1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

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Matt Vivlamore

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Jan 11, 2011
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So I am looking to replace my LED lights and I was wonder are the 3 individual RGB 1 watt individual bulbs the same as a 3W Tri-colored LED head?

Alright I have a Par64 with 27 1watt RGB LEDs... would that be the same as a 9 3w TriColor LEDs?

(I hope thats not confusing)
 
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Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

I'm going to say yes.

Although watts don't measure brightness, lumens, footcandles, or lux do. (Actually, they measure luminous emittance and luminous flux in the two different unit systems, but I'm going to generalize that to 'brightness'.)

And ultimate brightness may not be as important as color mixing, shadowing, etc. In which case, the 3-in-1 LEDs always win.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

Silas Pradetto said:
And ultimate brightness may not be as important as color mixing, shadowing, etc. In which case, the 3-in-1 LEDs always win.
Click to expand...

Of course, tri-LEDs and their associated optics tend to also have either wide beams or color-fringing (due to different optical centers for each of the 3 color sources), and you may run into fixture to fixture consistency issues with tri-LEDs as well. Not that these issues can't also exist with discrete sources.

There are only a couple tri-LED packages using 350mA class dice (actually, I only know of one that's RGB only), and it's from a manufacturer that's typically a generation behind. Thermal management also tends to be easier with more less intense sources. So if the discrete-source fixture is using SotA LEDs, it's quite possible that it's 20-30% brighter than the tri-LED fixture. Of course, any manufacturer advertising their wares based on the nominal LED power, and not by the measured output is probably not focusing too much on efficiency, so...

If you're looking at replacing current units, some specifics might net you better input.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

I'm guessing you and I are after the same thing.

Check my review on the Blizzard Q12A fixture. It's interesting to note that the "10W" LEDs don't have the same brightness per channel, and in that case, aren't even driven anywhere near 10 watts per diode group. This "120 watt" fixture's max input draw is about 60W. This fixture is about 50% brighter than their Puck 3 which uses "3W" diodes, and has an input consumption of 35 watts.


As Rob says, at least in the Blizzard case there still is some fringing even with the one lens for all colors design.

I have had a Chauvet SlimPar Pro RGBA on order for about 7 weeks, and now that the gig I wanted it for is over, Murphy says it will arrive today. I will gladly give up the benefits of a tri or quad design for a fixture that is video safe, is fanless, and is built better than the Blizzard. I'll report when I get it.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

i think the q12a is more light than I need, but after using puck originals, I want rgba. hoping to see a Puck 3a. I think the pucks are well built (save the fact they dont always look perfectly new out of the box). They seem sturdy and look good but I would like amber and more brightness without breaking the bank.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

I just bought a Q6W and a Q6A. I already had 2 Puck 3's.
The Q's just got here. All I've had time to do is see if they light up. (They do)
I'll post once I've compared the three lights.


I bought the Q6A and the Q6W expecting to send the Q6W back.
When I do choose one, I would consider selling the other one if I can get what it cost me minus the return fee.
I may end up selling the Puck 3's and buying more Q's so all the cans will program the same way.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

TJ, I may be interested. shoot me a price when you get a chance.

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okay.... I plugged some lights tonight

Lights tested (in a non scientific manner
Puck 3 (nine 3 watt tricolor RGB LED's)
Q6A Puck (six 10 watt quad color LED's - RGBA)
Q6W Puck (six 10 watt quad color LED's - RGBW)
Daisy 420B RGBAW bar light (60 1 watt LED's -> 12 ea RGBAW
Charvet ColorBar Tri - (twelve 3 watt tricolor RGB LED's)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the results of the "Puck Off" shootout:


White - using a random scale with the brightest light being 10 and off being zero,
Puck 3 - 5 brightness of 5
Q6A - brightness of 6.5
Q6W - brightness of 10 (it really is a LOT brighter)

On other red green and blue, the Q6A and the Q6W were 15-20% brighter than the puck 3's
The Q6W and Q6A were more even and didn't showing the component colors

On the Q6A, the amber is nice. It is not very bright. 60% as bright as the other colors in output.
The oranges were vivid and warm. Unlike the "almost" colors that most RGB's do in that range

None of them do a good yellow. The Q6A is better, but it's not great for that. Be nice if the Amber was higher output


So
Q's are smoother than the Puck 3 and 15% or so brighter except in their added color.
The Q6W does a very bright white.
The Q6A is more even across the spectrum in brightness (not extra hot on one color like the W is on white) and does orange and amber shades better.

Note to blizzard: Make Quint Pucks (We want RGBAW 5 color LED's) (Or at least put 6 RGBA's and 6 RGBW's in a 12 light - and make those ambers brighter)

How this works in to my rig:
I've been using the Pucks for uplighting the players faces.
The Puck3's are plenty bright for what that.
Will probably get more of the Q6A'a and send the Q6W back.
....but I'm still thinking......man.... The white is really white on the the Q6W's

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


next post will be about the bar lights (Daisy and Chauvet)
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

Tested out two bar shape LED lights tonight.

