DEMYSTIFYING

LED
LIGHTING

What Color Is Sunlight?

When we were kids, we always reach for the yellow marker or crayon to
draw the sun.

© public domain
 Certainly, there are times of the day in which the sunlight looks yellow.
But that’s because of our atmosphere.

If we remove the effect that our atmosphere has on light by going up

into space, you would see that sunlight is perfectly white. White light
consists of all wavelengths of color. How do we know this?

© public domain

When light changes medium, air to glass and back to air in this
example, it bends. Because each color is, by definition, a different
wavelength, each one bends a different amount. This is why we see a
rainbow on the other side. This allows scientists to detect each
individual color contained in white light. But not all colors are within a
range that our eyes can see (infrared or ultraviolet, for example), so the
colors we see on this example are what is called “the visible spectrum”.

© public domain
 This is the same effect that allows us to see a rainbow in nature. Light
passes through raindrops, which collectively act like miniature prisms
which bend the light into the colors that we know.

The primary colors of pigment are red, blue, and yellow. When you mix
all of these colors together, you get black. Thus, we call this
Primary Colors
“subtractive color mixing”: every color you add makes the pigment
blacker. In light, the primary colors are red, green, and blue. When you
mix all of these colors together, you get white. We call this “additive
color mixing”: every color you add makes the light whiter.

Subtractive Additive

We see a color because when light hits an object, it reflects that color
and absorbs all other wavelengths of color.
 If we remove the wavelength of light that corresponds to the color of
the object, there is nothing to reflect back to the eye, so the object
would look “black”.

In the theater, when our Dolly enters the stage in her blazingly red
dress, we need to see it as…well…RED!!

© O/erbein University
 If the light hitting her does not contain enough of the red wavelength,
the stage picture will be decidedly sadder.

© O/erbein University

If you change the stage lights to be colors that have more of the red
wavelength (pinks, lavenders, purples, lilac, etc..), we can see the true
colors of the dress.

© O/erbein University

In the absence of the red wavelength (such as bathing the stage in cyan
light), this is what you would see. Red cannot be seen if the light that
hits it does not contain that wavelength.

© O/erbein University
 Big
Concept
In order to see the color of an object onstage, the light that hits
that object must contain the color wavelength for that object.

Sunlight is the reason we can the colors of nature, but only because it
contains all of the colors of the spectrum.

Frequently, light is filtered to change the colors of the spectrum that

are allowed to pass through.

© public domain
 This is how a lighting gel works. A red gel will only allow the red
wavelength of light to pass through while reflecting all other
wavelengths. The deeper the gel, the more of the other wavelengths
Ligh@ng Gel are reflected (which increases the amount of heat on the gel itself, btw,
which is why dark colored gels will eventually burn through under
stage lights).

However, that is the theory. In practice, all colored gels allow for some
of the other wavelengths of light to pass through depending on the
composition of the gel. This is why we have several hundred red
Ligh@ng Gel “shades” of gel to choose from. Each one allows a different mixture of
the other wavelengths to pass through, so some reds are
“bluer” (heading towards purple) or “greener” (heading towards amber/
yellow) than others. Professional lighting designers understand this
nuance and select a specific gel based on the overall colors of the set
and costumes onstage so they can be sure to represent the general
color tonalities well.

50 SHADES OF RED Note that just saying that something is “red” is not good enough for a
professional designer. There are infinite shades of color and we must
look at the underlying “other colors” present in the object to know how
best to make it look good.

© Xiong is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

h/ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_(color).jpg
 50 SHADES OF RED Taking a point sample of each red color in this picture, you can clearly
R:70%
see that the mixture of “other colors” within red is very different in
G:15%
B:11%
each object. NOTE: Math wizzes may have picked up on the fact that
each of red bubble RGB values do not collectively add to 100%. Each
R:78%
G:18%
RGB value represents how much of that color on a 0-100 scale is
B:17%
present independent of the other colors. If you have 3 dials with a
R:59%
0-100 scale and each of the dials represent RGB respectively, you
G:13%
B:14%
would get the top bubble by dialing in red to 70, green to 15, and blue
© Xiong is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
h/ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_(color).jpg
to 11 on their dial. I hope that makes sense.

