Auto Track Motion Lights

drawstuf99

Active Member
Hey,
My last theatre teacher mentioned to me that we were able to get a new light that could actually follow actors onstage when they wore a beltpack. So, the light tracks the belt pack so it works as an automated followspot.
Since then, we have gotten a new theatre teacher (who sucks) and he wouldn't know what kind of fixure or plugin it is. I'm kind of new to lighting - I can design stuff and do that sorta thing, however this fixture is a mystery to me. What's the kind of fixture he was talking about? Or fixtures?
Thanks for your help everyone, I just registered and I've looked around the site for a while and it's awsome!
Andrew
 
I've seen this in a church install once. The church's stage was in the round. They used a pretty complex system of 8 spots. The motion sometimes tended to be gittery, and sometimes fails. But the system does exsist. The name escapes me. You could do some google research.
 
We have some Mac 500's (maybe 500e) and I heard years ago that with a belt pack and some other equipment it would be possible to do it with these, but I have no idea how accurate that is.
 
I would highly advise against the Auto Pilot system. While designing a show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA, the master electrician was telling me about when they attempted to use the system at the Mark Taper Forum (a nearby venue). Apparently the system was so unreliable they ended up paying a spot op to be on standby every night in case the system went on the fritz.

Sure, Ive seen it look great at the trade shows, but keep in mind it is always set up in the Wybron booth on a very small scale with some very small object (usually an RC car).

And if you are considering the Trackpod system from Martin, that requires and operator to aim the device, so that person may as well be using a Followpot.

Hope this helps,
Nick
 
I have seen the Trackpod (haven't seen the Wybron system) and it does work. The advantage is that you can control multiple moving lights with one person. Set up and calibrating is very tedious, but as long as nothing is moved you only do it once. The other thing is that I believe Trackpod is discontinued, but I'm not 100% sure. You'll need one person to run the spotter device, and another to run the rest of the attributes of the system. Also, you can take over control of those lights, so it's not like they can only be used one way.

At one time Martin also sold a device that allowed Minimacs to be used the same way, but without an operator. I don't know if they sell that either any longer.
 
my feeling is if you are doing it for a canned event (i.e. theatre) program the board to do the move and tell the talent to stay on their spikes... or use a spot op or a good board op.... for a H.S. this might be a big envestment and give very little actual experience of education....
 

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