Chauvet ColorBand Tri (Twelve - 3 watt Tricolor RGB LED's)
Daisy LED420B lights (Sixty - 1 watt LED's - 12 of ea - RGBAW)

Given the specs, one would expect the reds, blues and greens to be similar and the colors using whites and amber to be better on the Daisy lights. This expectation proves fairly accurate. On reds greens and blues, the LED420B is a little brighter and covers a wider swath, but it's not a big difference. However, when the LED420B's amber or white is on, it is a night and day difference! No contest. The LED420B has good color across the board too. Closest thing to doing the full spectrum of colors as any light I've owned.

Negatives for the LED420B are 1) you can see the individual LED's, so it has a bit of a DJ look, 2) it's heavy compared to the ColorBandTri, and 3) the mounts I got hold it farther away from what you hang it on than the ColorBandTri's brackets. You have to clamp it very tightly to keep it pointed where you want. I've made up new brackets for both lights to help center the weight better, but the Daisy light is still harder to hang.

The ColorBandTri's are about half the weight, same length, half the size in the other 2 dimensions, and half the cost of the Daisy LED420B
They are TriColor LED's so you see what you are getting when you look at the light. They are thin. and stick like and because of that, can be positioned in unusual and useful ways. I was able to mount my Colorband Tri's vertically on mic stands. There is no way you could do that with the LED420B's. They'd just fall over because of their weight and brackets.

I bought the Daisy's for flood lighting, and the ColorBandTri's for mood/effects lights. They both are good at what they were purchased to do.


btw, I did try taking pics but my camera is "auto" and kept adjusting when a light was brighter. It made the brighter lights look dimmer!
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

Steve, thanks for the information on the light. I'm replacing my LED420's; I am looking to replace them with 4 Par Cans. The 420s are great light and do very good at washes, but I am looking for the "beam" effect this time around.

I am leaning towards that Q6W (or a different China RGBW); I tend to work with Rock acts that want the Blinding Strobe effect.
 
Re: 1w individual RGB vs 3w Tri-Color... are they the "same"

Steve Hurt said:
Here are the results of the "Puck Off" shootout:


White - using a random scale with the brightest light being 10 and off being zero,
Puck 3 - 5 brightness of 5
Q6A - brightness of 6.5
Q6W - brightness of 10 (it really is a LOT brighter)

On other red green and blue, the Q6A and the Q6W were 15-20% brighter than the puck 3's
The Q6W and Q6A were more even and didn't showing the component colors

On the Q6A, the amber is nice. It is not very bright. 60% as bright as the other colors in output.
The oranges were vivid and warm. Unlike the "almost" colors that most RGB's do in that range

None of them do a good yellow. The Q6A is better, but it's not great for that. Be nice if the Amber was higher output


So
Q's are smoother than the Puck 3 and 15% or so brighter except in their added color.
The Q6W does a very bright white.
The Q6A is more even across the spectrum in brightness (not extra hot on one color like the W is on white) and does orange and amber shades better.

Note to blizzard: Make Quint Pucks (We want RGBAW 5 color LED's) (Or at least put 6 RGBA's and 6 RGBW's in a 12 light - and make those ambers brighter)
Click to expand...
When I talked to Will at Blizzard, I asked about the brightness difference between the "A" version and the "W" version. The "W" version is almost twice as bright as the "A" version on the spec sheet, and as far as I can tell, all of that brightness comes from the "W" channel - the RGB channels are the same in both fixtures.

My experience of the amber channel is similar to yours - not as bright as the other channels, but does add saturation. With the Q12A you can get yellow out of it - I'm not sure if your standard of what makes a good yellow is higher than mine, or if the 12 diodes vs the 6 are enough more light that you can turn down the other channels enough for an OK color mix and still get reasonable brightness.

My application is color wash, which is why I went with the "A" version, and why I'm interested in the Chauvet RGBA. Right now I'm using Source Four HPL type fixtures for front white lighting (my gigs are quasi-corporate/church stuff - not really rock bands), and I'm pretty sure the "W" of most of the RGBW lights wouldn't match well, and wouldn't make that pleasing of a front wash even if used alone. I am interested in the new variable white lights - both ETC and Chauvet have lights with warm and cool LEDs that can be mixed to taste.

These are exciting times for LEDs - in the next few years I predict a couple of cheap fixtures will emerge as being really servicable and will save a lot of small operators from having to struggle with distros.

On that subject - I did a wedding where my system was also used as the "DJ" system. Due to getting poor information from the venue, I had plugged my PLX3402 mains amp, my PL236 sub amp (running 4ohms bridged), and 1800 watts of blinking PAR 38s into one 20A circuit. I did eventually blow the breaker, but I was really surprised how long it held on, and this was with the sub amp tickling the clip light occasionally (and my earplugs firmly jammed in my ears). I'm quite confident that if I would have had LED wash fixtures I would have been able to run all night on one circuit.
 
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