Show dictionary · Lighting
PAR Can
A PAR can is a simple stage light: a PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector) lamp housed in a metal can with a gel frame on the front. The lamp fixes the optics, so beam size is chosen by lamp type (VNSP through WFL), and the beam is characteristically oval.
In practice
For decades the PAR64 was rock and roll lighting: cheap, bright, rugged, and hung by the hundreds. The oval beam rotates with the lamp, so "spinning the bottle" to lay the oval along the stage is a real focus task, and the lamp designations (VNSP, NSP, MFL, WFL) are the entire optical menu.
LED PARs inherited the name and the form factor while replacing everything inside: color mixing without gel, no lamp swaps, a fraction of the power. The tungsten PAR survives where its specific warmth and punch are the point, and in every shop’s deep inventory.
How you’ll hear it
"Six LED PARs across the upstage truss for the band wash, magenta at 60 percent."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.