City Theatrical Short PAR 64 (Altman and L&E) Top Hats | Full Top Hat

Designers, lighting directors, and production electricians use this family to keep PAR 64 rigs disciplined at the fixture. When lens optics are marginal or lenses are poorly maintained, light can land on the audience or on scenery. A top hat catches that stray output at the source, a practical fix on the pipe that avoids reworking the plot.

Sightlines are the other job. Audiences and cameras often object to seeing the bright lamp itself, and a shield at the lens keeps it out of view. Offering both full and half styles gives you a real choice. A full style surrounds the beam, while a half style can be rotated with its full side toward the viewer so a brightly lit inner surface does not show. That matters on theatrical stages and camera-facing sets where the fixture should disappear.

One fitment note before ordering: these accessories are not recommended for use in 70 or 90 degree lens tubes, where extreme loss of light will occur. Confirm your fixture's lens tube before choosing a style, and remember that spill control and sightline control are separate goals that may call for different choices.