50 SHADES OF RED Oddly enough, if you sample the pink poster, it has a greater red
R:70%
G:15%
content than the other “redder” items in the picture.
B:11%

R:92%
G:31%
B:43%

R:78%
G:18%
B:17%

R:59%
G:13%
B:14%
© Xiong is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
h/ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_(color).jpg

Big
Concept
Primary colors are scientific theory. In the real world, all
objects contain traces of other colors in varying percentages.
 The Science of Color

A little science goes a long way

WARNING
Science
Content
Ahead

Within the totality of the electromagnetic spectrum, there is a tiny sliver

nestled between UV light and IR light. This is the only portion of the EM
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Gamma Ultraviolet Infrared Short
spectrum that our eyes can detect.
X-Rays Radar FM AM
Rays Rays Rays Wave

.0001nm .01nm 10nm 400nm 700nm .6cm 1m 100m

Visible Light

The Science of Color Crammed inside of this spectrum are the colors of the rainbow. The
colors are distinguished due to their wavelength. Shorter wavelengths
are the violet, indigo, blue, etc. Long wavelengths are the oranges and
reds.
Gamma Ultraviolet Infrared Short
X-Rays Radar FM AM
Rays Rays Rays Wave

Visible Light Spectrum

V I B G Y O R
400nm 500nm 600nm 700nm
Wavelength
 The Science of Color If we look at the colors of nature, we can visualize in this chart the
different compositions of colors they contain. You can clearly see that
in the late afternoon (represented by the orange dashed line at the top)
contains way more of the red wavelength of light than, say, a blue sky
(the lowest lines) which contain very little of the red wavelength.
UV Infrared

Range of human vision

Graph by Thomas Bangert is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Added elements to original
h/p://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~tb300/pub/Images/Spectrum_of_Sunlight_en.pdf

Now that we understand the concept of “wavelength”, you might be

able to decipher the little chart that accompanies each of our gel colors
in our gel book (the rainbow behind the chart has been digitally
superimposed. The actual chart is white. It’s meant to illustrate that
reds are to the right and blues are to the left). In the chart on the left, if
we identify that Dolly’s red dress sits in the middle of the red range,
you see that this particular gel (R74 Night Blue) does not contain
enough red to make the dress look good. If we want to do that, we will
The Science of Color need to hunt for a different gel to use.

If we look at this gel, R361 Hemsley Blue, we note that it’s a blue gel
but it allows a lot of red light through.
 In our “Dolly” example, we see how the color of the dress is going to be
represented in this light much better than our gel on the right.

COLOR FILTER TECHNICAL DATA SHEET

SWATCHBOOK: PERMACOLOR
Note that tungsten bulbs (the orange line) actually have a lot of
COLOR FILTER:
DESCRIPTION:
MAX. TRANS.:
#3202 FULL CTB
PERMANENT COLOR FILTER
85%
COLORIMETRIC DATA
OBSERVER:
SOURCE:
CIE 1931 10 Degree
• 'A' (tungsten)
orange/red light and relatively little blue. If we put in a blue gel, what
° 'D65' (daylight)
HUNTER LAB
CIE CHROMATICITY DIAGRAM
we are doing is suppressing the red end of the light and allowing as
much of the blue to pass through as possible. If you can find a good
SOURCE A
PERMACOLOR #3202 FULL CTB L*
A*
58.496
-16.172 0.9

100 B* 144.768
0.8
90

balanced gel that is a mirror opposite of tungsten (such as this R3202

80 Daylight
Tungsten HUNTER LAB 0.7
Transmission %

SOURCE D65
70 L* 62.188 0.6
60 A* 4.4962

Full CTB gel. L201 or L501 are 2 other examples), what we are doing is
50 B* -42.669
(y)
0.5

