Gear Review - OmniSistem LED Par 56 Pro (Short)

OmniSistem Par 56 Pro (Short)
By Joe Staniszewski (JBS Entertainment)

Note
First let me state that the opinions expressed herein, are my own and are in no way those of ODJT.com or of anyone employed by ODJT.com. I base my opinions upon hands-on experience and testing of the OmniSistem Par 56 LED (Short). I wish to thank NLFXPro and OmniSistem for the opportunity to run this product through its paces and to evaluate its capabilities in our public forum.

Packaging & Shipping

My unit arrived Wednesday 1/13/2010 in one large box delivered by UPS as was predetermined by NLFX Professional (www.NLFXPro.com). Upon signing for the package, a nice 26lbs, I found the outer carton in good shape. Opening the outer box, I found 6 individually packaged units neatly packed inside. No additional packaging was noted, nor necessary.?
Rating: Very Good.

Initial Impressions

After I pulled a single unit from its individual carton, I inspected the unit for flaws or shipping breakage. There was none. The piece was individually wrapped in a plastic bag & a second plastic wrap was secured across the hanging bracket. The hanging bracket is short & like many LED par cans, the DMX input/outputs are center-mounted under the fixture. I understand OmniSistem makes a Par Can Stand & will have to check them out to see if they will make the DMX ports more accessible for vertical mounting. The power cord is a standard 3-prong, grounded Edison which measures 3 ½ feet in length. Ben at NLFX Professional advises that they are working on a power-linking version, similar to the Chauvet Rain 56 LED units. Another thing I noticed was the clear lexan plastic covering the 151 10mm LEDs (51 red, 51 green, 49 blue). This is a nice touch which will definitely protect the LEDs from foreign objects & light damage.

The user manual is a short 5 pages, but well written & straight-forward. The first 4 pages concern themselves with the usual warnings & operating directions. The last page, page 5 is where it is all laid out – the Dip switch settings for DMX and stand-alone usage.

DMX-512 Channels:
Ch 1 –
064-127 RGB Fade in & out?
128-191 RGB Chase?
192-255 RGB Dimmer
Ch 2 - Red Dimmer
Ch 3 - Green Dimmer
Ch 4 - Blue Dimmer
Ch 5 -
011-100 Auto-chase
?101-255 Sound Active

Stand-alone Channels:
Dim the 2 colors:?
1,2 On Red?
3,4 On Green?
5,6 On Blue

For stand-alone static colors – Dip switches 7 & 8 must be left on.

Fade in & Fade out – Adjust speed by 1-6. Dip switch 8 is on.

Static Mode
As these units will be used for up-lighting, I figured the first logical step was to try the LED Par 56 in a static mode. So I attached a par can base that I had previously purchased from Bill @ Entertainment Systems (www.entsyscorp.com) – these units are of a 6”x6” wooden square base construction. Static colors of red, green, blue & a color mix were compared with photographs taken.

The unit on the left is the OmniSistem LED Par 56. The unit on the right is a first-generation Chauvet Rain 56 LED. A yard stick is place in between for a visual reference point.

For the RGB colors, there was little to no color difference. However, when mixing the red & blue – 1,2 & 5 on for both. The Chauvet Rain unit produced a brighter pink coloration. The OmniSistem unit had more of a bluish tint, but you could still see the red/blue combination.

With the side-by-side comparison completed, it appears the OmniSistem LED has an almost equal beam spread when compared to the Chauvet Rain 56 LED.
?Rating: Excellent

DMX Mode
DMX mode not evaluated due to placement of DMX input/outputs & lack of right-angle (90*) DMX cabling.
Rating: N/A

Final Analysis
Overall, would I buy the OmniSistem LED Par 56 Pro (Short) to use for up-lighting purpose? Yes. I have replaced my inventory of Chauvet Rain 56 LEDs with this initial purchase of 6 OmniSistem LEDs. The fixture’s longevity cannot be stated at this time as it is new and stands without a proven track record. With the quality of construction I have seen in the test unit, I have no reason to believe it would be problematic. With the current up-lighting bases, I would be unable to connect DMX cables to achieve a vertical up-light column. However, I will be willing to try and replace these bases with an OmniSystem Par Can stand if they allow for better DMX cable access. Pricing has yet to be released, but should be forth-coming in the coming weeks. Thank you Ben & NLFX Professional!

