LED stage lighting

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

LED stage lights come in three main types. PAR cans, striplights and 'moving head' types. In LED PAR cans, a round printed circuit board with LEDs mounted on is used in place of a PAR lamp. Moving head types can either be a bank of LEDs mounted on a yoke or more conventional moving head lights with the bulb replaced with an LED bank.

In actual fact, there is no such thing as an LED PAR can - it is a misnomer possibly attributed to Chinese manufacturers. As there is no Parabolic Aluminised Reflector in an LED 'PAR', they would be more accurately referred to as to as 'LED flood lights'.

Many LED fixtures are now made that through the use of a small number of high-output diodes now allow the beam to be focused to a "hard edge", allowing full use of gobo/beam effects.

LED instruments can and have been used to replace any conventional lighting fixture, and some shows, such as Radiohead's 2008 tour, have used only LED lighting instruments. However, most shows use LEDs only for lighting cycloramas, or as top, side or back light. They can also be used as 'audience blinders' (lights pointed directly at the audience from a low angle).

LED instruments 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 color group. LED instruments should have a long service life relative to other options, without the expense of colour gel or replacement lamps.

LED instruments are increasingly used for live music events, most notably festivals where they are more visible than conventional lighting under daylight. LED instruments 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.

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Wikipedia