40 CIE 1964 10°

0.4

30 Tungsten+Daylight Color Gel SOURCE A 0.3

20 Y 26.487
10
trying to counterbalance the two to create “white” light.
(x) 0.338 0.2

0 (y) 0.355
0.1

CIE 1964 10° 0.0

SOURCE D65 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Y 30.623
(x)
Wavelength nm. (x) 0.222
(y) 0.225

nm. 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 660 680 700 720 740
trans % 46 44 78 91 83 62 42 36 37 36 29 22 17 15 15 16 20 25 33 46

MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS: AVAILABLE SIZES:

General Description: Dichroic Coated Glass Filter CALL
Substrate: Borosilicate Almost Any size/Shape
Thickness: 1.75mm standard
1.1mm and 3.3mm Available
Manufactured in: U.S.A.

Note that not all “daylight” colors are made equal. Each one has a
COLOR FILTER TECHNICAL DATA SHEET

slightly different “recipe”. I select my daylight gels based on the overall

SWATCHBOOK: PERMACOLOR
COLOR FILTER: #3202 FULL CTB COLORIMETRIC DATA
DESCRIPTION: PERMANENT COLOR FILTER OBSERVER: CIE 1931 10 Degree
MAX. TRANS.: 85% SOURCE: • 'A' (tungsten)

HUNTER LAB
SOURCE A
° 'D65' (daylight)

CIE CHROMATICITY DIAGRAM

colors present onstage.
PERMACOLOR #3202 FULL CTB L*
A*
58.496
-16.172 0.9

100 B* 144.768
0.8
90 L501 HUNTER LAB
80 0.7
Transmission %

SOURCE D65
70 L* 62.188 0.6
60 L201
A* 4.4962
50 B* -42.669
(y)
0.5

40 CIE 1964 10°

0.4

30 R3202 SOURCE A 0.3

20 Y 26.487
10 (x) 0.338 0.2

0 (y) 0.355
0.1

CIE 1964 10° 0.0

SOURCE D65 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Y 30.623
(x)
Wavelength nm. (x) 0.222
(y) 0.225

nm. 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 660 680 700 720 740
trans % 46 44 78 91 83 62 42 36 37 36 29 22 17 15 15 16 20 25 33 46

MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS: AVAILABLE SIZES:

General Description: Dichroic Coated Glass Filter CALL
Substrate: Borosilicate Almost Any size/Shape
Thickness: 1.75mm standard
1.1mm and 3.3mm Available
Manufactured in: U.S.A.
Big
Concept
When using color filters, you must take into
consideration the color of the source.

“Color temperature” is an important concept in lighting. Without

getting too much into specifics of this, the important piece of
Color Temperature nomenclature we need to know is that low color temperature refers to
amber light and high color temperature refers to bluer light.

It’s important to note that various sources can be different color

Color Temperature
temperatures. If you have bulbs with differing color temperatures, it’s
Low High important to note that gels will react differently to each one. You have
to know what your starting point is.

100w 2700k 3500k 4100k 5500k 6500k

Soa White CFL CFL CFL CFL CFL

© public domain
 Source Four leko lamps have two different versions. One is called a
“standard life” and one is called a “long life” (which lasts much longer.
Duh). While the economics of this are tempting, it’s important to note
that the starting color temperatures of each one is different, so each
version will react slightly differently to the same gel. This is important
3050k 3250k to know because you don’t want to mix and match these in lights that
are supposed to be the same color. This is most common if your
theater buys long life lamps but then you rent some lights from a
lighting shop, because lighting shops use standard life lamps. The
starting colors will be different.

That’s the general concepts of color theory that you need to know.
However, this doesn’t tell us the full picture. We haven’t yet talked
about one of the most important parts of understanding color, which is
how our eyes and our brain perceive this color.

Photo by J. Albert Bowden II

CC BY- 2.0
h/ps://www.flickr.com/photos/jalbertbowdenii/9235381405

Our eyes consist of rods and cones. Cones are fantastic at color vision,
but they need a lot of light in which to function. Rods are terrible at
Rods
color, but are very good in low light situations.

