What moving Head?

[cbetlyon]

I'm new to these forums, I'm a Highschool senior been working in technical theater for the last seven years. any ways my school has run into a possible large donation not sure the exact amount but should be enough for a decent intel lighting system. We have a ETC Expression 46/96.

i was thinking possibly two MAC2ks and a possibly a nice DMX controlled hazer.

any thoughts? I've herd some nightmare stories about reliability of the Mac2ks, any suggestions?

[BillESC]

Knowing more about how your theatre is outfitted, number and type of instruments, intended usage, etc., will help us to make more informed suggestions.

Be sure to say hello in the new members forum.

[gpforet]

Unless your theatre is currently BLOATED with conventional instruments, you'd be far better off investing in conventional instruments. For the price of one decent mover I can buy a multitude of conventional instruments and find far more application in theatre than a mover. Two Mac2k profiles will run you about $20k. That same $20k will buy you 24 channels of 2.k ETC sensor dimming and 20 source 4s. The few times I've needed movers for a theatrical productions, I've opted to rent them. As far a a hazer, then same holds true. I can buy two source 4s for the price of a low priced DMX hazer.

Originally Posted by cbetlyon

I'm new to these forums, I'm a Highschool senior been working in technical theater for the last seven years. any ways my school has run into a possible large donation not sure the exact amount but should be enough for a decent intel lighting system. We have a ETC Expression 46/96.

i was thinking possibly two MAC2ks and a possibly a nice DMX controlled hazer.

any thoughts? I've herd some nightmare stories about reliability of the Mac2ks, any suggestions?

[icewolf08]

Here is the real issue with owning moving lights in a high school setting. You make this very large initial investment on a very complicated and high tech piece of equipment. Now you have to maintain it! Consider that replacing the lamps in these fixtures will run you over $250 when you have to do both fixtures. Then consider who will be handling the fixtures. Unless your supervisor (teacher, drama person, TD, or whatever) knows how to do maintenance on these fixtures you will have to send them out for service, if and when they need it, and in a high school, they will need it! All of this costs a lot of money, the cost of ownership of moving lights can be very high.

I would suggest looking at our collaborative article about the Gafftaper Method. Gaff is one of our members and through a lot of discussion came up with the method. In a nutshell, it talks about using other devices to achieve that effects that you more commonly use from moving lights. So you might consider buying color scrollers or Seachangers to produce color effects, which is usually the most common use for moving lights in theatre. You might pick up some gobo rotators, Apollo Right Arms, or I-Cues.

As was mentioned, you should also think about making sure that your inventory of conventional fixtures is where you need it to be. I have been in many high schools where they have a great theatre and not nearly enough lights to create simple washed for a show. If you don't have enough conventionals for a front wash, a back wash, a side wash (from each side) and a template wash then i would seriously look into conventional fixtures before anything else.

Also, if you are going to get into any type of DMX controlled gear, you might want to think about upgrading your control. You might want to step up to an ETC Element or one of the Strand Palettes which will make programming any DMX gear you get much easier than the Express.

[cbetlyon]

hey guys thanks for all the speady responses. i have much to think over and discusse with my techincal advisor, considering any purchasing will go through him.

by the way the theater in question a fairly large black box theater the grid is 27' from the floor, cant remebr the square foot but its quiet large compared to many of the colleges ive visited.

[JChenault]

Before you run get scared away from the idea of movers, let me make the case for them in your environment. If all of the following are true, Movers may make a lot of sense for your space.

• Do you have a good complement of conventional fixtures? If you can't put up basic area lighting and color control you need to do that first.
• Do you have some form of color control? Either a scroller or some kind of CMY mixing on a major functional system or two. ( For example can you put scrollers on your sidelight or downlight? )
• Do you run out of room on the pipe, or dimmers, or time in being able to hang specials? If so some moving lights can multiply these limited resources giving you more dimmers, space, or time.
• Will you have budget in the future to maintain the movers - and does your school have enough technical savvy not to do break them needlessly?
• Can you put the movers in place and leave them there? The maintenance on a mover is needed less frequently if it can just go in the air and stay there. (This one is less important than the other items. IE if you have budget and tech savvy you can afford to move them more than if you do not.

Given the right environment some movers can be a very cost effective way of adding flexibility and capability to your space.

If you pass this filter, I would argue that you are a candidate for some movers. What flavor makes sense depends on a lot of things you have not told us like:

• What kind of shows you do?
• What do you plan to use them for?
• What is the throw distance?

If you want a mover that blends in with your conventional fixtures in drawing room comedies, musicals, or plays - that takes me down one path. If you want a mover to punch through the conventionals for a rock and roll show that takes you down another path.

[mstaylor]

I vote for adding dimmers, arms to convert conventionals to movers, scrollers and a better board. Any or all of these options should be considered and filled before any movers are pondered.

[beltsvillecrucib]

The 2K's will eat up the channel count on your Express, not to mention they will be a nightmare to control.

If you are going to go the mover route you will want to update your console as well.

[JChenault]

Originally Posted by mstaylor

I vote for adding dimmers, arms to convert conventionals to movers, scrollers and a better board. Any or all of these options should be considered and filled before any movers are pondered.

I don't think we know enough to be this dogmatic. How many dimmers do they have? How much power for additional dimmers? What is their complement of conventional fixtures?

Adding dimmers costs a lot more than just the equipment. An express is a fine board for conventional fixtures - I am not sure why you would want to upgrade at this time.

My experience is that if you are limited on dimmers / space / time that investing in movers and (possibly) a software package to control them is far more cost effective and powerful than simply adding dmx devices. (With the possible exception of scrollers ) See Moving Lights In Theatre - Why TheyMake Sense. for an analysis I did of a recent show in my venue.

[KeepOnTruckin]

Let me support the side of the moving heads. I went to a high school that had a good dimmer system and a reasonable number of lights. When we found some money, we picked up 3 MAC 550's. Two were hung mid-house and one was above the stage. Since a high school theater is used for a lot of other performances besides theatrical shows, the moving lights worked great. Usually it would be just 1 person who would have a limited time before the show to set lights (or no time at all, and would do it live) and so it was a lot faster to do that from the light board rather than get out the genie and focus individual lights (which also requires at least 1 more person actively helping out. Also whenever you have a rock concert they look GREAT!

We didn't ever move them around and after 2.5 years they are still on the original lamps. The trick is to be smart about how often you are striking the lamp. Think "if I strike it now, how long am I going to be using it for, and will I have to turn it off soon" If it is going to be shut off soon after striking then probably better not to use it.

Light board was an ETC Expression 3, so a similar board to the express although I could see that trackpad getting annoying.