Four cost lines, not one
The unit price is the smallest line in most logo projector light budgets and the only one anybody quotes. Hardware, custom artwork, installation and the replacement cycle are the other three, and on a five-year view they routinely exceed the cost of the fixture. Price all four or you will be surprised twice.
What you pay for the fixture
Two things move the hardware price: watts and ingress rating. Output costs money because it needs a bigger LED, a better driver and more heatsink; IP44 costs money because it needs sealing, gaskets and a design that survives being opened. Neither is worth skimping on if the site demands it, and neither is worth paying for if it does not.
- Output, which sets the LED, driver and heatsink size
- Ingress rating, which sets the sealing and housing design
- Lens quality, which sets how much output reaches the wall
- Finish and hardware, which set how it survives the site
| Specification | Lower cost | Higher cost |
|---|---|---|
| Output | 15 W class | 150 W and above |
| Ingress rating | Indoor rated | IP44 for exposed positions |
| Optics | Fixed lens | Zoom with lockable focus |
| Artwork | Metal gobo | glass gobo with fine detail |
The recurring line
Budget for artwork as a subscription, not a purchase. A single logo projector light might need one gobo in five years; a twenty-site rollout will need dozens, and every one of them is a small project with artwork, proofing and shipping. Standardising the file and the size is the single biggest saving available.
Installation, power and access
Installation is where budgets break, because it depends on the site rather than the product. Access equipment, a new power run, out-of-hours working and making good afterwards are all variable and none of them appear in a logo projector light quote. Survey before you commit, and price the access separately.
- Access equipment — ladder, scaffold or powered platform
- Power run and any making good afterwards
- Out-of-hours or trading-hours working
- Fixings, bracket and cable management
Total cost of ownership
Total cost is dominated by whatever you have to do most often. If the logo projector light is easy to reach, cleaning is trivial and cheap; if it needs scaffolding, it gets deferred, output declines, and eventually somebody replaces a unit that only needed a wipe. Design for access and the running cost halves.
Cuts that cost you later
Save on image size, not on output. Halving the projected area doubles the contrast at the wall for nothing, and it lets a smaller logo projector light do the same job. Do not save on the ingress rating, the bracket, or the artwork file — those three cuts cost more than they save within two years.
- Reduce the image size before increasing the output
- Standardise the gobo size across every site
- Choose a surface with lower ambient light
- Keep the original vector artwork file