Cones

Photo by Helga Kolb is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rrods_and_cones_of_the_primate_re@na.jpg
 Let’s look at our cones. There are actually 3 types: short wavelength,
medium wavelength, and long wavelengths (btw, how many primary
There are 3 types of cones in
the human eye, which makes colors are there in light? Hmmm)
them fabulous at detecting
color

S
Short
M
Medium
L
Long

Each of our cones is responsible for detecting a slightly different part

of the color spectrum. Short wavelength cones, for example, don’t
detect things that are happening on the yellow/red end of the
spectrum, for example. Each of our types of cones work in tandem to
detect all of the colors of the visible spectrum and the detection range
for each of us is dictated by our genes. In other words, some people
detect color differently than others and some are more sensitive to it
than others (“My wife is so much better at color than I am”). Note how
Photo by OpenStax College is licensed under CC-BY-3.0 /Elements removed
h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensi@vity.jpg
close the red and the green cones are to each other? In fact, in some
people (men primarily) the medium and long wavelength peaks sit right
on top of each other, which means that they both receive the same
information and the brain cannot discern which color is which. This is
one form of color blindness. It’s not that they can’t see red and green,
it’s that the colors mix together so that they can’t be differentiated.
There is another form of color blindness which is the total absence of
one of these cones, but this is much rarer.
 Here are where the rods sit in the spectrum. Look at how many colors
the rods miss, which is why it’s harder to tell colors apart at night or in
a darkened room.

Photo by OpenStax College is licensed under CC-BY-3.0

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensi@vity.jpg

Photo by OpenStax College is licensed under CC-BY-3.0 /Elements removed

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensi@vity.jpg
 © public domain

• Understanding LED Color

Today you will be asked to perform magic and,
once again, science will defeat you.

This is the spectrum for daylight

h/p://www.ligh@ngschool.eu/porholio/understanding-the-light/
 When you mix red, green, and blue light, you get “white”.

© public domain

This doesn’t work so well with LEDs. If you turn on a red and a green
and a blue LED, you don’t really get something we would call “white”.
The trouble with LEDs is that the colors they produce are a very narrow
peak in the spectrum. The faint lines in the background are what our
cones can perceive, so you can see how little territory the LEDs are
covering and how many different colors they can’t produce.

Photo by OpenStax College is licensed under CC-BY-3.0 /Elements removed

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensi@vity.jpg

If you have ever noticed those electric blue Christmas lights, they are
actually kind of hard to look at and make sense of. That’s because their
peaks are so narrow. Our brains are not used to that.

Photo by Famar@n is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

 Theatrical lighting manufacturers are very aware of this limitation of
LEDs. However, they have come up with a solution.

At the bottom, you see the spectrum produced by an RGB fixture

relative to the tungsten curve. You see how many colors RGB just
cannot get to that we can with our gel book. On top, you see the ETC
x7 color system, and this light does a much better job of covering the
spectrum (though it’s not perfect). How does it do that.

Theatrical manufacturers solve this issue by adding additional LEDs in

different colors that attempt to cover the spectrum. In ETC’s x7 color
system, they use 7 different LED colors inside their lights to do this. In
the recently released x8 system, they have added a deep red LED
emitter to give them an even broader range of colors they can cover.

