With their intense beam, fast pan/tilt and dramatic aerial effects, fast-action beam fixtures have drawn notice from designers in recent years, not with just the aerial effects but the ability to make the stage itself look bigger. Chauvet Professional’s Legend 230SR Beam, launched earlier this year, is positioned as an affordable and versatile fixture that gives designers the tight beam looks they crave.
Don’t let the 230SR’s light source, the Osram Sirius 230W lamp, deceive you. It may be 230 watts, but it packs a wallop of a beam, with 96,000 lux at 15 meters. Precision glass optics also allow for a tight 2.25° beam angle.
Curious about just how intense that beam can be? Do not, I repeat, DO NOT look down the barrel when the lamp is on. You will definitely be seeing stars for a long time afterward, and might even risk eye injury or loss of vision.
Beyond the Beam
Having an intense, bright beam makes for lots of cool looks, but adding color and patterns to the beam opens up a wide range of additional possibilities.
The Legend 230SR’s long list of extras starts with a 14 color wheel (plus open). To add even more color options, Chauvet designed the color wheel so that split colors are available. In addition, the entire wheel rotates at variable speeds to color blast at any speed.
The 230SR’s 17-plus-open gobo wheel gives designers lots of flexibility in changing the size and pattern of the beam. Although the individual gobos are not rotatable, the entire gobo wheel is, and six progressively smaller-diameter gobos are included in the wheel to make the beam tighter.
The remaining 11 gobos might be wacky and crazy looking on paper, but once you get them in the air, you’ll see some amazing shafts of light. While it would be nice to see that beam with gobo rotate, some sacrifices have to be made for the size of the fixture.
For wash capabilities and additional beam effects, the 230SR includes a frost filter. I found that bouncing the frost in with a gobo didn’t make up for the lack of rotation, but offered a different sort of effect that is still quite interesting.
To add even more razzle dazzle, there’s an 8-facet rotating prism. Now we are cooking with fire. While the gobos may not rotate, adding the prism gets those beams spinning and rocking, yielding some amazing aerial effects.
Hyperkinetic Speed
One of the defining characteristics of fast action beam fixtures is, of course, their pan and tilt speed, and the 230SR doesn’t disappoint. The fixture whips around its 540°/270° limits like a toddler on his second candy bar.
With 16-bit control of the pan/tilt, the 230SR is not only fast, but dead-on accurate. It will hit its mark every time. I am still questioning the need for an additional pan/tilt speed parameter inside the fixture, however. With a fixture like this, I always want max power; if not, I’ll just control the speed at the desk.
Along with its speedy pan and tilt, the 230SR’s internal components — gobo and color wheels and frost — are mind-blowingly fast, to the point where they make me think they have become unhinged and are just floating around. Then there is some black magic inside that makes it stop exactly where I want the wheels to be. Maybe the SR part of the fixture name is Speedy Raccoon — probably not, though.
Control, Connections and Power
The 230SR can operate in several modes, depending on how much control you want over the fixture, with the menu of configuration options visible and accessible on the fixture itself via an LCD screen and four buttons.
The fixture has 3-pin and 5-pin in and out connections along with a powerCon in connection. Since the 230SR only uses a total of 415 watts at 120V, it’s possible to have multiple fixtures on a 20 amp circuit. It would be nice to have a powerCon pass through on the fixture, but again, some sacrifices have to be made.
At a Glance
Speedy and Versatile
Overall, the 230SR was a pleasure to play around with. It’s a great fixture that packs a nice punch and lots of interesting looks at a reasonable price.
The base is a bit on the bulky side, adding to the fixture’s 41.3 lb. heft, and you won’t find any rotating gobos. But in my view, those — and the lack of RDM (remote device management) — are only minor sticking points with this fixture, and even those would not be deal-breakers for me; just nice-to-haves.
The most exhilarating thing for me about this fixture, however, is its speed. It’s like having a well-trained thoroughbred in the stable — quick to respond, and ready to help you put that beam exactly where you want it to be.
Legend 230SR Beam Features
Lamp: Osram Sirius 230W Lamp
Lamp Hours: 3000
Beam Angle: 2.25°
DMX Channels: 15 or 18
IP Rating: IP20
Line Voltage: Auto-Sensing; 100-240VAC
Weight: 41.3 lbs.
Size: 13.5” x 16.4” x 19.6”
Ratings: CE, MET
Retail Price: $2,797.92
