Automated Fixtures Hanging moveables

[lighting4him]

Hello all,

We are a church looking to expand our system with a few moveables. We have fixed electric distribution boxes/bars from which to hang our existing Source Fours, that are currently accessed by a one-person hydraulic lift for tasking and maintenance.

The potential issue I see with introducing moveables is that these things are up to twice the weight of a Source Four, if not more. Is hanging them a 2-person job, and at what point to you bring in a professional to do the install?

 

[theatricalmatt]

If you're at all worried about it, bring in someone. Even if they just come in for a day to hang (and circuit and run data), it means you've got an extra set of hands and eyeballs ... and another brain. The few hundred dollars you might spend are well worth it.

Movers come in all shapes, sizes, and weights. The Mac Aura is a lightweight, LED wash fixture (with a 10-60 degree zoom) -- and it weighs less than a Source Four. A Show-Gun, on the other hand, weighs 140 lbs. (It's overkill for your space.)

Double-check the power specs on the movers you want, too. While a lot of moving-head LED fixtures run on 120VAC, some older discharge fixtures only take 208 or 240VAC. And, of course, make certain you have enough power in your space for the equipment you're adding.

Most manufacturers will have tech specs for each fixture they carry on their website, so check them out

 

[Les]

Congrats - hearing them called "moveables" is a first for me .

As mentioned above, a lot of this really depends; including how many people it takes to hang a moving fixture. Above all, if you feel uncomfortable, get help. A single-person lift certainly complicated things on that end, so if you're buying fixtures, take weight in to account. Most LED-based movers are pretty lightweight these days. I've hung 65-lb movers by myself on a single-man Genie, but it was uncomfortable (0/10 would not recommend).

Concerning weight capacity, This also depends. There's a difference between four moving lights and twelve. Any professionally installed batten should be reasonably expected to hold a few moving lights. If it was not professionally installed (God forbid), or you have any concerns, contact an ETCP rigger to come look at the space.

Lastly, plan for power - not only in voltages needed but also non-dimmed as you can't go plugging these in to the same circuits that dim your Source Fours.

 

[petercav17]

I would add that if you decide to hang them yourself, choose a clamp like a trigger clamp (or even a C-clamp) that allows the fixture to be able to sit on and have its full weight on the pipe without being tightened. If you use a half-coupler, it'll be a nightmare as you'll have to hold the full weight of the fixture while you tighten the clamp.

 

[JD]

One last note: In operation, movers.. well.. move! Momentum (dynamic) weight is a whole lot different then static weight. If there is any play in what they are attached to, your movers won't be the only thing moving! All it takes is a little wiggle to cause the S4 beams to be dancing on stage.
Also, DMX data cable often has a lower melting point than a hot conventional so be careful of your data cable routes.

 

[jstroming]

Yeah moving....keystoning projectors hung on battens with a few movers....grrrr

 

[len]

One thing that comes to my mind is that your batten or whatever is capable of handling the extra weight. Do you know what the rated weight is, and how much weight is already on it? As has been mentioned, movers are a dynamic load, and not only may make your statics move as well, will cause additional load on the pipe. So all that needs to be confirmed before you start worrying about labor.

 

[lighting4him]

Thanks for the great feedback, all! Lots of things to consider, surely.

We did have our rigging professionally installed, and we've had an engineer tell us that a few movers on each should be more than OK, load-wise. We're now looking mostly at Chauvet Intimidator 350s and/or R1/R2 Spots/Washes for backlighting the worship band with halo/floor color/effects, so ~25-45# each. We have a few Source 4 PAR EAs on one of the bars, but nothing precision-oriented where movement would cause issues. Good to remember, though, if we expand again with front movers. And love the trigger clamp rec.

Good points about power, too. Obviously (well, maybe not for some) I know these cant be plugged into the dimmer system. But we do need to consider how we get power to them. Some (all?) appear to have power-chaining (both in/out), so we're considering leveraging that for at least a 2-3 fixture chain. Anyone ever had issues with that?

 

[NevilleLighting]

Those movers you mentioned aren't too heavy. Moving head and yoke weights can mean a lot. That's a bonus since with movers you have to take into account not just weight but inertial twisting forces. Keep in mind that the max forces you inflict are often not how you cue them but what you put them through in the process of firing them up and making cues.

 

[Golani]

As far as the concern with power, depending on how recent (or the type) your dimmers are you should be able to just switch the settings from dimmable to constant power. Depending on your knowledge of intelligent lighting, you'll know why. If you don't know anything about intelligent lighting, never plug in an intelligent light to a dimmable circuit. An intelligent light doesn't function they way a conventional fixture does -- it has constant voltage supplied and the intensity of the lamp goes up and down, unlike a conventional fixture where the amount of voltage supplied goes up and down to change how bright or dim the lamp is.
Like it was mentioned before, the DMX cables don't have a high tolerance for heat and can be seriously damaged if they are allowed to rest on surrounding fixtures.

Your best option is to go for the lightweight LED fixtures as they will reduce your required internal forces significantly. Without the need to adjust the orientation of a heavy fixture, the transferred energy will be lower as well as completely removing the color wheel which again reduces internal movement of the instrument.

Depending on the batten that you're hanging it on, the movement of the fixture may have a significant affect on how stagnant the batten is which can be incredibly destructive if you have anything other than incredibly soft focused ellipsoidals/pars as a general wash on your stage -- even then it can be very noticeable and annoying. The best thing to do with these issues is prefetching while you cue so that the move (and hopefully swing of the batten) isn't very noticeable.

Like others said, you shouldn't have a problem hanging them yourself, but if you're not 100% comfortable hanging and circuiting them you need to bring a professional in to do it -- it's safer for the instruments, the batten, and most importantly you.