Photo by OpenStax College is licensed under CC-BY-3.0 /Elements removed

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensi@vity.jpg

h/ps://www.etcconnect.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10737461822
Big
Concept
When using colored LEDs, you have to think additively. You are
no longer thinking about what colors you are “filtering” out.
h/ps://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Ligh@ng-Fixtures/Source-Four-LED-Series-2/Features.aspx?utm_campaign=Source-Four-LEDS
Again, RGB on the left and the x7 system on the right. The line
represents R08 gel, so the x7 system is really close to matching
tungsten+gel.
So are LED lights brighter relative to tungsten lekos with lighting gels
in them? The answer is: it depends on what color you are trying to
create. In some cases, tungsten+gel is brighter, but in other colors,
LEDs have a distinct advantage. Part of this is because in the
tungsten+gel situation, you are “filtering” light, which means that you
are removing colors from the light to “reveal” the color you want.
However, with LEDs you are adding differently color emitters to create
the colors, so sometimes there are enough emitters on that it
overcomes the brightness of the traditional leko with a gel.
 Everyone thinks they know what an LED looks like, but they are wrong.
The glass dome is only a protective cover. The LED itself is suspended
in the middle. It’s TINY. Also, everyone has heard the term “color
changing LED”, but that’s technically a misnomer.

Photo by Phillip Bosma CC BY-SA 3.0

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wi/e_led_close_up.jpg

This is what the LED chip inside that dome looks like. Each LED can
only be manufactured in one color.

Photo by Antonireykern CC BY-SA 4.0

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:100W-Hochleistungs_COB-LED.jpg

In the “color changing LED”, what you actually have are multiple LED
chips, each with the color that the manufacturer wants. So if your
device has a red LED while it’s warming up and then green when it’s
ready, that’s actually two different LED emitters inside the little globe.

Photo by Sven Killig CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

h/ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RGB-SMD-LED.jpg
 In fact, this is a super-closeup of an LED screen. It works on the exact
same principle. As you distance yourself from the screen, the colors
will blend together into the colors that you see on your screen.

Photo by Kuiperbharat CC BY-SA 4.0

h/ps://crea@vecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Theatrical lighting manufacturers have to work under these same

restrictions. They take a single color of LED and place it inside a
reflective cup.

They then take a bunch of these cups in different colors and they cram
them together inside of the fixture. Here is a look inside an ETC Series
2 LED leko The white hexagon is superimposed so that you can see the
actual LED wafer with all of the emitters. Everything outside the
hexagon are actually mirrors (we are looking through a tunnel of
mirrors) that are used to direct the light towards the lens. They might
use 7 red emitters, 4 blue, 3 green, 3 lime, 6 deep red, etc… But there
is a limited amount of real estate inside of the lights. Each
Courtesy of ETC
h/p://www.etcconnect.com
manufacturer uses slightly different LEDs inside their fixtures, so the
“recipe” is different for the various competitors.

h/ps://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Ligh@ng-Fixtures/Source-Four-LED-Series-2/Features.aspx?utm_campaign=Source-Four-LEDS
Due to this limited amount of real estate inside a fixture,
manufacturers create different versions of the same light and each one
has a different “recipe” of LEDs for different uses. For example, the
Selador Desire “Fire” array removes some of the blue LEDs in favor of
additional red and orange LEDs to make the light stronger in that end
of the spectrum. So you get better reds, but your blues suffer as a
consequence. If you are lighting the Frozen ride at Disney, you might
select the “Ice” series to get all of those rich blue tones of snowy
Arendelle. In ETCs case, the Lustr+ series is the most balanced of them
all. Note that they also produce a white LED version of their lights for
use in TV studios. These have a mixture of slightly warm and slightly
cool white LEDs so that you can change the color temperature slightly
for the camera. However, these lights will not produce saturated colors,
though you could gel them :)

If we take the wavelength chart that we have been looking at and

arrange it circularly, you get something we call a “chromaticity graph”.
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. This arrangement of the chart allows us to see how we can mix
different colors with light. The center is white and as you move
outwards in the chart, the color gets more saturated.

© public domain
 Let’s say we have two LED emitters. One is in the blue end of the chart
and the other is in the redder end of the chart. If we draw a line
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. between the two of them, the line represents the colors we can get
from turning on the two emitters at different intensities. So if they are
both equally at 50%, you see that the color we get is the pink in the
diamond at the center of the line.

© public domain

If we turn the blue to full and lower the red (but not off), you see that
the diamond has moved away from pink and is now in the lavender
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. range.

© public domain

If we raise the red and lower the blue, you see that we get a color
closer to magenta.
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness.

