Marmite for some it is an umami complement to butter on toast, the perfect way to start the day. For others it is black tar that shall never touch their lips again. Party bars divide DJs in a comparable way.

Some love them, some hate them, but very few are ambivalent about them. Setting up an overhead bar with five fixtures above a standard DJ booth typically takes around 30 minutes, and sometimes as long as 90 minutes. 74 You’ve then ideally got to link them and connect them to a DMX controller. That is if you want to dim or control or black them out or change colours, which all adds to the time to setup and pack down.

A party bar deploys a similar number of fixtures in less than 10 minutes. Is this cheating or working smarter? Only you can decide. You pull it out of the bag, set the tripod height, switch it on, and within forty seconds you have a light show.

No patch cables across the floor, no half-hour of DMX programming, no anxious calls to the venue about available sockets. It is the Swiss Army knife of mobile DJ lighting, and for a significant slice of the market it has been essentially the only product worth serious consideration at its price point. CHAUVET DJ have form here. The original GigBAR IRC arrived in 2013, followed by the GigBAR 2, which added UV to the pars and strobes.

The GigBAR Move then upped the game by adding a pair of proper moving heads, spectacular, genuinely impressive, and significantly heavier and more expensive as a result. The GigBAR Move then added ILS (Instant Light Show) into the mix, giving you a control centre for the wider CHAUVET DJ system. Finally the current Move ILS+ added even brighter 35W moving heads as an upgrade. It is a truly great system and I have one in a hard case, which I use regularly.

However, petite, light and dainty it is not. The GigBAR 3 ILS takes a different path. Rather than go bigger and heavier, it takes a minimalist approach. Very aligned with how modern DJs work.

We know lots of light fixtures only look good with haze, hence so many review videos are done with a room full of haze. Lasers are a fixture that truly only really shines with haze without haze being lots of red and green dots on a far wall. Additionally with the advent of mirrorless cameras, lots of professional photographers are putting in their contracts no lasers, because even a low power one can damage their lenses, another reason for DJs to avoid them.

Which makes CHAUVET DJ’s move to ditch the laser a genius move. Out goes the laser, out go the strobes, and in comes an LED strip running the full length of the bar. The result is a 3-in-1 system that looks different from anything the GigBAR family has offered before. It also provides a wash light that works well even with haze.

The GigBAR 3 ILS is a 3-in-1 lighting bar comprising a pair of RGB+UV LED pars, a pair of LED derbies, and a 74-LED RGB strip spanning the full length of the unit. CHAUVET DJ GIGBAR 3 ILS Everything sits pre-mounted on a single aluminium bar with an included tripod, wireless footswitch and RF remote. At 13.2lb or 6kg it is the lightest p r o d u c t i o n G i g B A R y e t , meaningfully lighter than the GigBAR 2 at 6.6kg and dramatically lighter than the GigBAR Move + ILS, which tips the scales at 14kg for the bar alone and a hefty 26kg in the hardcase!

That weight saving is not trivial. When you are doing back-to-back bookings and loading gear in and out of cars at midnight, every kilogram matters. When we look at the weight of the bars across the years, the original sat at roughly five and a half kilograms, whereas the GigBAR 2 weighed in at six point six. The massive leap to fourteen kilograms for the Move + ILS makes the return to six kilograms for the GigBAR 3 ILS feel like a significant engineering relief.

In terms of effects, we have moved from the traditional derby, par, laser, and strobe quartet of the first two generations, through the moving head era, and into this new configuration that replaces the laser and strobe with the LED strip. The par LEDs have also seen a shift, moving from three RGB units in the original to RGB plus UV in the GigBAR 2 and current model, while the Move + ILS actually used three RGBAWUV (Hex) units. The par wattage is an area of some intrigue.

While many retailers and even the CHAUVET DJ website sometimes list the GigBAR 2 pars as 3.5W, the official user manuals, specifically the US edition revision seven and the European edition revision three, specify them as 2.5W. We have raised this with CHAUVET DJ for clarification, but if we take the manuals as authoritative, the GigBAR 3 ILS moves from 2.5W to 3.7W per LED. CHAUVET DJ GIGBAR 3 ILS chauvet dj gigbar 3 ils 75 chauvet dj gigbar 3 ils This represents a 48% increase in rated wattage.

While we are still waiting for official lux figures, a jump of that magnitude in LED power should translate to a meaningfully brighter wash. In the real world, comparing the units side by side, the upgrade is impressive. The beam and field angles remain unchanged at 13 degrees and 24 degrees, so while the throw characteristics are familiar, the sheer volume of light arriving at the wall is noticeably higher. The RGB plus UV quad-colour configuration is worth emphasising to anyone still using original RGB-only pars.

The UV channel transforms colour mixing, making skin tones look different and causing white shirts to glow. If your wash has ever felt a bit flat compared to professional demo photos, UV is usually the missing ingredient. In testing, the UV reactive clothing in the crowd jumped out even at a distance. It is not quite enough to throw a dedicated UV party, but it adds a richness to the palette that is essential for modern function rooms.

