Following the first segment published on Wednesday about LED house lights, "Transform with House Lights: A Whole New World," let’s now discuss the cons to LED house lights and what to avoid. Once you have read this segment, go ahead and read the third part: "Transform with LED House Lights: Many Light Choices."
If you can’t afford RGBW LED house lights, which is lighting that can do a mixing of red, green, blue and white, then you probably won’t reap the benefit of LED house lighting.
If you can’t rent the light, that should tell you something about that product.
Make sure you are getting RGBW LEDs and not standard white, because you want the ability to mix and match colors, as well as hit a standard white.
It’s crucial to control your LED via DMX, a lighting protocol that gives your lighting board control over the fixture. Understand video color temperature. If you do get standard white or RGBW, you need to match the color temperature that you are using for the lights illuminating the platform. If you don’t, on video, people in the audience will be a different color than what your lighting is showing on the platform. A great tool that can help you understand and see color temperatures is a light meter. There are several brands on the market. But I would recommend using a Sekonic light meter. Sekonic makes a lot of light meters. For light matching and color temperature matching, I would recommend the Sekonic C-800.
Whether you go RGBW or standard white, here are a couple of brands that I recommend when it comes to entry-level LED house lights:
Either of these two LED house light product examples will give you a superior upgrade to your current house lights installed in your space.
Now let’s talk more about stage lighting LED fixtures and issues you want to avoid with LED.
Flicker is a big issue with LEDs. Some of the cheaper house light and stage light brands will flicker when you dim them to a low light percentage. Many LEDs can cause flicker that you can’t see in the room, but that you do see on video. This has to do with refresh rate and other factors.
I could also write an entire article on just the issue of flicker, but, in short, I’ll give you the best advice to avoid it. Make sure you test any LED light you want to purchase. Bring one in and see it in person, on video and understand how it will work with your facility.
Most manufacturers will let you demo their products. But if they don’t, you can always rent it for a few days. PRG, Christie Lights and VER are a few nationwide rental outlets you can check out. This is a lot cheaper than taking a guess and having to live with the pain of the wrong fixture.
If you can’t rent the light, that should tell you something about that product as well. Essentially, it says when a light goes down, you won’t have the ability to rent it, while waiting for it to be repaired.
In being unable to rent it, I would ask why it’s not a rentable product. Is it durable? Meaning, can this fixture withstand a lot during setup? Is it heavy-duty, tough, resistant to breaking with normal usage?
Is it widely used in the industry? Do other churches use it with success? These are questions that you want to answer before you purchase your lights.
To continue reading to the third portion of this piece, go to: "Transform With LED House Lights: Many Light Choices."