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Elation LED Tri-PAR Product Review

Wow. Perhaps that is the best word that I can use to summarize my recent experience with this fixture.

I was searching for an inexpensive LED lighting solution for a medium size church. I was actually looking at another fixture that had been highly recommended, but that manufacturer had no interest in helping if they weren't guaranteed a sale. So, being the type of guy who would rather support and quality over simply quality, I went looking elsewhere - and am I glad I did.

I found the OPTI-TRI-PAR, and at first glance it's spec's looked pretty good. So we ordered one and had it shipped down to the church. They were impressed. Now, I had seen these fixtures before, so I felt they would be a good match for the church. With them being happy, we ordered 11 more and weeks later I went down to complete the design and write cues.

How They Performed

When I arrived, my eyes almost popped out of my head. THESE THINGS WERE BRIGHT. In fact, much brighter than the earlier versions I had seen. My design originally called for these fixtures to be a wall wash, but after seeing them in person, I took four of them and hung them 20' above the stage and used them as top light. This left me with 8 fixtures on the walls.

My front wash consisted of a small handful of ETC PAR's (for a wash) and Source Fours for focused area fills. Even with the wash on, my top light was still visible in every color I used. I was amazed.

The wall washes were amazing! The color was vibrant, the intensity was beyond expectations and the fill was broader than I expected. The fixtures were easy to use, easy to program and easy to hang. Their split base design made them perfect for putting on a ledge or floor and aiming up at a wall or tree. No fuss - just easy lighting. They stayed super cool and were silent when operating. They are fan cooled, so if you are in a super quiet room, you MIGHT hear something, but for my tests in a regular sanctuary - even when empty - I could not hear them.

Areas For Improvement

One complaint is the easily accessible buttons on the back for addressing the fixtures. There is not lock-out feature and the buttons are raised on the back of the unit. This allows them to be easily bumped or pressed - which takes the fixture out of the current mode or off the current address. This got me into trouble a couple of times. We plan on finding a small plastic tub to gaff tape on the back to protect the buttons from being pressed in the future. But that's an easy fix.

The manufacturer rates this fixture as 518 Lux at 3 meters. It really is a bright light.

Price

If you look around, and buy enough, you can get these for under $500 each. Even if buying one or two, you can find them for just over $500 each. With a 50,000 hour LED - that's a great deal! Between lamp cost and power cost, these fixtures will pay for themselves in no time!

Overall Summary

Absolutely a great fixture for the money. If you are in a dark room with little ambient light, they could even give you a decent front wash. For most uses, architectural lighting, top light or back light are more practical applications. If you are using a ton of conventional light on the stage, they may or may not pack the punch you need to get over the conventional fixtures - but I'd sure give them a shot. We didn't notice any flicker on our video recordings, and they mixed great. With a little work, you can get a fairly nice white light out of them as well.

These lights are a good buy!