Four cost lines, not one
There are four cost lines and only one of them is negotiable after delivery. Hardware is bought once, artwork is bought repeatedly, installation is bought on site, and running cost is bought every month. Understanding which is which is what makes a rotating gobo projector budget accurate.
- Hardware — the fixture, lens and bracket
- Custom artwork — the gobo, and every re-cut after it
- Installation — access, power and making good
- Running cost — cleaning, power and replacement cycles
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; IP65 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
The recurring line
Custom artwork is the recurring line, and the one that gets forgotten. Every rebrand, every new branch, every seasonal change means another gobo; if you are running a rotating gobo projector across several sites, that is a standing cost, not an one-off. Standardise the gobo size across the estate and reorders become cheap and quick.
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 rotating gobo projector 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
Running cost over three years
Total cost is dominated by whatever you have to do most often. If the rotating gobo projector 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.
| Cost line | Frequency | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Once | Output and ingress rating |
| Artwork | Every rebrand or new site | Number of sites and change frequency |
| Cleaning | Twice a year | Access method, mostly |
| Power | Continuously | Wattage and daily run hours |
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 rotating gobo projector 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.
- Halve the projected area rather than double the watts
- Pick a matte, light-coloured surface
- Mount square to the beam to avoid wasted output
- Hold the artwork file and gobo reference on record
