Why the unit price misleads
The unit price is the smallest line in most waterproof gobo projector 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.
- 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
Hardware
Price follows the thermal and environmental specification more than the marketing category. A waterproof gobo projector built for an entrance canopy will cost more than one for an exposed wall for reasons that are entirely justified — better seals, better heatsinking, better finish. The saving is real only if you never needed them.
- 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
The artwork cost hides in the reorders. Engraving a glass gobo is not expensive per unit, but minimum quantities, shipping and the time spent re-approving artwork add up. Keep the original vector file, record the gobo reference, and every future reorder is a formality rather than a redesign.
- Engraving per unit, and any minimum quantity
- Artwork preparation if the supplied file needs work
- Shipping, especially on small reorders
- Lead time, and the cost of waiting
Installation, power and access
The surprise lines are access and power. A waterproof gobo projector that needs a cherry picker, or a new switched spur run across a finished ceiling, can cost more to install than to buy. Both are visible in a ten-minute survey, which is why the survey is the cheapest part of the job.
- 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 waterproof 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.
- Hardware, once
- Artwork reorders, every rebrand or new site
- Cleaning, twice a year
- Power, continuously
| 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 |
Where to save and where not to
Spend on the survey and the artwork, save on the headline wattage. A correctly sized waterproof gobo projector, aimed at a well-chosen surface, beats an over-specified one pointed at the wrong wall — and costs less to buy and to run.
- 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
