Low Cost Intelligents

[SAWYeR]

My high school's theatre department recently rented two MAC 700 Profiles for our winter musical production of "Ragtime". My Lighting Designer and I fell in love with them the moment we opened the road case, and we used them for great effects throughout the show. We were reluctant, to say the least, to have to return them after the show was over. Now we would like to get our own, but the problem is their cost. The only way our theatre makes money is through ticket sales, and most of the money goes to paying back the cost of wood, rentals, supllies, etc.
Now we are wondering: What are good alternatives to the MACs, but at a lower cost. We made around $17,500 before paybacks, so our pofit will be small, if any. Any ideas?

[Footer]

My advice, give that rental house a call that you rented them from, and tell them your in the market for some used gear. Let them know what you liked about the 700 and what you would like in a fixture. You can usually get some pretty nice used gear for a greatly reduced price. Also, most of the smaller rental houses love building relationships with local schools because they know they will always be there and always need gel, gaff, lamps, and all that good stuff.

[soundlight]

You got yourselves started on what is one of the most versatile fixtures in the industry. I'd wait until Elation's new Design Spot 575E has been released fully and get two of those. They'd fit very well, and they have a huge amount of features that are similar to the MAC700's. They'll be less than half of the cost of new MAC700's. The fixture is very close to the Martin line because one of Martin's folks went over to the Elation side, so you should start seeing some better stuff from Elation, like the fixture that I reccommended. You might be able to get a pair of those suckers for $9K.

Now if you need to have fixtures starting at $1K or under, well, then that's a whole different ballpark. First off, they're going to have far fewer features. Secondly, they're not gonna be as bright as the 700's, no where near it. Thirdly, zoom. It won't exist. At all. You'll be lucky to get an iris on a fixture that's under $1K. BUT, all that said, here's my reccomendation: the Focus Spot 250R. It's a great little fixture, and I've seen a few shots of them in use that look nice. And they have rotating gobos. They easily compete with the output of a MAC250, and they're rather small, allowing you to hide them easier, and put them in places with a smaller wing radius.

Under $2K per fixture the options open up a bit more, letting some
Robe equipment in, like the Clubspot 250 CT and the Colorspot 170 AT. You also get some more Elation stuff like the Power Spot 250 and maybe the Powerspot 575 if you get a good deal on it. Elation's Design Spot 250 could also be a really attractive option for your budget.

[ship]

continuing to rent them or the next phase of development would possibly be a solution.

Think about lamp cost, yearly at least service, and people screwing abut with the fixture in breaking it costs.

This much less do you always need say a few of even this fixture as used? More efficient to continue renting it? Possibility pehaps for while this is still the most useful moving light for you, you are not sticking future productions with what eventually become antiquated gear.

[gafftaper]

One thing Soundlight missed is that to get CMY color mixing you have to pay the big bucks. There are a lot of decent quality intelligents out there in the $3k range but I think you've got to get up over $5K before you get color mixing.

I would suggest you take a look at the VL1000 by Varilite. They are quite popular around here, do a search. They won't quite do all the tricks that the MAC 700 does. But they have CMY mixing, cost around $5K and are designed more with the needs of theater in mind.

Also to echo Ship, take a serious look at your maintenance and lamp budget. Can you afford $100 per year per instrument for lamps? Plus yes they do need regular checkups and repair.

Another very cool option that a lot of people don't know about is the Seachanger. It is an accessory for any standard Source 4 that gives it CMY color mixing. It won't spin and do tricks, but imagine having a dozen conventional instruments in your rig that never need gel and can instantly color mix. At about $1,700 each for the price of one MAC 2K you could have 10 Seachangers. While not quite as sexy, it's REALLY practical.

[soundlight]

The Elation Design Spot 575E has CMY. Also, the Elation Design Spot is gonna go for about $5K. So that relationship is gonna hold true.

Yar, you may just wanna rent. You may need something like the 700's for one show, you may need something like a vari-lite with framing shutters for another show, you may want some 1200W scanners for another show, and you may want a bunch of moving wash fixtures for another show. Plus, you can get experience with alot of fixtures that way.

[len]

Curious who you got them from and for how much, if you'd care to share.

[SAWYeR]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies. We rented the lights from a place called Intelligent Lighting Creations. What me and my friend really would love to use them for is our bi-annual dance show, Orchesis. We really thought we could put them to their full use there. We also thought about some SeaChangers for our Source4s. We have maybe one issue, and that is size, but only where we used them for the show, top hung on a pipe with C clamps in our FOH, where the distance between the pipe and ceiling is about 27 inches. Otherwise, we have 3 full-time linesets, plus the option of floor mounts. We want to know more about possibly used equipment, Vari*Lites (which my friend has used), and SeaChangers. Again, Thanks!!!

[Footer]

Originally Posted by SAWYeR

Wow! Thanks for all the replies. We rented the lights from a place called Intelligent Lighting Creations. What me and my friend really would love to use them for is our bi-annual dance show, Orchesis. We really thought we could put them to their full use there. We also thought about some SeaChangers for our Source4s. We have maybe one issue, and that is size, but only where we used them for the show, top hung on a pipe with C clamps in our FOH, where the distance between the pipe and ceiling is about 27 inches. Otherwise, we have 3 full-time linesets, plus the option of floor mounts. We want to know more about possibly used equipment, Vari*Lites (which my friend has used), and SeaChangers. Again, Thanks!!!

ILC loves educational theatre, give them a call about used gear. I know many schools in that area have bought used gear from them for a greatly reduced price. The owner of that company is a former Main South grad who went to Depaul for a period of time. They have pretty good gear and rent for a decent price. If you feel you can use those fixtures all the time, adding them to your inventory would not be a bad idea. If you think that you want a variety of fixtures, then you might want to keep renting. Its completely up to you.

[gafftaper]

For used gear keep an eye on Solaris Network. I think it's mostly stuff that they buy off of touring rigs. I've never purchased from them but they have been recommended by others around here in the past.