Category Archives
Lighting Units
LED Lighting Units
LED Lighting Units are here now and are much of the future.
- LED units do not use a dimmer. Their intensity control is purely with internal computer chips and receive their information from your DMX controller.
- They last an incredible amount of lamp life hours. You do not have to pay to replace the lamp. By the time a LED burns out you will be either retired or looking for the newest technology again. When you do not have to change a lamp you have a huge labor savings.
- Then think about the reduced power draw on your electrical bill. Not only is the unit going to take less power, so will your air conditioning system. You will have happier audience members when they are comfortable and not sweltering hot.
- You will spend less money on perishable gel as you will adjust your color from the lighting controller. With that being said there is also some benefit to using white LED units and matching it up with particular gels that you love.
- When using DJ LED lights you no longer have a duty cycle.
- RGB – Red, Green and Blue LED’s. The concept is that with the three primaries you can get any color you want. It’s simply not true. These are good for solid primary sort of colors.
- RGBA – Red, Green, Blue and Amber LED’s – Getting much better at being able to color mix.
- RGBW – Red, Green, Blue and White LED’s – Also much better at color mixing then just the RGB.
- RGBWA – Red, Green, Blue, White and Amber LED’s – Go to town and color mix to abandon!
LED Single Can Wash Lights
The 5 to 12 foot throw grouping is fun for small rooms and parties. This is not a professional category. This is simply to throw some color, dance to it and just have some fun.
Browse our selection of LED single can wash lights with 5′ – 12′ throw distance. |
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The 10 to 20 foot category is a mixture of good DJ quality and short throw professional. You will be able to see the difference purely by price. Quite honestly, the more expensive these units are the brighter and smoother the dimming curve is.
Browse our selection of LED single can wash lights with 10′ – 20′ throw distance. |
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The 18 to 40 foot category is where you start getting some units to really be proud of. The output is strong and it’s color mixes quite well.
Browse our selection of LED single can wash lights with 18′ – 40′ throw distance. |
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The 30 to 50 foot category – The only thing I am going to say about this is that Radio City would be proud to use these!
Browse our selection of LED single can wash lights with 30′ – 50′ throw distance. |
When you are looking to color the outside of a building or doing outdoor theater, these are the safest way of doing it.
Browse our selection of outdoor rated LED single can wash lights. |
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If you want to decorate for Halloween and not charge anyone – go for it.
Browse our selection of small, decorative, LED single can wash lights. |
LED Cyclorama Wash Lights
LED Spot Lights
LED Moving Lights
LED Moving Head Spots are a wonderful bridging of conventional moving head spots with the low power draw of the LED world. Imagine being able to do everything a moving head does with hardly any power draw or heat! While there are some conventional moving heads that are still brighter then the LED units, the LED’s are catching up quickly and are bright enough now for most uses. | |
LED Moving Wash Lights not only let you place the light any where you want but let you do all of the color mixing from your lighting console. Low Power – Low Heat! Be able to pack your pack with these with one electrical circuit. |
LED Effect Lights
Pin Spot
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This is a black bodied conventional pin spot. It is a glorified Mag Light. Very tight beam but a very uneven beam. Sometimes the uneveness gives a great texture. Great for small rooms, it is a unit that is easy to hide. The light starts off as white. You can put plastic lenses on it to color the light. |
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This is a LED Pin Spot. The light field is much more even. If you wanted to project a circle of light this would be a great unit for you. Very cool to the touch and long lamp life. |
Ellipsoidals
Common Adjustments You Can Control with an Ellipsoidal
- The light begins as a circle of light. By running the barrel (adjusting the lenses in relation to each other) you can achieve a hard or a soft focus. By choosing the right lens configuration, you can set the size of your circle of light at a particular throw distance. In general the further away a light is the larger the circle while using a particular lens degree. A 50 degree lens will give you a larger circle of light than, say, a 19 degree light. Click here to use our throw distance calculator to figure out the best lens degree situation for you.
