Bones to spend question

[Marvalicious]

Question:

If you had $1000 dollars to spend on lighting equipment for your theater on NEW stuff, what would you buy?

Cheers,
Marv

 

[sdauditorium]

At this point, we have a couple good movers, 24 color scrollers, 2 Right Arms and more than enough conventionals, so I would pick up a couple Smart Move Gobo Rotators or a couple Gam Film/FX.

 

[metti]

I am slowly replacing all of my old Strand Century fixtures with S4 Jrs so I would want four more of those.

 

[Footer]

Power cubes, two-fers, whips, and about 30k of other stuff.

A thousand bucks won't really buy you anything worth while outside of expendables.

sent from my HTC Incredible

 

[sdauditorium]

I am slowly replacing all of my old Strand Century fixtures with S4 Jrs so I would want four more of those.

Just out of curiosity, what positions and how long are the throws in which you use the Jrs? I've looked at the photometics, but just looking for some real world reviews/thoughts.

 

[BDS0111]

A thousand bucks won't really buy you anything worth while outside of expendables.

Exactly my thought. Forget about toys and devices and stick to basics. $1,000 gets you nothing. I have a customer with a mid-size high school theater that asked me the same exactly thing a few months ago. He wanted a few toys while at the same time he had over a dozen instruments out of service and in need a parts. I advised him to get the parts.

 

[techno89]

buy buy buy

American DJ X Move LED Plus Moving Head Light -  LED Moving Head Lights- LED Lighting- Lighting- PSSL.com

lol

 

[techno89]

or two of these
American DJ DJ-SPOT-250 DMX Moving Head (EHJ) -  Profile Lights - Moving Head- Moving Head Intelligent Lights- Intelligent Lighting- Lighting- PSSL.com

 

[metti]

Just out of curiosity, what positions and how long are the throws in which you use the Jrs? I've looked at the photometics, but just looking for some real world reviews/thoughts.

I am using the S4 Jrs in a small blackbox in-the-round type setup. The position is roughly 14' above and 10' back from the front of the acting area so the throw is really short. For much longer throws I would probably want real S4s. Other than that I really like the Jrs. The only annoying thing about them is that they use M sized gobos and they don't support any of the standard S4 accessories like gobo rotators (you need the special jr versions of the accessories). I actually like the action on the focus adjustments and a few other little ergonomics things more than the full sized S4. They are the right size and price for our needs but I would imagine that the savings is not always worth it.

 

[JimNH]

We bought aluminum trusses, which work for all kinds of hanging situations - great investment for a small space without a lot of availalbe pipes and such.

 

[erosing]

Cable, Parts, tape/tie-line, S4 Lens Tubes, tools, in that order.

 

[sdauditorium]

I am using the S4 Jrs in a small blackbox in-the-round type setup. The position is roughly 14' above and 10' back from the front of the acting area so the throw is really short. For much longer throws I would probably want real S4s. Other than that I really like the Jrs. The only annoying thing about them is that they use M sized gobos and they don't support any of the standard S4 accessories like gobo rotators (you need the special jr versions of the accessories). I actually like the action on the focus adjustments and a few other little ergonomics things more than the full sized S4. They are the right size and price for our needs but I would imagine that the savings is not always worth it.

Thanks for the insight. We'd have longer throws; I was mainly thinking of getting some units for on-stage throws and specials. However, I'll probably just stick to my plan of adding to our Source 4 inventory every year.

 

[Marvalicious]

Cable, Parts, tape/tie-line, S4 Lens Tubes, tools, in that order.

That's pretty much exactly what we've done. We had a larger grant wit which we bought a Rosco I-cue, new s4's, cable, tubes, base assemblies and other parts. The one grand is what's left and of course I can't buy toys but I'm also not aloud to spend it on small stuff (tools, tape, lamps) that could come out of other budgets. So, right now we're trying to figure out what the smart thing to do is.


Marv

 

[Sony]

That's pretty much exactly what we've done. We had a larger grant wit which we bought a Rosco I-cue, new s4's, cable, tubes, base assemblies and other parts. The one grand is what's left and of course I can't buy toys but I'm also not aloud to spend it on small stuff (tools, tape, lamps) that could come out of other budgets. So, right now we're trying to figure out what the smart thing to do is.


Marv

Grab a couple Apollo SmartMove DMX's, they are always a great addition to your inventory if you don't already have them and they will run off the Rosco I-Cue power supply so you don't need to buy another supply since you already have one for the I-Cues. You should be able to grab 2 of them and maybe even an Apollo 75w PSU for around 1k

 

[Kelite]

The only annoying thing about them is that they use M sized gobos and they don't support any of the standard S4 accessories like gobo rotators (you need the special jr versions of the accessories).

While the M size gobo and rotator for the S4 Jr are a bit smaller than the standard S4 ellipsoidal, having a rotator or two for specials isn't a bad idea.
As far as accessories that fit into the gel frame- it was a bit of wisdom for ETC to design the 6.25 inch color frame. As you undoubtedly know, gel frames, donuts, color scrollers, etc all migrate within the S4 ellipsoidal line nicely. (except the S4 Zoom @ 7.5 inches )

 

[venuetech]

A Source 4 19* and I-Cue

 

[CSCTech]

I would probably stock up on Gel, lamps and tape And maybe get real gel frames for our far cycs.

Or maybe replace a few of our FOH ellipsoidles with better, non Colortran ones : )

Or maybe an RFU

Or maybe a cheap communications system.

 

[cprted]

$1000?

Build new side booms. After that, more two-fers, more 10' cables, more 50' cables, more DMX cabling, DMX turn arounds, beef up the gobo inventory, until the grand is gone.

 

[metti]

I'm aware of the fact that they have the same size gel frames. We are happily using your lovely SmartColor Pros with our S4jr and we just purchase a couple full size S4s and a couple of SmartMoves to use when the need arrises or with our Right Arms.