Source 4 MultiPARs: My love-hate relationship.

[gafftapegreenia]

So, the college has six, 3-cell ETC Multipars. Not bad units. Very very well constructed and strong. The hanging arms are nice and beefy. I've found that changing the lens is no harder than changing the lens in a normal S4 PAR. And, of course, you get the benefit of focusing three lights at the same time. Not to mention the end-to-end connections are also very convenient. But alas, that is where my love ends.

First, the hanging arms/floor trunnions are attached with bolts. Thus, to focus these fixtures, one must always have a wrench on hand. Ok, no big deal there, but it really starts to slow things down when all you need to do is make a minor tweak, and the bolts are tight. I would have much preferred to see yoke handles like those on regular CYC's and strips.

Second, the gel frame system is nasty to work with. The frames are withheld by a small belt spring and two small tabs. If you don't put the frame in these tabs, there is a bothersome amount of white light leak. So, to get a frame in, you have to bend it under the two tabs and then use a reasonable amount of pressure to push the frame in. Not easy to do on top of a Genie. So, in the process, you mash up the frame pretty bad. Then, when you go to take out the frame, you almost always end up smashing and wrinkling the gel because there is no good way to get at the frame without pushing in the gel. Then there is the fact that, while they accept top hats, you don't realize until you try to remove them that the top hats like to get caught up on the frame, making them a royal pain to remove.

In conclusion, me and multiPAR's have a love-hate relationship. They're convenient to hang and the fact that your focusing multiple lights at a time is time-saving, but, especially when it comes to changing color and focusing, they become a royal pain-in-the-rear and end up consuming the time you saved initially.

[Charc]

Originally Posted by gafftapegreenia

So, the college has six, 3-cell ETC Multipars. Not bad units. Very very well constructed and strong. The hanging arms are nice and beefy. I've found that changing the lens is no harder than changing the lens in a normal S4 PAR. And, of course, you get the benefit of focusing three lights at the same time. Not to mention the end-to-end connections are also very convenient. But alas, that is where my love ends.
First, the hanging arms/floor trunnions are attached with bolts. Thus, to focus these fixtures, one must always have a wrench on hand. Ok, no big deal there, but it really starts to slow things down when all you need to do is make a minor tweak, and the bolts are tight. I would have much preferred to see yoke handles like those on regular CYC's and strips.
Second, the gel frame system is nasty to work with. The frames are withheld by a small belt spring and two small tabs. If you don't put the frame in these tabs, there is a bothersome amount of white light leak. So, to get a frame in, you have to bend it under the two tabs and then use a reasonable amount of pressure to push the frame in. Not easy to do on top of a Genie. So, in the process, you mash up the frame pretty bad. Then, when you go to take out the frame, you almost always end up smashing and wrinkling the gel because there is no good way to get at the frame without pushing in the gel. Then there is the fact that, while they accept top hats, you don't realize until you try to remove them that the top hats like to get caught up on the frame, making them a royal pain to remove.
In conclusion, me and multiPAR's have a love-hate relationship. They're convenient to hang and the fact that your focusing multiple lights at a time is time-saving, but, especially when it comes to changing color and focusing, they become a royal pain-in-the-rear and end up consuming the time you saved initially.

Reasonable amount of force? Yea, that's totally unreasonable!

I got my first taste of MR-16 strips today. Cool things. Two MR-16s per cell. The frames sucked though.

[gafftapegreenia]

Well I'll tell you, one of my fellow electricians cut his finger rather nicely trying to take out a frame tonight.

Sure do love those MR16 strips.

[Les]

Speaking of cut fingers, try not to cut yourself on the lens spacer for a 360Q. I now have a small black scar where the cut was because of the paint. (it's powder like after years of use). This was a few weeks ago so it might be permanent lol.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by gafftapegreenia

...First, the hanging arms/floor trunnions are attached with bolts. Thus, to focus these fixtures, one must always have a wrench on hand. Ok, no big deal there, but it really starts to slow things down when all you need to do is make a minor tweak, and the bolts are tight. I would have much preferred to see yoke handles like those on regular CYC's and strips...

Hex Head Bolts were used to keep the spacing between units as close as possible. It's not difficult or expensive to replace the 1/2 -13 x 1” Hex Head bolt with a T-Handle. Is it wrong to use an Altman part on an ETC fixture?

The first year these fixtures appeared at LDI, a guy next to me said "It would be great if you could independently pan/tilt each cell." To which I replied "Then why not hang single cans?" He looked astonished, and wandered off.

I have never seen these fixtures in use, but I have to suspect they are better than the old PAR56/64 strips. What beasts those were!

As to MR-16 strips, the only time I see those any more is as footlights, with heavy frost in them, for TV awards shows.

[gafftapegreenia]

The handles, that's not my big problem with these units, just a minor inconvenience. No, my gripe comes with the gel frame system. I really don't see what would have been so bad about having spring-loaded access doors and slide-in grooves instead of this frame mangling, finger biting system.

Besides footlights, I most often see MR16 strips used as groundrows.