Intelligent Lighting Fixtures

[JD]

I am looking to add some intelligent lighting (two Chauvet Legend 150DMR motion base lights) to a static par based plot of about 36kw in a club type setting for a band. Most of my rear lighting is 1k pars (about 8) with deep filters (1% to 2% transmission factors on the gels, deep blues, greens, etc) and these would be from the rear as well. The idea is to add some splash to the show. The Chauvets use a 150w discharge lamp, which is a lot smaller than the 575HMI's their big brothers use. I can't find any specs on the actual light output. I am on a budget which precludes spending $6k on higher powered units, but there's no point in spending $2k if they will fall flat on their faces! My hope is the higher color temperature, and the brilliant nature of projector lights will cut through anyway. I've never used these smaller guys. Anybody out there use these before?

[jfitzpat]

If you are using 1K PARs (or even 36 kW of 500W PARS), I wouldn't hold my breath on much sizzle.

-jjf

[gafftaper]

Hey Jfitzpat, before you leave, take a moment to meet JD... He just introduced himself on the new member board. JD's an old road warrior like yourself.

I'd like to buy you two a drink and listen to the stories.

[JD]

I think I may have found a good compromise. The Chauvet Q-spot 250 uses a 250 HMI lamp. The price is not a killer (~1200 each) which brings me in the $2400 area. Most of the time when I add effect it is in a shadow mode with front lighting out of the picture. My gut was telling me that the 150DMRs might not cut it, then I found out it was a discontinued model so that kind of forced my hand. I let you all know how it works out.
Old Road stories! yea, quite a few

[beltsvillecrucib]

Just so you know,

I ran a show a couple months ago where we had lots of backlighting from 750w 360Q's (6X9) along with a batch of Mac 250+'s (250w discharge) and they surely didn't cut through as well as I hoped. Next time I would opt for something with a 500w discharge lamp.

[JD]

The Chauvets should arrive tomorrow. I am using them for a Reunion show, the plot is one I designed and used in the early 80's. My hope is to kick things up a bit since it's been 25 years I guess my fallback plan would to be to redesign some of the scenes to get the contrast needed for a bit of kick. (They will be used on a rear truss.) Of course if all else fails, I guess I could get out the old fog machine!
Thank you all for the input!

[jfitzpat]

Another fallback would be to put them on the front corners of a drum riser. The low, in your face angle would make them look brighter and you could get some shin-bust type looks as well.

Good Luck,
-jjf

[JD]

Well, they arrived! My first take is they should work. The output K reminds me of the old Satellites I used to have. To get a better idea of the plot I am using them in, here is a look back in time to 1980 when we did the show. http://witness.velmadinkley.com/locations.html We did this place for a 4 month run. It was a restaurant during the day and a rock club at night. The suspended ceiling was 9 feet up, with the true ceiling at 14 feet, so I put the whole grid, dimmers and everything on the real ceiling and replaced a lot of the tiles with Plexiglas. During the day they looked like black plastic so you couldn't even tell there was a lighting system up there. (Remember, this was the 80's ! )

[soundlight]

That's a cool idea! Looks like the lights shone through pretty well. Take some pics of the revival plot and post them in the show pics thread when you do the show.

[JD]

Yea, although my company did a lot of other shows, most of those were just filling technical riders for promoters. With Witness, I got to play with all the toys. After 25 years, the band is getting together to pull off some shows. We are planning to gets some shirts made up that say "Witness M.L.C.T" (Standing for Mid Life Crisis Tour.) I will definitely get some pictures. As for the Chauvets, I have yet to set them up side-by-side with a bunch of pars, but gave them a good workout last night. My gut tells me they will work fine as long as I don't try to get them to compete with hot scenes. Funny, for a "light" they are kind of heavy, or more so than I expected.