Yeah, don't listen to anything lwinters630 said. First of all, he/she can't know what degrees you want. Then right arms are almost never the right answer. I find them to be useless. A single good moving light
fixture in far better then a handful of right arms.
I cannot know how you should spend your money without knowing the
system in place, though if you can give more details about that we all might be able to give better suggestions. I do recommend a consultant, but make sure it's a consultant that consulted on a space that people are happy with and as mentioned by other that it is a consultant that does NOT work for the distributors or sales companies. You don't want someone to consult with you that will recommend buying the thing that makes them the most money instead of what makes your
theatre the best.
Now, things that I will say, I would recommend either the Congo Jr. or the
Ion (basically the same
console with reversed syntax, both the same quality just a matter of which you like to use), whichever is more common in the area. The Grand MA is a great
console, but for a
house that has different designers in it is never a good option as it is so customizable it can be confusing to even an experienced
programmer when stepping onto someone else's setup, and the
console will eat a much larger portion of your budget the something else. As mentioned before I also don't know if the budget is USD, or how Shekels compare if it's in Shekels. I would, if it fits in your budget, recommend buying at least a half dozen
wash movers, like
Mac Aura's or
Mac Quantums. They don't take a lot of
power but both have a lot of punch and give you a lot of choices. Then, if you have a
cyc or something similar I would recommend some sort of
LED for that, preferably something like an
Altman Spectracyc. Then if there is money left in the budget also buy a half dozen spot fixtures of some type. The
profile Mac Quantums are great with low
power usage and bright output. Then go ahead and make sure you have enough money to buy at least a back
wash system of
conventional fixtures (or good
LED units) and a couple front
wash systems of
conventional fixtures (and/or good
LED units). I would always recommend
Source Four Ellipses for front light (
LED or not) and either
Source Four Pars or
ETC D40's for
LED option. Then make sure you have a bunch more fixtures for other washes.
Again, this very much depends on the infrastructure already existing as well as the size and shape of the space and the
power available. Not knowing any of this it is difficult to give an exact picture. Also, every brand and
fixture I have recommended should be taken as a starting
point for comparison purposes when looking at units, but you should never just buy something someone else has used. Do your research, find out what is used in your area (always nice to be able to get a replacement if something happens and the local technicians and designers will know how to use it). I don't know how it works in Israel, but here I know I can always go to the local vendors and get them to demo the fixtures.
Make sure whatever you get does have enough brightness to be seen and has a good
dimmer curve so they don't pop on and off (the
LED units I have recommended actually do have a
bit of a
dimmer curve issue but they are the best
LED options I have seen so far, but that doesn't mean there isn't a better one).
One problem I have seen people here make is trying to save money and getting bad units because of it. For example, I have seen QWash 560's bought instead of Auras, but they don't have a good
dimmer curve and don't mix colors well. I have seen
Mac 250's or American DJ movers bought instead of the expensive ones but they don't show up on top of
conventional fixtures and you just
throw your money away.
I hope that this helps. Best of luck!
