Lumens

Definition:

Lumens refers to the measurement of light output (brightness), similer to KM measures distance.

Lumens is the single most important factor when comparing light fixtures. To give you an example:

Our most powerful light fixtures:

• HES Intellabeam: 7000 Lumens
• HES Technobeam: 4000 Lumens
• Martin Roboscan Pro 518: 2000 Lumens

Competitors most powerful light fixtures:

• HES Trackspot: 1000 Lumens
• Martin MX 4: ~1030 Lumens

As you can easily see, one Intellabeam easily outshines a Trackspot by 600%. Our least powerful fixture outperforms our competitors fixtures by double. Keep in mind, there are 100s of light fixture types out there!

Why are there so many differences in light fixture output?

• The 1st reason is the lamp type. One of our high Power fixtures uses 700 watt lamps. These are very special lamps worth $200 or more each just to replace. These are very very hot and bright lamps and you can damage your eyes if you look at a raw lamp without eye protection.
• The 2nd reason is the 'optics' of the fixture itself. This refers to the lamp reflector, glass lenses, quality of color filters, beam diameter, etc.

*Note: the watts used by a lamp is not a valid indicator of the lumens it generates. We have 250 watt lamps as bright as some 1000 watts lamps. It is the type of lamp that is more important.

Why is the output of the fixture so important?

• The simplest reason is the brightness level, the brighter it is, the better it looks.
• The 2nd reason has to to do with light frequency output. More powerful fixtures are capable of producing much more deeper, rich saturated colors. 1000 Lumen fixtures simply cannot reproduce these colors effectively. This feature is especially noticable for such colors as red, purple, violet, dark blue, magenta, etc.