Equinox Giga Bar

[Nakatomi]

I've been light shopping for what seems like ages & was set on getting an ADJ Dotz Tpar. I found a deal, dithered too long & missed out. So, I opted for the Equinox Giga Bar instead. On paper, the same spec albeit with wired footswitch not wireless.

It arrived yesterday. First of all, I was impressed by the build quality. It feels solid & really looks the part.

The stand seems well made but whether or not it'll be robust remains to be seen. Height wise, it extends to about 3 metres.

The light units themselves are very similar in appearance to the ADJ Tpar units, with approx half in square chips set in a reflector with a removable lens on the front.

Brightness. In daylight in my lounge, it bleached everything with vivid colour. At dusk in the garden with the stand fully extended, the whole of the lawn was brightly lit. I'm seriously impressed with its four 30 watt RGB LEDs. So much light from one little chip!

The built in programs, I'm not so impressed with. There are 15 programs & a good amount of variety but there's too much white. Whether that's with all the lights white or in combinations which mix to form shades of white where they land. I'll be getting a dmx controller to sort that out later. It seems only two crossfade programs exist, one which fades slowly between 6 colors and white & another which fades out before fading into another colour also including white.

The programs which result in less saturated colour on the floor look cool as you look towards the fixture but it's so bright nobody will be doing that much. I prefer the programs where all the lights are the same colour. Colour chases would be fine on a dimmer setting (thank the lord you can dim it from the unit's main controls) but on the highest brightness setting.. Oof!

The inbuilt 'sound' mode seems okay, but some programs suffer from the 'too much near white' issue & should be avoided. Sensitivity seemed high in my living room using my stereo for music & it'll be interesting to see what it's like a disco sound levels. It seems the foot controller has its own microphone built in. Smells like it's almost its own DMX controller.

The fixture has a built in strobe capability that can be accessed via the rear panel or from the IR remote. Variable speed from the rear panel & a choice of four speeds from the remote. Flashes are very short, akin to a strobe light. Used sparingly this could be a very useful feature indeed.

The case for the main unit seems nice & it may take a fair amount of abuse before it starts to look shabby - at least that's the impression I get. The bag for the stand... I give it a few months of gigging before it starts falling apart.

Cables. I found the included powercon Mains cable a little short for my liking, so have lengthened it already by putting the connectors onto new 10A cable. I like the powercon... The main unit has both input and passthrough sockets.

I'm not fond of the cannon style plugs on the footswitch cable so I may replace those with Neutrik 5 pin ones if they'll fit. The length of the cable is okay though.

Oh yeah lastly.... Heat. I ran the lights for nigh on 2 hours & the heatsinks on the rear of each unit were vaguely warm to the touch. Vaguely as in I could barely feel any difference.

In all, I'm impressed. I can't comment on the IR remote yet because it was missing from the box when it shipped.

It's certainly a far cry from older LED pars I've seen & about a zillion miles better than my ancient R80 spot boxes & darn sight better looking and easier to set up.

Niggle wise, I think screwlock compound on the stand bolts, or nylock nuts will preserve its longevity, and the fixture's central spigot which slots into the stand's pole could use being locked off somehow too.

The in built programs are adequate, but pairing the fixture with a DMX controller will make it all the better. If only there was less white in the built in programs I'd happily continue to use it standalone.

[Pe7e]

In all, I'm impressed. I can't comment on the IR remote yet because it was missing from the box when it shipped.

Nice review, but are you really sure the IR remote wasn't in the box? I've got a couple of these myself and thought the same and complained to the supplier only to discover it lurking, (very) well hidden within the packaging.

[Nakatomi]

Knowing full well how teeny the remote is, I've had the packaging apart. Nowhere to be found. I'll check again (a fourth time) but I doubt I'll find it.

[Nakatomi]

Update.

I took the giga bar along to a gig tonight & it's safe to say I'm still impressed. Up on the balcony, with the stand raised all the way up, it flooded the floor down below. With it on, the Impossibled was barely visible, as was the ACME mirrage in the venue. I think this was the first time I'd ever seen such colour in there.

The LED par56 cans can't even dream of the kind of brightness this thing puts out.

This is very very good. The only problem is, yer other lights will have to be pretty bright or they'll just be lost.

For what it's worth, the balcony is at least a storey high & I had to have the stand up full so the light wasn't obscured by the railings. I imagine it's awesome in a smaller setting.

[Nakatomi]

Another update.

The IR remote arrived today. I love that you can set up a wider range of static colours, dim the main unit & set strobe modes from the IR remote BUT...

I hadn't tried the main fixture's built-in programs to any great extent & I can say I find the lack of crossfade programs the footswitch controller has, disappointing. Hey ho. A small drawback I can live with til I go fully DMX'd.