The derby specification remains steady with six LEDs in red, green and blue, covering a 114-degree arc. This is consistent with the GigBAR 2 and the pods found on the Move series, though the Move + ILS adds white to its derbies. In use, they fill the room with coloured moving beams at a speed and brightness entirely appropriate for the average village hall or private hire. Interestingly, the GigBAR 3 has no dedicated strobe effect.

The derbies can be strobed via their own DMX channel up to 20Hz, but if a separate white strobe is central to your show, you will need to factor in a standalone fixture. The LED strip is the real divergence here. It consists of s running the full 104cm length of the bar with a 174-degree coverage angle. This provides a wide, wall-to-wall wash of colour.

Beyond the light it throws, it adds visual depth to the bar itself. 76 When mounted above head height, a glowing bar of colour is far more interesting than an unlit metal frame. In the 132-channel DMX mode, there are 25 individually addressable sections, allowing for chases, animations, and gradients. Even in standalone mode, the strip runs its own programmes alongside the other fixtures without any extra setup.

For DJs who usually carry separate LED battens to backlight their setup, this built-in feature is a major convenience. I will miss the LED strip far more than I miss the laser. Speaking of the laser, its removal will be a talking point. A red and green scatter laser always looks impressive with haze, but as haze becomes less of an option, its utility diminishes.

Many corporate and wedding DJs avoid lasers entirely to protect expensive photographer sensors or to avoid issues with photosensitive guests. CHAUVET DJ GIGBAR 3 ILS JOIN JJOOIINN WED kkeettss TTiicc mm ffrr oo 99 ££11 High HHiigghh Join JJooiinn 115500 150 the tthhee US UUSS ff oo rr PROS LIVE The Tower Hotel London 22nd MARCH ‘27 International IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall ssppeeaakkeerrss speakers level lleevveell nneettwwoorrkkiinngg networking ooppppoorrttuunniittiieess opportunities ++ + bbuussiinneessss business oowwnneerrss owners ffrroomm from aaccrroossss across iinndduussttrryy industry ffrroomm from vveennuueess venues ttoo to DDJJss,, DJs, fflloorriissttss florists to ttoo cceelleebbrraannttss celebrants G GG e t ee tt i t ii tt c cc y yy k kk o oo e ee u uu t tt s r ss rr chauvet dj gigbar 3 ils If the laser was the core of your show, the GigBAR 3 is not a direct replacement for the GigBAR 2, but for the majority, the trade for the LED strip is a logical one.

In terms of connectivity, the Instant Light Show or is ILS is CHAUVET DJ's ecosystem for synchronising multiple fixtures without a DMX controller. The GigBAR 3 can be a slave to either a GigBAR Move + ILS or GigBAR Move ILS to expand your rig, or can be controlled with a ILS Command. A built-in In D-Fi transceiver communicates DMX or ILS signals wirelessly. Wired DMX is handled via 3-pin XLR with 2, 21 or 132-channel modes.

The 132-channel mode is quite complex, giving individual control over every section of the strip, the derbies, and the pars. For those using SoundSwitch or Wolfmix, this level of granularity is excellent. Setup remains as fast as we have come to expect. The reversible tripod bracket allows the unit to be mounted either way up, which is useful if you want to keep the pars lower and the strip at the top.

The colour LCD display is a noticeable improvement, making menu navigation much clearer than on earlier models. The included tripod adjusts from 1.5m to 2.4m, covering almost any mobile requirement. Power linking supports up to 11 units at 120V or it 18 at 230V, which is generous and reduces cable clutter significantly. 78 Regarding the cases, I have a long-standing love-hate relationship with the CHAUVET DJ bags.

They are well designed and protective, but the zips can sometimes be a weak point. I am hopeful the zip on this new case proves more durable. One major improvement that the footswitch and the tripod are now both stored within the main case. While this makes the bag slightly heavier, it makes the entire kit much more compact, which is a real win for transport. the real world, the GigBAR 3 ILS is a fixture for the mobile DJ who wants a capable, self-contained light show without the weight or price premium of the moving head models.

While the loss of the laser and dedicated strobes will matter to some, the addition of the LED strip will appeal to most because it genuinely changes the visual character of the setup. Where the older models looked like a traditional lighting bar, the GigBAR 3 looks more like something from a modern nightclub. This is not just a rebadged GigBAR 2; it is a genuine update that makes smart choices about what effects are actually useful in today’s market.

For those already using the ILS system, it is a natural expansion. For new DJs, it remains one of the most sensible first investments you can make. Overall, is a very welcome addition to the CHAUVET DJ range, offering a lighter, brighter, and more modern alternative to the traditional party bar. CHAUVET DJ GIGBAR 3 ILS Mastermix Magazine Advert 2_Print.pdf 1 11/12/2024 13:36: