Automated Fixtures VFX Lighting/LED Pars Info request

[DiscoBoxer]

I am looking into new LED fixtures and came across the LCD-845 36x3W RGBA PARs made by VFX lighting. The original posting was on Solaris Network.

Used LCD 845 - VFX Lighting - Used Stage Lighting for Theater, Installation & Touring - Solaris

Here is the company website:

index

Has anyone on this forum worked with or heard about this companies product and can offer insight? To me the price point is great but I am wondering if it is too great and there are short comings of this company and product. Perhaps these are repackaged China made pars?

My application is for various color washes in a house of worship. Our budget is very limited, therefor, so is our choice of options. Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks!
D

 

[soundlight]

I've never heard of them before. They don't seem to really have a web presence or a good listing of their products anywhere.

If I were you I'd buy new and I'd buy Blizzard. Blizzard Lighting - Welcome!

Good products for the price, and they've been steadily growing and adding more products. The Blizzard ProPar 336 can be had for not much more than those "used" fixtures. There are a bunch of vendors that sell them - I think FullCompass does, a couple of other online retailers do, and our very own BillESC sells the Blizzard line, too.

EDIT: Also, almost all of the LED fixtures these days that will be anywhere near your price range are made in the wonderful PRC. Accept it and move on, some of the stuff coming out of China these days is actually pretty good.

 

[MNBallet]

I am looking into new LED fixtures and came across the LCD-845 36x3W RGBA PARs made by VFX lighting. The original posting was on Solaris Network.

Used LCD 845 - VFX Lighting - Used Stage Lighting for Theater, Installation & Touring - Solaris

Here is the company website:

index

Has anyone on this forum worked with or heard about this companies product and can offer insight? To me the price point is great but I am wondering if it is too great and there are short comings of this company and product. Perhaps these are repackaged China made pars?

My application is for various color washes in a house of worship. Our budget is very limited, therefor, so is our choice of options. Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks!
D

I own 8 of them right now. Love them. I use them as cyc lighting. They do produce a flicker on the cyc with cheaper camcorders, but the new HD cameras can change the scan rate to reduce flicker. I don't see the flicker on the professional DVD's we hire for our shows. You can see how bright they are with some of the photos the Minnesota Ballet has up on it's facebook page.

Kenneth Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet

 

[DiscoBoxer]

Soundlight, thanks for the info on the Blizzard line!

Note: the fixtures listed on Solaris for this company are new and I forgot to mention that in the post.

I agree that many of the products from China are good. The down side is that the market seems to get flooded with product from China under many names and at times the companies claiming the product are more focussed on moving mass product than they are about quality and customer service\loyalty.....but that's not limited to just this business.

Sometimes you get lucky and the product is branded with a company that does care and will do a reasonable job of support :example: American DJ, Chauvet, Antari, etc.

 

[DiscoBoxer]

MNBallet, nice pics on the FB page and good work! I appreciate the mention of flicker since we do use Canon HD cams at our location.

 

[DiscoBoxer]

After speaking with a few folks who have dealt with this company and product, I decided to take a risk and order 3 of them to start.

I contacted VFX directly through their website at index. I was later contacted via email from Larry (owner) and he was very helpful in providing information about the fixtures. I processed an online payment through Paypal and shortly received a tracking number from Larry. The fixtures are scheduled to arrive Monday. I will post an update on my review.

 

[DiscoBoxer]

I received the fixtures on the date expected. The packing was decent and the fixtures feel very solid and well constructed. They look a lot like S4 pars and weigh about the same.

The fixtures are 6 channel: Intensity, Red, Green, Blue, Amber, & Strobe. They can operate as stand alone, sync, and of course DMX board control. In the auto mode the lights will change to a built in mic. 8 LEDs per color.

I powered the lights up and they are bright. I do not have a light meter to give scientific data on this opinion, but they were very difficult to look at when at full intensity and I would not encourage a person to do so. These are not fixtures to use for a direct view of the LEDs chasing each other.

In application, the truss they were mounted on is approx 20' in height above the stage and 40' out from the stage. One fixture center, one mid-right, and one mid-left. We currently have a set in place onstage that is 10' high x 30' wide and sits back from the front of the stage about 15'. The three fixtures alone do a fantastic job of washing the full set with color. Even with (6) 575W S4 pars (no gels) on at 30%, the LEDs still had a nice presence.

I was disapointed in the RGBA full on white. It still had a bluish tint to it despite the amber LED's, but it was not terrible. There is a noticeable flicker to the units when viewed with our Canon HD cam, but I did not spend any time adjusting the camera to compensate.

All in all for the price, I think these are very impressive units and would suggest them to others. My opinion may change depending on how they perform over time. Hopefully this information will be helpful for others looking into LED Pars with punch.

 

[MNBallet]

I received the fixtures on the date expected. The packing was decent and the fixtures feel very solid and well constructed. They look a lot like S4 pars and weigh about the same.

The fixtures are 6 channel: Intensity, Red, Green, Blue, Amber, & Strobe. They can operate as stand alone, sync, and of course DMX board control. In the auto mode the lights will change to a built in mic. 8 LEDs per color.



There is a noticeable flicker to the units when viewed with our Canon HD cam, but I did not spend any time adjusting the camera to compensate.

All in all for the price, I think these are very impressive units and would suggest them to others. My opinion may change depending on how they perform over time. Hopefully this information will be helpful for others looking into LED Pars with punch.

I was talking to Larry yesterday about one of my units that had to be sent back. He is doing a wonderful job of customer service by the way. I wanted to update this thread because he told me yesterday that all new orders of his RGBA units are now "Flicker-Free" so that is a big deal. I will be looking to replace at least 6 of my units with new ones soon

Ken Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet