I feel bad about this. These weathered old PARcans have seen duty in many hundreds of runs of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. But now the time has come to weed out the older battered ones and replace them with 50 NOS (New Old Stock) genuine Thomas Engineering units.
It may seem strange that we use such old, hot and power-hungry light in this day and age, but they are used for several reasons.
They provide an even wash of rich full spectrum light independently of the automated lights.
They offer a means to provide illumination backup in the unlikely event of a full control system failure.
They will be first to recover in the event of a power disruption.
They provide a camera friendly wash of light when the show is being filmed for broadcast.
They're silent. No fans.
They're "weather resilient". No delicate electronics to get upset by rain. (Except if they get drenched and trip the RCD/GFI.)
They have a self-drying function. Running them at low level will usually drive out any moisture quickly.
They draw no power while unlit, unlike the discharge lamp fixtures that keep the lamp lit (at reduced power) but just shutter it off.
CP60 (clear) narrow beam, CP61 (mottled) medium beam and CP62 (lensed) wide beam.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
It may seem strange that we use such old, hot and power-hungry light in this day and age, but they are used for several reasons.
They provide an even wash of rich full spectrum light independently of the automated lights.
They offer a means to provide illumination backup in the unlikely event of a full control system failure.
They will be first to recover in the event of a power disruption.
They provide a camera friendly wash of light when the show is being filmed for broadcast.
They're silent. No fans.
They're "weather resilient". No delicate electronics to get upset by rain. (Except if they get drenched and trip the RCD/GFI.)
They have a self-drying function. Running them at low level will usually drive out any moisture quickly.
They draw no power while unlit, unlike the discharge lamp fixtures that keep the lamp lit (at reduced power) but just shutter it off.
CP60 (clear) narrow beam, CP61 (mottled) medium beam and CP62 (lensed) wide beam.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
Maybe I am old-school but I still like the good old par can.
And maybe that is because when you use par cans, you need to put some thought in how you use them and the colors you use them with. Nowadays with LED you have almost every possible color under your fingertips.
So I just bought a shit load of par 46 cans for literally no money in good old black, stuck some Osram LED floods in them and use them for small and medium events to supply some nice lighting of whatever needs to be lighted.
Even bought me a new LEE Folters Designer Edition filter book….
🙁
Parcans make me sweat
i thought a lot of these would now be "led" types by now But maybe the leds are not upto the light output yet?
still interesting thoughBeen watching your videos here and there for over a year. Didn't know you did stage lighting. Cheers!
Great video, I've been learning and following you from back of the day of R.A.T.S. For those that don't knew that name, it was the stage technician's newsgroup on USENET. When Abbreviated it spelled RATS from the naming structure Rec.Arts.Theater.Stagecraft. A very ironic and yet fitting name for the industry greats who hung out and answered questions from people doing productions in high schools and churches to various people in the levels of professional work. Who would have convinced that par cans would have been threatened and shrink bread back when coming off the big hair metal bands you had to 400+ 1Kw cans rigs or you weren't a tour/light show.
…You just need Frank woods to come debate you about Congo Blue and Black Light effect…. 😉
those plugs on them u wanna keep them lol id take them if your willing to deliver by post lol 😉
So what sort of failure would relegate a PARcan to the graveyard? Are these rusted or crossthreaded or has the insulation gone brittle? Will they be refurbished for use or sale?
I'd retro fit it to house a 3w UV cree led in the land jerry rig it low to voltage and amps for the 3w led make a awesome purple ray of light that make everything glow glows
A PARcan that no longer works…I guess they are now PARcan'ts?
I was thinking they weren't too different from old sealed beam automotive headlights until you said 'about a kilowatt each'. Yikes!
I had a few of these lighting my back yard, had em super cheap from a guy who was selling shop. Unfortunately, lightning struck because for whatever reason the lightning ground didn't attract it and these (well one, but it friend both, same pole) did.
What in the FUCK is a PARcan?
With eluminated color disc holders
Great video Bigclive … In L.A . We still use " ParCans" in TV and commercials as a dependable back up and great tungsten source … love your videos here in CA. Thanks
whats the lightning bill for one event?