Road Test: Acme Stage Par 100 IP WW

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.

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. 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!

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Acme Stage Par 100 WW– The Specs

Light Source: 1x 100W WW LED module

Colour Temperature: 3000K

Luminous Flux: 4973 lumens

CRI: ≥90

9°/15°/20°/25°/30° manually switchable beam angles

Variable speed strobe effect

Flicker-free management

IPX4 protection rating

Dust and oil-proof design

Product Info: en.acme.com.cn

Distributor Australia and New Zealand: www.ulagroup.com