built-in auto-sensor that determines which type of power the unit is receiving and instantly adjusts without requiring any action on the end-user’s part.
7 comments:
Chauvet has certainly found a hole in the LED market and filled it. Being able to run LED fixtures off of existing infrastructure definitely makes the technology more accessible to facilities that have a lower budget. I do have a few pretty important questions that aren't answered in the article. When it says that it can be run off of conventional dimmed circuits, does that mean that it runs off of a dimmed circuit set to non-dim at full or does it actually use a dimmed input voltage directly to the LED engine? In other words does that just negate the need for any DMX control? If you are inserting LEDs here and there in a rig, why not just run a stinger from wall power or also invest a couple hundred more bucks in a few relay modules to get the full potential of the unit? Also if you are doing a full overhaul of a system with LEDs, you can probably work some relay modules into the budget. One of the big advantages I see with LEDs is the ability to color mix and these units don't include those features. That probably makes them cheaper but again, why even bother especially considering that the idea of switching a theater to LEDs to save energy costs is a total myth.
Yeah that's cool, but like uh who's going to buy these? The pool of buyers who actually WANT a Warm white single color LED fixture is already extremely limited. Limited experience notwithstanding, I have not actually even run across a "tungsten replica" LED spot fixture in the real world.
Furthermore, just like Philip mentioned, buying single color LEDS in the name of saving money through reduced energy costs is a total fallacy. The upfront cost of buying the units definitely outweighs power savings.
I just can't really see a strong selling point for most end users.
This article seemed interesting at first, but honestly, I agree with Philip and Ben, what's the point? If these LED's were multi-color, then there would be slight benefit, I think. But why couldn't you just use a wall outlet? And is the fixture just running as any other traditional fixture when run off of pre-existing dimmer racks? I doubt anyone is going to buy these just to replace their existing instruments or for cost savings. I think it will be more likely that these instruments will replace the traditional/conventional ones for people looking to start a new theatre, school, house of worship, etc... setup or those looking to replace some really old, beat up, and/or non-functioning units.
Great idea, and potential big seller.. if they were thought out a bit better. The biggest thing for me is, why make a LED light such as this and not even think about color mixing? Part of the answer is obvious, because if you're only running it off of a dimmable circuit, you're probably not going to also run DMX so you couldn't color change anyway. Fine. But still, you should at least have the option there. The one thing they did do right is to have the ability to use this light in a space that has dimmable power without having to put in a relay or run power from another non-dim source. But thinking this out all the way would have provided with a more versatile fixture that would probably be more popular amongst consumers.
I don't really understand why this would be beneficial to a theatre unless there was a goal to fit more fixtures on a single circuit. I don't know how good the output is on these LED fixtures, but it seems to me that the only reason to want to control a single color LED fixture through traditional dimming would come from the fact that these fixtures draw less power than halogen lamps do. However, in order to benefit from this fact, you'd have to be willing to purchase a significant amount of these fixtures up front, which to me just isn't worth it. I guess theres a potential market in people looking to build an inventory from scratch, or transition to LED fixtures in a tentative way, but personally I'd rather spend the money on a few more S4s that everyone knows and trusts.
"See a need, fill a need" is a favorite quote of mine from the movie Robots, from 2005, and it perfectly describes the sentiment of Chauvet. Chauvet's got a good head on its shoulders in term of its market. Their is a large population out there who while have the desire to keep up with the times on technologies front to create good theater, lack the capital to fill these desires. So with this LED fixture that runs both on DMX and incandescent dimmers it is a perfect fix for the "transitioners". With the money these high school and community theater groups are saving on their electric bill will help them be able to move forward to the digital age much faster than they every could have expected.
My high school had ETC Sensor dimmer racks so when we rented a bunch of LEDs, we had to run all our own power and DMX, basically creating a ghost infrastructure on top of the dimmed circuits for conventional lights. At CMU, this isn't really a problem. We already have to run all our own circuitry anyway, so running a few relay dimmers isn't too much of a headache. Although it is very unclear, I would imagine the LEDs Chauvet Professional is marketing in this article are either a single color and the intensity is controlled traditionally, which doesn't sound very useful, especially since white LEDs aren't near the quality of incandescents, or the power is ran conventionally but DMX still has to be run. I can see why this technology might be useful, but I'm not sure it is useful enough to mean a whole new line of products.
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