Wireless LED Up Lighting Fixtures
This post is to illustrate the difference between Wireless LED Up Lighting fixtures that are available to the event industry. Some of the things that have to be considered when choosing the appropriate fixture are:
- Battery Life: How long is the fixture going to last at its brightest intensity delivering the color palate that you have chosen.
- Brightness or Intensity: How Bright will the fixture be? Intensity is always a factor when it comes to Battery driven fixtures. There is a Battle raging in this market between Intensity and Battery Life. The Battery has to be large enough to deliver the Brightness needed to be effective for your application.
- Color Mixing: Many of the available fixtures on the market today contain 3 colors Red, Green and Blue that mix together to deliver your desired color. Some of the available fixtures contain High Power LED’s with lenses that help to mix the color properly on the applied surface. An example of this mixing is as follows: when you mix the Red LED’s with the Green LED’s you get an end result of Amber, when this color is projected onto a surface you want to see Amber not the individual LED’s producing the color.
- Control: Fixtures should have the capability to be controlled with all of the other added Lighting in the space.
Illustrated below are the common available fixtures on the market today:
Color Kinetic 12″ Color Blast LED Fixture with City Theatrical Master Blast Battery Pack. This is the best fixture on the market today in its class. The Colorblast LED fixture has been available for some time and has become the industry standard due to its intensity, seamless color mixing and long battery life (roughly 8 – 10 hours). This is our fixture of choice on many events for up lighting applications. It’s larger profile can make it difficult to give an even wash to applications where a slim lower profile fixture is needed ie: high boy table, or centerpiece up light.
LED Decor Slim Round Wireless LED Fixture with remote control. These fixtures work well when you need a fixture with a Low Profile, or you are looking to up light a floral centerpiece. The fixture lacks seamless color mixing due to the type of LED’s used and lack of color mixing lense utilized by the above Color Kinetic fixture. This fixture can not be used as an Up Light for a wall but does work very well when used for the proper application. The fixtures last for about 6 – 8 hours and are controlled via a remote. Depending on the application these fixtures have a niche that has really yet to be filled through other manufacturers.
After these above listed products you start deal with the cheaper entry level fixtures. These fixtures are inexpensive to purchase and really deliver a look that is very undesirable at best. They are often very dim, have horrible color mixing and poor battery life. These fixtures are for the most part carried by Disc Jockeys or other vendors that are not Specific Lighting Design firms. Many clients will opt for these fixtures when thrown in for a lesser price from a vendor that they are working with. This may seem like an easier approach with all of the other details in planning an event but in fact this is really just a waste of money and will be really disappointing come event time when you are expecting the space to have a nice color wash. As is with anything event related an educated consumer is the consumer that will ultimately be happy with the end result of money spent and products they have chosen.
Elation Event Pannel System. This fixture is currently attempting to compete with the ColorBlast LED unit. This fixture Has an excellent Battery Life, but falls victim to weak color mixing and intensity. The Elation product also has a very large footprint allowing it to be knocked out of alignment by a guest kicking it over and is kind of un sightly due to its size.
Once again as with anything make sure you are not being misled by a overanxious vendor looking to profit off your lack of knowledge. There is a price difference between the listed fixtures. This price can vary usually $20 or so. In reality the old saying is true “You Get What You Pay For”.
Permalink Comments Off on Wireless LED Up Lighting Fixtures
Christopher Reilly
Wedding Lighting's Blog 