where to learn more about movers
- Thread startergregeye
- Start date
You can pay a ton of money and go take training classes from Vari Lite. Actually, that's a lie, as the classes are open only to either dealers or people who already have moving light repair experience. Or you could get a job in a shop and maybe even get paid to screw around with moving lights. I worked last summer as an Intern at PRG outside of New York, and it was the best experience I could have possibly asked for. I spent about 2 months working in the moving light department learning how to maintain and repair many, many different types of fixtures. The best part was the huge scale - I'd open up a VL3000 to figure out what was wrong with it and fix it, and when I was done, there were 50+ more fixtures waiting to be opened up. Unfortunately, I think it's just a little too late to apply for PRG this summer, and RI is a bit of a commute, but I'm sure you could find a shop near you that would let you work. Ideally, they'd pay you and also train you to repair fixtures, but a smaller company may not be able to justify that. But you might be able to work out a deal where you work 4 days a week slinging cable or whatnot, then spend one day each week in the ML department learning from the techs. Short answer: find a shop.
JD
Well-Known Member
Another way would be to pick up a super cheap mover (such as an ADJ), get the free copy ChamSyS MagicQ software and a dongle (USB to DMX adapter.) Set it up on your PC or Laptop, and sit in your living room and play.
That way you could spend as much time as you want to learning the basics. The MagicQ software board has many of the features you would find on a physical board. A cheap mover may only be 6 to 16 data channels wide, and be lacking in features and reliability, but you will still get a feel for dealing with X/Y axis cues, dark cues, and all the basics of running moving lights. As an added benefit, you can drive your pets and neighbors nuts!
Sample dirt cheap mover - American DJ DJSPOT250 Intelligent Moving Head Light
That way you could spend as much time as you want to learning the basics. The MagicQ software board has many of the features you would find on a physical board. A cheap mover may only be 6 to 16 data channels wide, and be lacking in features and reliability, but you will still get a feel for dealing with X/Y axis cues, dark cues, and all the basics of running moving lights. As an added benefit, you can drive your pets and neighbors nuts!
Sample dirt cheap mover - American DJ DJSPOT250 Intelligent Moving Head Light
Last edited:
Summer's probably not a great time cause rental houses are busy, but give a couple rental houses a call. Rental techs and sales guys love to talk about their products and all you can do with them. If the shop has a slow day and they've got time to burn, they'll probably be willing to take some gear out of their cases for you and let you play around for awhile.
Last time I was renting a few movers from a nearby shop, they said anytime I want to stop by, they'll let me play around with whichever movers and consoles they have in the shop that day. Good way to learn an MA, Road Hog, or Avo with a full collection of Martin and VL fixtures to play around with.
If you ask questions like "How does the CMY mixing work?" or "How do I change a gobo?", rental techs and sales guys LOVE to answer those questions (provided they don't have a huge tour to load into the trucks that day -- so call ahead).
Last time I was renting a few movers from a nearby shop, they said anytime I want to stop by, they'll let me play around with whichever movers and consoles they have in the shop that day. Good way to learn an MA, Road Hog, or Avo with a full collection of Martin and VL fixtures to play around with.
If you ask questions like "How does the CMY mixing work?" or "How do I change a gobo?", rental techs and sales guys LOVE to answer those questions (provided they don't have a huge tour to load into the trucks that day -- so call ahead).
Amishplumber
Active Member
JD
Well-Known Member
If you download the MagicQ software, it will run in a limited mode on a regular dongle. This will give you some intense board training as well which you may or may not need. If you are not interested in learning that kind of board, you can pick up a cheap mover board, like the Obey 40 (Chauvet) and use it (no dongle needed.) Just patch a DMX cable from the board to the light and start fooling around with it. The advantage to the MagicQ software board is it emulates a lot of the features you would find on a real board costing > $10k such as cue stacks, profiles, etc., and yet, the software is free.
The Chauvet light would probably work just as well.
In either case, the light is something you would probably never use in a show, but you get a feel for dealing with 3D programing. Movers use many data channels. The number of channels is directly related to the number of features the moving light has. A simple ADJ light only has about 6 channels. (X, Y, Color, Gobo, etc.) More professional fixture often have 16 to 32 channels to control many features. For example, if a fixture has CMY mixing, you may have 3 to six channels just for this feature (depending on if it is 8 bit or 16 bit mixing.)
Bottom line is you can learn a lot by spending hours of time "hands on" even if it is a simple light you are playing with in your spare time. I have often found "hands on" is a better teacher than reading up on the text. Consider the money spent on the light to be educational.
Once you get a feel for what they do, you may want to drop by a rental house and try some of their stuff out, but at least you will be walking in the door with a bit of knowledge under your belt. Have fun with it! That's the best way to learn, outside of taking a course on it.
Last edited:
Similar threads
Vintage Lighting
They want an upgrade not more old gear