© public domain
 If we add a third LED emitter, we now have what’s called a gamut. A
gamut is the range of colors that you can get from multiple color
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. emitters. In the case of having 3 LED emitters, we can mix and match
their intensities to get any color that is inside of the triangle created by
the 3 lights. However, it’s impossible for this array of emitters to reach
a color outside of the triangle.
Gamut

© public domain

If we want to get those more saturated colors, we need 3 LEDs that are
more saturated (deeper colors). If we do that, you see that our gamut
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. has now grown and we can reach many more colors.

© public domain

Another way to grow the gamut so we can reach other colors is to add
additional LED emitters in different colors. The gamut in this case is
Chromaticity
Defini@on: the quality of color, independent
of brightness. now a pentagon and our color space continues to grow. In ETC’s x7
system, they have 7 different emitter colors, so this is how they have
grown the gamut of colors to the point that we can use them onstage
in the theater to replace our old tungsten lights.

© public domain
 If you use the ETC Eos line of consoles, there is actually an onboard
chromaticity chart that shows you what color your LED light is currently
producing (the center of the crosshairs). The dots represent different
gel color. If you click on one of those dots, the console says that for
this particular LED light, this is the closest representation of that gel
color (remember that it’s different for every light, since they each have
their own “recipe” of LEDs inside). The smaller triangle represents the
gamut for the selected fixture (ignore the bigger triangle).
Video: EOS Family Color Tools
h/ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_OqzmzSRLo&t=1263s

But there’s one more important concept to keep in mind. Remember

how we could get a color by mixing two different LED’s? Well, if that’s
possible…

© public domain

…it is also possible to get that pink color using a green and a magenta
LED. The pink color is the same, but the LED colors producing it are
Metamer
Simplified defini@on: Colors that are iden@cal but can
be created using different star@ng colors. different. This is called a metamer. In this particular example, the pink
color in between will be the same, but we will never be able to get red
or blue with those two emitters. In our “Dolly” example, I may prefer
the red and blue mixture of LED emitters because it would give me the
flexibility to get deeper into the red range to make the dress pop
sometimes, but I won’t be able to get a rich magenta color out of those
© public domain two emitters. I will need additional emitters to do that. Technically,
btw, If I use the four emitters in the above example, I can get the same
pink in the middle, but it will now be a brighter intensity because I
 reached it using 4 emitters instead of 2.

The ETC Eos consoles have a feature that allow you to control each
individual emitter within a fixture (**under certain conditions. Setup
required). I’ve used this function in the past to increase a very specific
emitter color in the mixture. If you select “hold color point” (on the
lower left), the console will try to compensate by changing other
emitters automatically to keep the overall color onstage the same. In
other words, it’s helping you change the metamer by holding the color
onstage but changing the recipe of emitters that are used to achieve
that color. For our “Dolly” example, I may not want to change the
overall color of the light, but I may want to make sure that the red LED
emitter is on as high as it can go so that it can make the red dress

Here are some LED equipment suggestions for your theater, whether
BUDGET SOLUTIONS
your budget is small or large.
 BUDGET SOLUTIONS
LEKO
Source Four ColorSource Leko Source Four LED Series 2 Source Four LED Series 3

• 4 Colors • 7 Colors (“x7 system”) • 8 Colors (“x8 system”)

• Good saturated colors • Wider gamut than ColorSource • Widest gamut. Adds deep red
• Simple seungs • Complex seungs & control • Wireless DMX
• Limited “white light” • Good “white light” • Best “white light”
• Skin tones ok • Renders skin tones well • Renders skin tones well
• ~$1600 • ~ $2400 (but will drop soon) • ~$2700 (Roughly. It’s new to market)

BUDGET SOLUTIONS
WASH
Source Four ColorSource PAR
Chauvet Colorado 2 Quad Zoom Source Four D60
Deep Blue

• 40 Emi/ers • 14 emi/ers (15 wa/) • 60 emi/ers (2.5 wa/)

