Love these! We just put 4 in our new youth room with 9 foot ceilings, fans were pretty loud so I muffled the air intake grid on the back with some velvet super matte tape for projector screen edging, and cut slits in it to still allow air flow, being that they’re 9’ ceilings so close to the stage, we would never run these more than 30 percent brightness - it cut down on fan noise considerably!
Ryland, thanks to your previous videos on the boulders I went ahead and purchased 10 variable whites. Installed them a month ago for a school multipurpose hall and have been amazed by them especially for the price they’re at, I feel they can’t be beat. I’m now planning to purchase some RGBW fixtures in the future. Thanks again for all your videos and help, keep up the great work.
The differences between these fixtures are: color quality, component quality and warranty. The direct-from-China brands (Boulder, Shehds, V-Show, etc) have internal board design, LEDs, motors, etc that are least expensive options. For example, the LEDs are mounted on the PCB in the fastest/easiest way possible. They are not consistently aligned with the lenses. If you look at the fixture off-axis while using a mixed color, such as orange, the top area is more red, the bottom is more yellow. As the fixture dims very low, you'll see one color LED turn off before the other. The color at full brightness is different than the color at low output. Does any of this matter in a typical church environment? Nope. Having purchased dozens of off-brand fixtures, I will warn folks that I have seen a 10-15% out of the box failure rate, such as DMX not working or partially working, internal components loose, etc. Always buy from Amazon and test immediately after receiving them to take advantage of the return policy.
Glad to see someone making these kinds of videos. I'm tired of people acting like saving money is a bad thing in stage lighting. There is just no need to pay a 400% premium to a company just because they want to maximize profits for investors. As you can see from this video, the products do NOT cost that much to make, so it's all just corporate greed markup.
The R2 is a better wash light...it just is! BUT...the Boulder one is very nice, for a lower cost alternative...and especially for an US ground rig, I would definitely use them!
How smooth is the pan and tilt at slow speeds compared to the R2? Same for color mixing, is it smooth and linear on the boulder? Any inconsistencies fixture to fixture? My church has 10 Rogue R2Xs and we love them, but we’re looking to replace some older Inno Beam Z7s with something more modern and low cost. Thanks for the insight!
I have noticed that the newest boulder rgbw lights i got have a slight color diff from the ones I got three years ago. Nothing the congregation would notice but getting the perfect mix for an orange calls for diff. settings between the two.
How is the fan noise on both? That's a big deal where I'm using them in a Christian school theater. Need a quiet room. I purchased a couple of Elation Fuze-Wash 350. They've been great, but very expensive. These are above the audience but trying to find some quiet stuff for above the stage so when I've got a choir or a band, a play or musical, I'm not capturing/increasing the levels of the fans with my microphones. Love your channel and how practical it is, focused on ministry enhancement instead of tech takeover.
I have a lot of various moving head lights with fans. These are about the same as all the rest in my experience. Fans sound comparable between these two, although Boulder wins as it shuts off the fans when not in use :)
I have the R2x and I’ve used a variety of the generic washes. The color is not the same - the R2x will get you a much better white if you need it. I have used the R2x as a video key light and it looks fabulous. The generics look bad on people’s faces. The generics are pretty great.
This is a good comparison video, but I believe you missed some of the biggest differences between these lights. Dimming curves differences, as well as movement differences at fast and slower speeds. That is where you will see the biggest differences between these lights. I do not own any of the Boulder Pro lights, but I do have 15 of the Shehds washes. The dimming curve is not great, especially at slower speeds. Slow movements of the lights aren't great either. They jitter back and forth and are pretty much unusable for slow smooth movements. That being said, I do still like the lights and all 15 have been solid for me! I just had to learn their limitations.
While its a good video i also feel its missout on comparing the builtin effects you can run on smaller channel setting, those can be very lazy done on cheaper units compare to more costly once.
I've had a dealer demo for this exact shootout (plus a few robe and glp units) and the r2x definitely holds it's own for output. The auras however are touring proven and very reliable
There is a similar $300 fixture by a company called Shehds, Excellent output, but I find it dims poorly - very steppy, particularly over long fades like 10 seconds. Is the Blizzard fixture better at this? Would love to see more of the demo'ed fixture in action. Even though you Ryland, are very handsome, seeing movement, fades, color rendition would be super helpful. Thank you for the videos!!
I've actually got the SHEHDS version in my office waiting to review. I"ll be sure to do some dimming tests. TBH It's very rare that we do 10 second dims but I'll check it out.
I find out the hard way...go with chauved, they make very durable gear... chines generic products are cheap but you are gambling. the difference from.a pro and a beginners is the peo does not takes chances. 🤷♂️
@@ladjkaoz obviously if you are a touring pro then go with chauvet, Martin etc. if you are a small venue or church with minimal usage and not setting up tearing down all the time; I’ve had great luck with the lights I’ve purchased.
@RylandRussell I'm just a mobil dj, and I agree those cheap fixtures may do what fixture 10x in price may do but I don't belive in luck. we always get what we paid for. 🙏
The fans are about the same volume but I prefer the boulder because it is variable. Meaning when not in use, the fan shuts off. It’s hard to describe how loud a fan is but it’s very similar to most other moving head lights I’ve used.
Thank you for the insight and honesty around using them in a church environment. Its nice to see a product that works well and is affordable for most churches looking to expand on their worship experience. Keep up the good work !!
Dude the boulders are surprisingly good! We bought two at Christmas last year and then another at Easter and we used them as front lighting for our passion play as well as just back lighting and wall lights! And to be honest even if they don’t last but half as long as the chauvet it’s still worth it.
Hey Ryland, love your videos! quick question, Do you have the manual for the boulder zoom RGBW? I'm needing to build a fixture profile for our lighting software due to the fact our lighting software doesn't already have a boulder zoom profile. I've seemed to misplace the manuals for our boulder zooms and I can't find the manual anywhere on the web! Thanks!
The Rogue R2X Wash also has fan control and will turn off when the LEDs are off. It's on page 10 of the user manual, so it's not a win for the China Direct company.