Overall Rating: Very Good

Written by: Joe Staniszewski (JBS Entertainment)?

More Pix

Few more pics...
OmniSistem Par 56 LED Pro (Short) on the left. Chauvet Rain 56 on the right.

atomicfission92 said:

Why did you replace the Chauvet Rain's with these OmniSistem's? Just wondering as I can't really tell a difference in brightness between the 2 units from the photos and the Chauvet looks like it has more vibrant colors.

And from the prices I see online the Chauvet's are cheaper and has on par performance.

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I replaced the Rains after I had a brand new unit fail after 20 minutes out of the box as I was setting up for a wedding reception. If I have a piece of equipment, it has to work, every time. No "maybes".

I don't know the prices yet - but I believe they are coming soon.

Edited to add: The OmniSistems have a more solid feel to them vs the Rains which feel like a lighter aluminum & have bent easily.

Thank you.

UPDATE - Last night's event

**REVIEW UPDATE**

Last night I had a last minute "Double" Sweet 16 book our services - no, not a 32 y/o BD party, but 2 16 y/o friends that wanted to have their party together.

It was held in a multi-purpose room at a local church - looking at the room, it looked like where their weekly Worship & Praise services took place. Some VERY NICE audio gear - FOH mixer, floor monitors, drum kit & some installed pars on DMX relay packs were seen on the stage where I was setup. Not to mention at least 4 46" plasmas spread across the stage.

Looking at the room layout & talking briefly with the parents for both kids, I explained that I just received these new lights to review them, & would like to offer them for their party (no additional charge) to see what they look like in use at a real-life event.

None of them objected & I went to work setting them up in a aqua static color (based on their balloon colors) - #3 green on, #5, 6 blue on (for the dip switch settings). Stringing out 2 25' mox cables - I set 4 lights along the one wall & the other 2 in an area where there were some tables setup, but would have otherwise been in complete darkness. In all, it maybe took 10-15 minutes to get them in-place & set.

One thing I immediately noticed when tidying up the cords on these units is that the manufacturer isn't using the stiff rubber cords that were found in the first generation Rain 56s had, but these cords had a more pliable rubber jacket, that would flex easier when placing the cords up against the floor/wall joint & stayed put; allowing for a flush, neater setup.

Second, the feel of the cans were solid. No flimsy metal construction was felt at all.

The parents loved the look & the one mom whipped out her Nikon Digital SLR (Don't remember what model), but she was taking PLENTY of her own pics - both of the setup & then during the dancing. I hope to see some of the setup pics she took in the coming days.

Here are a couple of pictures I took last night. The laser dots are from an ADJ Galaxian 3D laser that was on (sound active mode).

Cheers.

Joe

jokerswild said:

I can't seem to find this light on the NLFX website.... what's the damage cost wise for a light like this?

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Don't think they're on the site yet.

Actually, I don't know what the price will be yet - Ben was working on that before he left for NAMM.

I think they will be around the same as the Rain's- but as I said to Ben, even if they were $10 - 20/more per fixture & WORKED (unlike the Rains), then the cost would be worth it over the life of the fixture.

YMMV....

Cheers,

Joe


PS: Speaking of price, I'd like to see the price of the uplight bases that OmniSistem sells.

Just received this photo from the one mom - turns out she's mentioned me in her blog.

Wow -

I hope that everyone likes them - it's humbling to see the response.

(Now to get that pricing from Ben....)

Cheers all,

Joe

**another review update**

**ANOTHER REVIEW UPDATE**

As it was asked of me on another DJ Forum, will these fixtures hold a custom color that is set with a DMX controller?

To test this, I pulled a couple of fixtures - setting a custom color mix with an American DJ DMX II controller. Connected the fixture, set the color, then d/ced the DMX cable.

These fixtures will hold the programmed color until AC power is d/ced from the fixture.

NICE!

A nice solution if you have a room set for a single static color, but you don't have to run a complete DMX circuit.

If someone unplugs a fixture, well, then you have to reset the fixture.