Freddie,
Great point! Yes a plasma spacelight is going to be heavier than a 6K tungsten, no question, there are RFdrivers (solid state electronics) and heat sinks (silent thermal transfer) aka lots more metal then your traditional spacelight, so more weight. In fact our Bumblebee comes in around 35 pounds. Having said that where you do save is the weight of rigging very heavy socapex, banded bates or 4awg cable to bring up 6,000watts of power to each light. With an 825 watt system the amount of cable is significantly less, at roughly 7lbs per foot of 4 Awg the weight of the reduced copper alone offsets the weight difference very quickly. Also with the long bulb life compared to 6 1K tungsten globes you are saving a lot of hassle from constantly replacing bulbs. But with any new technology there are tradeoffs, we still believe the benefits of plasma greatly outweigh (excuse the pun) any downside.
Cheers,
Jon
PS in case there is any confusion I want to repeat I am the co-founder of Hive Lighting which uses plasma emitters in our lamps, so I obviously believe in the technology, having said I aim to educate and answer questions honestly, also if you have any problem with any of our products, please dont' hesitate to tell us what went wrong or what we can improve.
Jon Edward Miller
Director of Photography
www.jonedwardmiller.com