Professional Wedding DJ in Houston | Simply Frank

I’ve learned so much about up lighting, looking at it from the technical side of it.

PAR Can lights, or Parabolic Aluminized Reflector light, were initially used (and still are used) as up lights.

There is, however, a draw back to using PAR Cans. You must use a very high wattage lamp (anywhere from 500 watt to 1,000 watts) in order for them to look good and to shine a perfect ray of light against a wall.. High wattage lamps  emit a lot of heat and are pretty dangerous to the touch. When I was at the Westlake Club, Jennifer, the coordinator, mentioned that during a previous wedding reception, the traditional PAR Cans actually caused a fire at her Venue. They were placed too close to some linens and they were so hot that they eventually started a fire… I’ve touched these lights and if you have kids at your reception, that’s another thing to look out for… very serious skin burns…

I didn’t want anything to do with anything that could cause bodily injury or cause any fires…

So I moved on and researched more and came to find that there were some LED PAR Cans as well…

Even when a vendor offers you LED PAR Cans there are a few things you should know…

LED PAR Cans have a fixed array of lights, meaning, they can never be changed out for a brighter LED. Once you purchase an LED PAR Can, you are stuck with the level of brightness forever.

There are 3 Common Brightness Values to look at.

1. 1/4 WATT LED
2. 1 WATT LED
3. 3 WATT LED

LED PAR Cans usually contain many LED’s, or Light Emitting Diodes, to project a strong beam of light. And in comparison to the traditional par cans, they do as good a job of projecting a great looking ray of light against a wall, without the excessive heat.

• 1/4 watt LED PAR CANS

  
  
  
  

  Out of the lights listed above, 1/4 watt LED lights can be found for anywhere from $100 to $200 per LED PAR Can. They are listed at Guitar Center for $199, however in the technical details, they claim to have only a 5 Milliwatt LED, which is way less that a 1/4 watt, or 250 Milliwatt LED. Honestly, I don’t think they will emit a strong enough beam for up lighting. I would stay way from them. Actually I would stay away from anything under a 1 watt LED.

• The 1 watt LED PAR CANS

  
  
  
  
  

  can run anywhere from $250 to $500 per LED PAR Can.  Guitar Center lists the 1 watt LED for $499.  These are very similar to the ones we have here at Elegante Entertainment and when we purchased them we made sure to do our research well and not buy something that would end up useless after we tried them out at an event. As you can see by the video below, LED Uplighting at the Tuscany Villa in Katy Texas and on the pictures on our DJ Upgrades Section, these are more than bright enough to light up a room and add a great ambient to your venue.

  If you are considering a LED Uplights at your event, make sure that you can see them before they install them. If they don’t look like the ones in our video (Notice that the sun is still out and you can see that through the windows, these are very bright), you are getting the cheap lights.

• The 3 watt LED PAR Can

  will costs well over $500 per LED PAR CAN. I wish we could  afford these, but these are the ultra high end LED Lamps. In the future we will definitely buy these, for now our 1 watt LED’s will have to do. I’ve never seen thse in real person, but if the 1 Watt LED Par Cans can do what they do, I can just imagine how these will shine… very bright…

So in conclusion, I embrace the future and stay away from anything that has over 750 watts as it may cause bodily injury or even start a fire, and I doubt any bride would want either to happen at her wedding reception.

Go with the LED Uplights, they may be a little bit more expensive to rent (or own) but in the long run, the upgrade is definitely worth it.

Happy Planning!

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|o| Simply Frank |o|
Professional Wedding DJ in Houston