• 4 Colors (red, green, blue, and lime) • 4 Colors (Quad) • Lustr+ has x7 color
• Good saturated colors • DMX zoom control from 7-̊45˚ • Brightest LED wash of its kind
• Simple seungs • Works outdoors • Best “white light”
• Limited “white light” • Double yoke can use as floor stand • Mul@ple seungs op@ons
• ~$750 • ~$1100 • ~$2000

BUDGET SOLUTIONS
STRIPS
Chauvet Colorado Batten 72X ETC ColorSource Cyc ChromaQ Color Force II

• 72 LEDs • Same emi/ers as ColorSource line • Best strip light on the market
• 5 colors • 5 colors • Super bright
• Slender unit • Small, fan free design • Fantas@c color
• No focusing needed • Can control in 1’ segments
• Tons of seungs
• ~$1100 • ~$1700 • ~$4500
 BUDGET SOLUTIONS
MOVING LIGHTS-SPOTS
High End SolaFrame 750 Martin MAC Encore High End SolaFrame 3000
Performance CLD

• 11,300 lumens • My favorite LED moving spot • Brightest on market of its kind
• Compact unit • Super bright • 1000 wa/s of LED
• Has shu/ers • Has shu/ers • 37,000 lumens
• Anima@on, iris, prism, frost • Very quiet • Has shu/ers
• 6-̊50˚ zoom • 12-̊48˚ zoom • 7-̊55˚ zoom
• ~$8,000 • ~$12,000 • ~$15,000

BUDGET SOLUTIONS
MOVING LIGHTS-WASHES
Chauvet Pro Rogue R2X Wash Chauvet Maverick MK3 Wash Martin MAC Encore Wash CLD

• 19 25w RGBW LEDs • 27 40w RGBW LEDs • Very bright

• Huge zoom range (7.3-̊64.3˚) • Has gobo wheel • Quiet
• Cool pixel map effects • Huge zoom range 5.2-̊65.1˚ • Has shu/ers
• Inexpensive • Respectable brightness • Awesome FX system
• Brightness is meh • 14-̊60˚zoom
• ~$1,800 • ~$5,600 • ~$9,500

Bits and Bobs

 LONGEVITY

Theatrical LED fixtures from reputable manufacturers are rated for

roughly 50,000 hours of use. If you ran the fixtures for 3 hours a day,
seven days a week, all year long, it would take about 50 years for the
to reach that limit. They will change color slightly over time and the
intensity will decrease as well until the unit reaches 70% of the
intensity it had when it was new.

LEDs are super fast to turn on/off, much faster than our old tungsten
lights, so they are great for strobe effects. However, they are hard to
dim. Our old stage lights use tungsten filaments that heat up and cool
down to produce light, so they are relatively slow due to this heating
and cooling.

LED DIMMING CURVE LED’s, however, are hard to dim, especially on the bottom end. Cheap
LED units will “pop off” at the low end of a slow dim. As you see from
the chart above, the LEDs reach a point at which they sort of drop off a
cliff. This “pop” on and off is highly noticeable and can be distracting
during a theatrical show. Lighting equipment from reputable
manufacturers do all sorts of complex trickery to avoid this, so they are
much smoother. That alone is worth the cost of the better units.
LED BINNING Most LED components that are used in theatrical lighting fixtures are
purchased from China. They are manufactured in batches (or “bins”).
Lighting manufacturers buy a large “bin” every so often to use in their
fixtures. Due to the processes involved in creating the different colors
of LEDs, there are slight color differences with each bin produced. That
means that if you buy two lights from different bins, when you turn
them on side by side they may look slightly different from each other.
For this reason, it’s usually a great idea to make a large purchase at
once rather than a little at a time. Many of the best lighting
manufacturers employ a complex calibration process that tries to
compensate for different LED “bins”, but the process is not perfect.
This can be a particularly serious problem for television, because
cameras amplify color differences that might look small to the naked
eye.

Here is some suggested reading, which cover many of the topics

discussed in this presentation.