Rainbow Flood vs. Aether

[cubbieco]

First off I know the Aether is brighter.  I know it has DMX built in and is a very fine light.  RJ is awesome.  Thanks as always.

With that said I'm wondering if somebody with experience with the Rainbow Flood lights and the Aether has an opinion on how much brighter the Aether is.  I'm thinking of something like "The Aether is as bright as 5 Rainbow Flood lights (or 3, 4, whatever)" or something like that.  I know it is hard to do and a matter of opinion but it is still something I'm curious about.  The area I'm thinking of using flood lights on isn't that big so Aether might be overkill for me but still I'd like to know how it compares so I know where to spend my all to limited dollars on flood lights this year.  I have watched the Aether videos, but the camera never tells the full story when it comes to brightness of lights.  I've built one rainbow flood so I have an idea on how bright it is, just not the Aether.

Thanks.

[tbone321]

Brightness is what it is.  The Aether is many times brighter than a rainbow flood but so what?  That is only part of the picture.  What you really need to do is see where and how these lights are going to fit into your display.  If you need range such as lighting up a large tree or a tall structure then the Aether will do a far better job there.  If you have a lot of small areas that are far apart or a setup where a single bright light can cause shadows then you might want to go with the rainbow floods.  You could also use multiple Aethers but if you don't need its brightness then why spend the money for it.  The key to the Aether is its range and it will take multiple Rainbow Floods to give you that range.  Also remember that Rainbow Floods need a controller and power supply big enough to handle the number you connect to it so there is an added cost to using them.  Not as much as the Aethers but not as cheap as one might think looking at the cost of the unit alone.

[RJ]

I have never had a rainbow flood so I could not say but the above post was almost dead on what I was about to say. He makes the perfect answer to your question. It is all about what you need. I needed a really powerful flood for what I was doing and every new one were brighter but people still were not satisfied so I built the brightest flood I caould get in that size housing while keeping the temp under control.

RJ

[cubbieco]

Thanks for the answer as always.  I guess the issue is I'm kind of brain storming for our little community theater to get some low cost colored lights for the stage.  I've read the instructions now though and I know RJ would strongly discourage home made lights in any kind of permanent installation so I'll look elsewhere.  Now that I think about it I see his point so I won't pursue this any further.

Thanks again for all you guys do and how responsive you are.

[Gary]

I did find RJ's videos kind of hard to judge the brightness as well. Maybe this will shed some light  D on the situation. Or maybe it will cause more confusion.

I had 5 Aethers in 2010's light display. Each one was anywhere between 5 and 12 feet away from where the light was being projected to. Even though I bought a bunch of 6, 15, and 30-degree lenses, I did not use any since they were too "spotlight-ish" at that distance. I have a 6th Aether, and I plan to use it in 2011 with one set of lenses and place it at the base of  the tall skinny tree on the left side of my yard (used a lot in the song Are You Ready for This) as that rather unusual-shaped tree is only going to become more and more difficult to wrap lights on as it grows. So, it's nice to have the flood or spot light flexibility of the Aether.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a video worth a million?
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Overall, I'm very pleased with the Aethers. I may well be RJ's best unofficial "salesman" because, once they were assembled, I loved the amount of "wow" they added to my display this past year considering how little time it took to plop them down in the yard compared to the amount of time I spent going up and down my step ladder, clipping up all the strings of lights onto my gutters, and attaching/hiding the power cables for them along the downspouts.  I liked  the Aether's straight forward all-in-one design and setup in the yard (no dealing with external power supplies, extra low voltage wiring, etc.); simply plug in the 120V power and DMX signal cables just like on the Express, and you're ready to amaze the masses.

[CB]

Speaking of Aethers, I am assuming that will be the next coop if I look at the poll results...

Also, I agree with tbone and Gary, the Aethers are incredibly brighter but your design will determine what type best suits your need.

[chrisatpsu]

the poll was not exactly a list on what to do next. It was more of a tool so if a coop manager wanted to start a coop, he could see a potential interest in an item.

[CB]

I know I was just fishing.

[zwiller]

Would anybody mind posting the aether’s final cost from the last COOP?  I understand a future COOP may not have the same results.  Many thanks. 

[chrisatpsu]

i think the lenses are they biggest variant in the price of the aether. and possibly the led's themselves.

[mokeefe]

Would anybody mind posting the aether’s final cost from the last COOP?  I understand a future COOP may not have the same results.  Many thanks.  

According to that COOP thread:

The costs including all Co-Op fees came to

Aether Kit $95.73 each
SMD Solder Kit $36.00 each

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-Mike

[zwiller]

I looked all over that thread and couldn't find that.  THANKS. 

[therealbigjim]

great job on the sequence, you did a lot with a few channels. 

[Gary]

For my display, I had 4 Express Controllers (using 58 channels out of the 64) and the 5 Aethers took 20 more, so that's 78 in total... I wouldn't call that "few", but I think that with the Aethers I can get some going on without needing more channels than what Vixen or I can handle. I plan to add one more Aether and about 40 more Express channels for this upcoming December; I'll see how my brain feels after that.

Not to change the subject of this thread too much, I'm intrigued the the American DJ Revo 4. You can do a lot with it using the 4-channel mode using built-in patterns, chases, colors, speeds, and strobes:

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[keitha43]

I am pumped about Rj's announcement of the Aether II coming  soon. No SMD, brighter light, less cost. What more could anyone ask for.