ADJ Vizi Reliability / Hybrid Moving-Head Selection Question

Hello, ControlBooth!

I am looking for new moving-head fixtures to recommend for my high school. These lights will be installed in-house to serve as colored front-lighting for our pit and stage areas. In my product search, I was looking for a hybrid fixture, because we need the versatility to set them as a colored wash light, automated spotlight, or effect light (through color, gobo, or prism FX). Budget-wise, I was looking around the $1500 - $3000 range (could be a bit under or over for some fixtures). I have the following features prioritized:

• Fixture uses an LED and not a discharge lamp -- I know this limits my options, but, after I graduate, nobody will go to replace the lamp when it dies (the fixture will be installed in a hard-to-access location). So, an LED core (with 30,000 to 50,000-hour average life) will be much better than a discharge lamp with only a 1,500-hour life.
• Spot and Wash capability -- As I mentioned, I need something that's good with FX but can also serve as a regular wash light. Within these hybrid fixtures, I assume the wash effect is created through a frost filter, and that works fine for my application.
• Variable zoom -- I need something with a high zoom range (my guess would be anywhere from 5 to 30 degrees).
• Full RGB / CMY color mixing -- The ability to smoothly fade between colors is important, so color mixing would be nice. In my fixture choices (see below), one of my selections does not have color mixing, but I only made that cut to save some money, and I'd rather not lose this feature unless absolutely necessary.
• CTO 3200K color choice (preferably on color wheel) -- I need to have the option to easily set the fixture to output (roughly) 3200K white (this warmer white is what all other fixtures in the room use and is the best fit).

After doing my product research, I decided on recommending four ADJ Vizi BSW 300 fixtures and two ADJ Vizi CMY300 fixtures. These perfectly match the feature-set we are looking for; however, upon bringing these up to my adviser, he recommended we search for other fixtures because of ADJ's reliability. This brings me to my two-part question: (1) For our purpose, do you feel these ADJ lights will not be a "good," reliable workhorse? If anyone has used either of those movers, I would love to hear your thoughts on them! (2) If you feel these lights aren't going to have good reliability, is there anything else within my price range that best meets the feature needs described above?

After considering it further, if you guys don't think there are many viable options in the price range, then I guess they all don't have to be hybrid. I am purchasing six fixtures. At least three of them have to be hybrid, but three of them could just be wash lights

Thank you all for your help!

Honestly, while ADJ has come a long way, I wouldn't recommend them for a high school setting. I'd look to their professional brand, Elation Professional, or also fixtures from Chauvet Professional. For spot fixtures: from Elation, look at the Artiste Davinci. From Chauvet, look at the MK1 Spot.

However, I think that in your case - and that of many schools - some wash fixtures would go a long way. They have motorized zoom so they can spotlight perfomers, and their zoom range is generally much greater than that of their spot counterparts - especially for the price. Check out the Chauvet Rogue R2 Wash (or R3, depending on how big your space is). I know of some schools that have those and have had great success with a few from the FOH position. Allows for remotely refocusable wash as well as performer spotlighting. The "Wash" on spot/hybrid fixtures - especially the ADJ ones you mentioned - is generally an afterthought compared to the spot feature, so it won't be as good as you want. The color mixing of those CMY units - while good enough for rock n roll for sure - isn't something I'd want for theatrical frontlight. The additive system of the Chauvet Rogue washes is much better.

Christopher Dix said:

...after I graduate, nobody will go to replace the lamp when it dies (the fixture will be installed in a hard-to-access location)...

...

This brings me to my two-part question: (1) For our purpose, do you feel these ADJ lights will not be a "good," reliable workhorse?

Click to expand...

Hi Christopher, why are you the only one who is able to access these fixtures? As someone who is a student, I'm curious how you'd be the only person able to care for these costly investments. While I agree that ADJ's products are in no way comparable to Clay Paky, every moving light will need care from time to time. Moving lights mean moving parts, and if these are installed in such a way that makes maintenance impossible then it's only a matter of time before you have 6 dead lights becoming a monument of money that could have been better spent.

My two cents is to first revisit your plan for installation and long-term maintenance. It may be that your logistics dictate a solution different from what you first envision. Hope this helps!

soundlight said:

Honestly, while ADJ has come a long way, I wouldn't recommend them for a high school setting. I'd look to their professional brand, Elation Professional, or also fixtures from Chauvet Professional. For spot fixtures: from Elation, look at the Artiste Davinci. From Chauvet, look at the MK1 Spot.

However, I think that in your case - and that of many schools - some wash fixtures would go a long way. They have motorized zoom so they can spotlight perfomers, and their zoom range is generally much greater than that of their spot counterparts - especially for the price. Check out the Chauvet Rogue R2 Wash (or R3, depending on how big your space is). I know of some schools that have those and have had great success with a few from the FOH position. Allows for remotely refocusable wash as well as performer spotlighting. The "Wash" on spot/hybrid fixtures - especially the ADJ ones you mentioned - is generally an afterthought compared to the spot feature, so it won't be as good as you want. The color mixing of those CMY units - while good enough for rock n roll for sure - isn't something I'd want for theatrical frontlight. The additive system of the Chauvet Rogue washes is much better.

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Hi, soundlight,

Thanks for the advice! After doing further research into products on the market, I found the Elation Fuze Profile, which seems to best meet my needs (and, based on the other fixtures in the Fuze series, should fit my budget when released). We were also looking at Elation Fuze PARs to create an onstage LED wash in the future, which is why I decided to check that product line again. While I agree that wash fixtures (I was looking at the Elation Fuze Wash Z350) are a very good value for most similar applications, I feel that the feature-set of the Fuze Profile better met my needs, which is why I'm planning to recommend it. (My school's auditorium also has a front wash of Source Fours -- The main function of these fixtures would be colored front-washes, gobo and amination projection, and general lighting for the pit area in front of the stage.)

Thanks again for your help!
- Chris

Jeff Lelko said:

Hi Christopher, why are you the only one who is able to access these fixtures? As someone who is a student, I'm curious how you'd be the only person able to care for these costly investments. While I agree that ADJ's products are in no way comparable to Clay Paky, every moving light will need care from time to time. Moving lights mean moving parts, and if these are installed in such a way that makes maintenance impossible then it's only a matter of time before you have 6 dead lights becoming a monument of money that could have been better spent.

My two cents is to first revisit your plan for installation and long-term maintenance. It may be that your logistics dictate a solution different from what you first envision. Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Hi Jeff,

I did not do a good job of explaining this in my original post. In the past, the school has not kept on top of fixture maintenance well (I started working on their crew to find an ETC Sensor dimming rack that had 10 years worth of dust in it!). The only service the school's maintenance staff (outside of the lighting crew) have done is replacing dead lamps in the house lights twice per school year (most of the school year is spent with many house lights burned out). If they can't keep on top of that, then I imagine it will be a long time for lamp replacement if one of these LED lamps were to die (probably many months). Thus, I meant my original quote to say "once the lamp dies, the fixture will most likely have very long downtime before it's serviced." We were planning for these fixtures to be installed on side-posts in the front-of-house, and servicing them would require taking a lift down from backstage. It will be possible for others to access them; it just will be difficult enough such that people at the school won't do it very often. However, I do realize that these fixtures will need regular maintenace, and, thus, I want to establish a process where a service technician is contracted to come in and perform routine maintenance on them (as well as every other fixture in the room) at the beginning of each school year.

Thanks for your recommendation and bringing up an important consideration!
- Chris