Beam moving heads with good optics — what am I missing?

[Eleanor Saitta]

I'm looking to pick up the first few moving heads for my space. They'll primarily be used for dance parties, but they may get used for more performance-oriented stuff.

Necessary:

• Good, clean, hard-edged beams; somewhere in the three degree range
• LED source — the space will get too hot with hot lights
• Continuous color mixing (ideally RGBW), properly homogenous
• Some kind of prism effect to give them a bit of variety

Nice to have:

• Motor zoom and focus — this makes them a lot more versatile and usable in performance contexts
• Quiet fans that turn off when the light's cool

Constraints:

• Our space is small. Like, truss is 4m up, main open area is 6mx7m. (13' 6" truss height/21x23 floor for the Americans)
• I'm looking at eight lights, ideally under €10k

My current plan is to pick up an eight-pack of ex-tour Robe Robin Spikies. Is there anything I should look at instead?

 

[macsound]

Will there be any other lighting sources or just the 8 moving lights?
Is temperature really a problem? If you're looking at ex-rentals, there will be far more arc source choices and since they've been rentals and are now being retired from age, you don't know LED hours (probably high since they're being retired) which could significantly drop your expected fixture life.

 

[Eleanor Saitta]

Oh, yeah, plenty of other lights — these are just the first moving heads I'm picking up. Temperature is definitely an issue — it's a space built to a residential spec, not a commercial one, and when you shove 80 people in it, it gets warm even before they start moving. And yeah, fixture life is a good point. Some of the used lights I've seen have listed hours counts, so I'll keep that in mind. Most of what we do won't use these, so I think I can get away with a somewhat more limited lifespan, on balance — by the time these go, chances are good we'll be in a position where replacements aren't a big deal.

 

[ggooch]

This is one of the categories in which you get what you pay for. The optics are going to tend to be better in a higher priced instrument. Not always but it is a good rule of thumb.

Geoff

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Ob: If it's built to resi specs, will you get a Certificate of Occupancy for that many people?

 

[tyler.martin]

AmericanDJ vizi series.