Onething you have to understand about moving lights is that there is a lot more cost to them after the upfront
purchase cost. Consider that most moving lights that would probably be suitable or comparable to what you have been renting use lamps that cost over $100. Consider that you have to replace the lamps every 750-1000 hours of bur time to ensure that you don't experience spectacular lamp death (i.e. exploding lamps) and
fixture damage. Then consider what it costs to maintain the units. There is probably no one currently at your school with the knowledge and training to do any on-site service of the fixtures, which menas that on a regular basis you will be paying to
send them out for service. The more complex the device, the more skill and training and service required. Then you have to think about how to store these units when not in use. You can't just
throw them on a rack like a
conventional, so youneed
road cases ans space where they won't get bashed around or used as a table.
You also ahve to understand how educational budgeting works. Unless your
theatre department has some bigtime donors I think you will find it hard to
pitch the cost of any moving lights worth owning to the people with the money. Because of the way school budgets work, it is actually often easier to spend more money on something like rentals over time than to spend a big chunk of change at once. The real question is, what do you spend on rentals? I would guess that in a year you spend far less on rentals than the cost of the fixtures. Now, if
each time you rent you are spending
at least half the cost of the fixtures, then I would consider buying.
You still have to consider though, when you rent, the shop takes care of the units. If you have a problem, they can either fix it or swap it out, often at no extra cost (unless the problem or damage was caused by you). They will provide the lamps and make sure the units are in working order. Also, as mentioned, as the shop upgrades the gear in their rental inventory, you get to use new gear.
The other thing that I always ask when people have money to burn and want to buy moving lights is this: Is your
conventional inventory up to date? If you have units older than
Altman 360Qs or if you have broken, non-functional units, it would seem a more prudent investment to start by replacing them. Then consider if there are any accessories like scrollers,
gobo rotators, I-Cues, Right Arms,
etc. that would be used more often than moving lights that you could use. When you consider that for the cost of a pair of new moving lights that are worth using in
theatre (~$10k each) you could probably get 10 seachangers, I would pick the seachangers hands down. They would get used on almost every show whereas MLs don't. Thus a far wiser investment.
If you are dead set on moving lights, then stay away from AmericanDJ and Chauvet. On the lower cost end I would look at the higher
power Elation DesignSpots, but really it would be wiser to invest in units like the Mac700 or the new VariLite units. You probably want at least a 700w
fixture, and they aren't cheap. Robe and ClayPaky are also pretty good players in the ML field. If you are going to buy units, you want to make sure that you buy something that your local shop supports. If they are a
Martin dealer but not a VL dealer, then don't buy VL fixtures! Also, make sure that you demo units. Your dealer should be able to
line up demos for you. Make sure that you get units that actually do what you need them to do. So when you have the demo, don't just turn on the ML by itself, hang it where you would use it for a show and turn it on with the other lights you would use it with.