LED stage lighting

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A front view of a Stagebar LED strip

LED stage lights are light fittings that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a light source. LED lights are an alternative to traditional halogen lamp or high-intensity discharge lamps. Like other LED lights, they have high light output with lower power consumption.

1 Types of fittings
2 Uses
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Types of fittings

LED stage lights come in three main types. parcans, striplights^[1] and 'moving head' types. In LED Parcans a round printed circuit board with LEDs mounted on is usually used where a PAR 64 lamp would be on a regular parcan. Moving head types can either be a bank of LED's mounted on a yoke or more conventional moving head lights with the bulb replaced with an LED bank.

[edit] Uses

LED lighting fixtures are ideal for lighting cycloramas from the top and bottom, or as top light directly over the stage. They can also be used for 'Audience Blinding'. LED stage lights can contain a number of different coloured LEDs, often Red, Green and Blue, and different light output colours can be achieved by adjusting the intensity of each LED colour group. LED units should have a long service life relative to other options, without the expense of colour gel or replacement lamps.

LED fixtures are increasingly used for live music events, most notably festivals where they are more visible than conventional lighting under day light. (see picture right)

Lighting at the Beached Festival 2007, Scarborough. Note the LED battons far more visible than the moving head lighting.

LED fixtures were prominently used for the 'live earth' festival as they are regarded as more environmentally friendly as fixture for fixture they use far less power than other lighting.

Another advantage of LED fittings is that they can controlled directly using DMX and do not require additional dimmers, the intensity of the LEDs being adjusted by circuitry onboard the fixture. Because of their low power consumption several units can be daisy chained to one power supply. ^[2]

Due to low heat output, LED stage lights can be used in areas where the high amount of heat conventional stage fixtures put off would not be ideal. For this reason, LED fixtures are used to light ice sculptures, especially when ligting the sculptures from within.^[3]