- Iris – just in front of the shutters may be a drop in iris slot. It is generally covered with a black piece of metal. You loosen the screws on both sides and then slide it forward. This gives you the ability to then drop an iris into the unit. An iris reduces the size of your circle. Some units have built in irises and others use the drop in iris slot. Choose carefully.
- Shutters – in the middle of the unit are four shutters. This allows you to shape the light with four straight lines giving you the ability to “cut” light away from an area that you do not want it to have light.
- Color/ Accessory Slot – In the front of the light are 3 to 4 brackets that can hold a gel frame or other lighting accessories. The gel frame is where you would place your color media like Roscolux to achieve coloring the light. This is also where you would put things like top/ half hats to hide the light beam from the audience.
- Gobo slot – just behind the top shutter is a slot in which you can slide a gobo/ pattern holder into. This allows you to shape and texture the light by using a gobo. Gobos are metal or glass stencils that block some light and lets other light through. This is how you can project shapes and images with an ellipsoidal.
- Gobo Rotator – in the same slot that you can drop an iris into you can also drop a gobo rotator in there to rotate your gobos. Some gobo rotators are a “double” gobo rotator which allows for really wonderful movement of light. Not every ellipsoidal has this slot. Choose carefully.
Popular Ellipsoidals:
Strip & Cyclorama Lights
Coloring large expanses of light, something I like to call acreage, is a challenge that will happen in almost every show. Whether it be lighting a common cyc or back drop to doing foot lights to a classic ballet. Having a smooth wash of lights that also let you choose some color to it is something that almost every lighting system needs. When first setting up a lighting system this is one place where you will invest heavily in the beginning but they will last for years and years.
Cycs can both be top lit and lit from below. If from below that is generally called a ground row. One thing that I really like about using ground rows is that while the theory of a perfectly flat field of cyc light sounds nice it is almost never a reality. A ground row will put the hot spot near the performers head height which helps the audience look there.
Types of Strip and Cyclorama Lights
Conventional PARs
Generally, a Par can is simply a light that holds a par lamp in it. That is not a true statement for all par cans so I will discuss the differences below. In general the can is simply a holder for whatever the lamp is going to produce as far as light output in both shape and intensity. Par cans are most commonly used for color washes whether it be for a back light washes or curtain warmers from the front. They do easily blend together. A par can does not have many accessories. In general they can hold color frames, barndoors, and top hats. The Micro and Par 38 lamps generally have a circular output while the others have a rectangular output.
Fresnels
Fresnels
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3″ Fresnel – Lamped at 100-250 watts, a 3-inch fresnel is a great short-distance fresnel. Great in small nightclub and hidden spots on stage. I like to use these in ceilings that are 8 to 12 feet tall. It also makes a great gift for theatrical people for their homes. Imagine having that theatrical feel in your home lighting. |
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6″ Fresnel – Lamped at 500 or 750 watts, a 6-inch fresnel is great for distances from 8 to 22 feet (all opinion, remember there are no hard and fast rules). |
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7″ Fresnel – ETC combines the efficiency of the HPL lamp with the singular optical qualities of the fresnel optical system to create the truly advanced ETC Source Four Fresnel. Traditional fresnel optics provide a unique quality of blending wash light and beam shaping via barn doors for well-defined, soft-edged area lighting. The Source Four Fresnel combines this classic system with a unique reflector design enabling the HPL 750W-equipped Source Four Fresnel to equal the lumen output of other 1000W fresnel fixtures. Spot-to-flood focus is accomplished by large, easy-to-use knob for quick adjustments in inconvenient positions. The unique Quick exchange socket design permits re-lamping from underneath the fixture without breaking focus in most situations. |
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8″ Fresnel – Lamped at 1000 Watts, an 8-inch fresnel is great for long throw needs.
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Lighting Units

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Fresnels |
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Conventional PARs |
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Strip Lights& Cyclorama Lights |
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Scoop Lights & Work Lights |
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Ellipsoidals |
Pin Spot | |
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LED Lighting Units |
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UV Lights (Black Lights) |
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Effect Lights |
This free resource is sponsored by the StageLightingStore.com.