Acme Stage Par 100
Road Test

Acme Stage Par 100 Colour IP

Product Review by Pat Chambers.
Pat Chambers is a freelance LD that has spent most of the past decade touring the world with The Thunder from Down Under and Manpower. Pat has clocked up 25 years as a drummer, and 20 years as a touring production manager and lighting designer.

First published in CX Magazine June 2021
View Article Here

I was part of a team that recently upgraded the lighting rig at RSL Club Southport, along with entertainment booker and lighting operator John Martin and production manager Gary Walker. The venue was struggling to get the kind of whites on stage that videographers and photographers required at their corporate events, and the ageing rig of traditional fixtures and dimmers was beginning to become problematic to maintain and repair. Their old Parcans in particular were becoming harder and harder to find new lamps for.

I’ve been particularly impressed by the five position zoom selector. There’s a tab inside the ring of the can that slots into grooves. You just reach in there, move it to the position, and you can vary the beam angle to five positions ranging from 7° to 25°.

John and Gary had both seen and loved the Acme Stage Pars when an act brought them into the venue last year. They both commented how much they looked and felt like a traditional Parcan. When the venue’s committee gave the upgrade project the green light, Acme distributor ULA Group brought in some demo units. As soon as they turned them on, Gary said “Yes, that’s it.” We ordered 29 colour models, and eight of the warm white variation. All of us usually dislike LED Pars; particularly the ‘dotty’ look of the individual LEDs. As the Stage Par 100s have the single adjustable lens, they look almost exactly like a traditional Parcan. As part of the refit, we actually left some of the old cans up there, and the Stage Par 100s fit in beautifully. Their output is comparable, too.

I’ve been particularly impressed by the five position zoom selector. There’s a tab inside the ring of the can that slots into grooves. You just reach in there, move it to the position, and you can vary the beam angle to five positions ranging from 7° to 25°. It’s smooth and easy to change. You can fly the lighting rig in, change some beam settings, and it’s like it’s a different rig. The beams are great; from wide to very narrow. Even though we’ve got the front hung high and set wide, we are still on the middle setting, as we are upstage, and the coverage is phenomenal.

While we did have initial plans to use more of the warm white only fixtures, we discovered that the colour mixing on the Stage Par 100 Colours produced excellent warm and cool whites. We’ve ended up with four warm white and four colour models on the front bar, which is creating the right kind of white for the corporates. I’m more rock’n’roll, so I’ve ensured there’s also lots of colour up the front, and the stage is covered with plenty of punch. Once you add the warm whites on top of the colours, you have a crazy amount of light!

Control wise, we’re running a MagicQ PC Wing Compact and a touchscreen PC. On delivery, the fixture libraries were already installed and ready to go. I did half a day of programming, running the fixtures in full eight channel mode, and now there’s four pages of scenes set-up for John to play with. I can honestly say there’s nothing about the Stage Par 100 I don’t like. The strobe function, colour saturation and output are all excellent. The look and physicality of the fixture is just like a Parcan, and there’s nothing cheap or gimmicky about them, which is pretty common in the LED par market.

ACME AURORA – THE SPECS

  • Light source: 1 x 120W RGBW LED
  • Beam Angles: 7°/11.5°/16°/20.5°/25° manually switchable beam angles
  • Luminous Flux: 1913 lumen
  • Variable speed  strobe effect
  • Flicker-free management
  • IPX4 protecting rating
  • Dust and oil-proof design
    Installation – RSL Club Southport, Gold Coast QLD.

I can honestly say there’s nothing about the Stage Par 100 I don’t like. The strobe function,
colour saturation and output are all excellent.

Acme Stage Par 100 IP WW

Product Review by Neale Mace.
Neale Mace is the Manager of Gosford’s ei Productions. Since 1979, ei have used their deep experience in lighting and audio to provide production expertise and gear hire for touring concert productions and installation.

First published in CX Magazine June 2021
View Article Here

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to travel to China to visit the GETShow tradeshow in Guangzhou. I visited the very large and impressive Acme stand, which was full of moving lights, lasers and all of their most advanced technology. They also had a display of Stage Par 100s. I thought they looked amazing – they look just like Parcans! Their adjustable lens movement means you can change them to be an NSP, VNSP, FL, or WFL just by moving a tab.

Later, we went on the Acme factory tour. Their facility is staggering. It’s like metal and wood goes in one end, and lights in road cases come out the other; they do everything.

Later, we went on the Acme factory tour. Their facility is staggering. It’s like metal and wood goes in one end, and lights in road cases come out the other; they do everything. There’s a hotel on site, worker’s accommodation, and a shopping centre. Their quality control is also impressive; there’s QC staff at every stage of production checking work at every step of the way, which is one of the reasons they OEM for other manufacturers.
Acme had 40 Stage Par 100s mounted in the roof of a demo room. They ran a demo that looked like 1980s Queen lightshow, and I was sold. It just so happened we had a gig coming up that wanted a huge amount of Parcans with racks and racks of dimmers, and we knew there had to be a better way. We bought 84 of the warm white model and retired our old Parcans and dimmers. Now, wherever LDs want ordinary Parcans, we put these in.

We find that LDs that use them want to recreate those classic looks from the 70s and 80s. The first time we sent them out they were in pods of 16 each, and it looked like an aggressive, old-school light show. The single source, lens, and attention to detail in the design is responsible for their success in
replicating the original. People who used to shy away from LED cans because they think they’re cheap or the physical look isn’t right are converted when they see the Stage Par 100.

The Stage Par 100s can sit next to real Par64s and blend right in, while having all the advantages of LED. You can daisy chain power, there’s no heat, you don’t melt gels, you don’t blow lamps, and you don’t have to change lamps when the LD decides they want the back truss to be NSP. Lamps are so hard to come by now anyway, so all that messing about is gone.

The Stage Par 100s have been reliable and durable. They’ve been smashed around the country in road cases, in pods, and on Meatracks, and apart from the normal wear and tear of scratches and scrapes, they’ve proved more solid than an alloy can. Service and support from distributor ULA Group has been great. They always answer the phone and have prompt answers to any questions, but we haven’t really needed them for a product that doesn’t break!

ACME AURORA – THE SPECS

  • Light source: 1 x 100W WW LED module
  • Colour Temperature: 3000k
  • Luminous Flux: 4973 Lumens
  • CRI: ≥90
  • Beam Angles: 9°/15°/20°/25°/30° manually switchable
    beam angles
  • Variable speed strobe effect
  • Flicker-free management
  • IPX4 protection rating
  • Dust and oil-proof design
    Live Production – EI Productions