Hazer Advice

[kicknargel]

+1 for Radiance.

Do investigate your smoke detection. Often there is visible smoke detection inside HVAC air returns. A blast from your smoke machine might not set it off, but an hour of haze will.

In a dinner theatre where I've designed, if I ran the hazer too much it would pass through the HVAC and fill the offices, lobby, etc, etc.

 

[Eriksrocks]

I'd recommend UltratecFX's Radiance. Perhaps the best sub $ 1500.00 machine on the market.

I have clients using them weekly and a gallon of fluid is lasting more than a year and a half. Water based and extremely small particle size (you don't see anything leaving the machine.)

Untitled Document

In regards to "extremely small particle size (you don't see anything leaving the machine.)", I wouldn't say this is true. You can definitely see the haze leaving the machine, in fact on the highest output it looks more like a fog machine with a fan behind it than anything. It does really put out though and it's a good machine, uses very little fluid as you mention.

Yep, Radiance is the way to go. I own one and it can fill an entire arena in minutes.

How are you guys getting a single Radiance to fill an entire arena? We own one for our 45' x 35' x 50' stage with a 750 seat house and we can't get enough dispersion to fill the stage and the house with an even haze. Sure, it puts out a ton, but the haze doesn't really difuse that well. For us it typically fills the fly loft and stage area but then spills out of the proscenium and just sort of hangs in a giant cloud above the apron and first or second rows of the theater. Like I said it doesn't naturally disperse through the air. Perhaps we just have really poor ventilation. It's a big theater but it's definitely much smaller than what I would consider a typical "arena." Any tips would be appreciated on this.

 

[BillESC]

How are you guys getting a single Radiance to fill an entire arena? We own one for our 45' x 35' x 50' stage with a 750 seat house and we can't get enough dispersion to fill the stage and the house with an even haze. Sure, it puts out a ton, but the haze doesn't really difuse that well. For us it typically fills the fly loft and stage area but then spills out of the proscenium and just sort of hangs in a giant cloud above the apron and first or second rows of the theater. Like I said it doesn't naturally disperse through the air. Perhaps we just have really poor ventilation. It's a big theater but it's definitely much smaller than what I would consider a typical "arena." Any tips would be appreciated on this.

The HVAC system of a particular space/room will have the greatest effect of the performance of an atmospheric effect. One can simply not make a generalized statement.

Most of my clients set the Radiance to minimum output and at that setting, you really don't see anything eminating from the machine.

The DF-50 is a respected product to be sure but costs considerably more than the Radiance and as stated above is noisy and uses oil base fluid.

 

[bishopthomas]

In regards to "extremely small particle size (you don't see anything leaving the machine.)", I wouldn't say this is true. You can definitely see the haze leaving the machine, in fact on the highest output it looks more like a fog machine with a fan behind it than anything. It does really put out though and it's a good machine, uses very little fluid as you mention.

I agree. Mine does not really do much of anything unless it's on the highest output. And it's fairly thick until is starts to dissipate.

How are you guys getting a single Radiance to fill an entire arena? We own one for our 45' x 35' x 50' stage with a 750 seat house and we can't get enough dispersion to fill the stage and the house with an even haze. Sure, it puts out a ton, but the haze doesn't really difuse that well. For us it typically fills the fly loft and stage area but then spills out of the proscenium and just sort of hangs in a giant cloud above the apron and first or second rows of the theater. Like I said it doesn't naturally disperse through the air. Perhaps we just have really poor ventilation. It's a big theater but it's definitely much smaller than what I would consider a typical "arena." Any tips would be appreciated on this.

I set it to full haze and fan and also use at least one external blower type fan as well. Lasko 3-Speed Fan I have used mine in basketball gyms, 1000 seat theatres, 500 cap multipurpose rooms, and up to a 3000 seat hockey arena. As Bill mentioned, it's all about airflow.

I like the DF50 as well but it's more money than I'm willing to pay. I want to get another Radiance eventually; two Radiance cost about what a single DF50 does, and there's the oil dilemma. I've seen the MDG in use and it's amazing. I could see it being the best choice for installs but it's not portable enough for my use. I'd like to try the Unique 2; there's someone selling one here and if I had the extra cash I'd pick it up myself.

 

[Eriksrocks]

I agree. Mine does not really do much of anything unless it's on the highest output. And it's fairly thick until is starts to dissipate.



I set it to full haze and fan and also use at least one external blower type fan as well. Lasko 3-Speed Fan I have used mine in basketball gyms, 1000 seat theatres, 500 cap multipurpose rooms, and up to a 3000 seat hockey arena. As Bill mentioned, it's all about airflow.

I like the DF50 as well but it's more money than I'm willing to pay. I want to get another Radiance eventually; two Radiance cost about what a single DF50 does, and there's the oil dilemma. I've seen the MDG in use and it's amazing. I could see it being the best choice for installs but it's not portable enough for my use. I'd like to try the Unique 2; there's someone selling one here and if I had the extra cash I'd pick it up myself.

Yeah, I'm guessing the airflow is our problem. Even with the air handlers on the air just does not move in the house. I've thought about using fans to blow it around the house before. Problem is a loud and powerful fan works fine in a multipurpose room, concert, hockey arena type setting but just doesn't work in theater. We've used a box fan to blow it around the fly loft and that works excellent - gets really distributed and fairly even, problem is it doesn't make it out into the house enough to get even coverage out there as well.

I went backstage on the Le Mis tour, they used something like two to four Unique 2's with a crazy distribution system on each side of the stage (the hazer was inside a wooden box, which had a bunch of ducting hooked up to it running all over the place and possibly some fans inside as well - I think they had this setup on each side). I think most of the haze came up through holes upstage in the false stage deck. It looked amazing, the haze was extremely smooth and was just "there", but the distribution system was crazy.

 

[bishopthomas]

Yeah, I'm guessing the airflow is our problem. Even with the air handlers on the air just does not move in the house. I've thought about using fans to blow it around the house before. Problem is a loud and powerful fan works fine in a multipurpose room, concert, hockey arena type setting but just doesn't work in theater. We've used a box fan to blow it around the fly loft and that works excellent - gets really distributed and fairly even, problem is it doesn't make it out into the house enough to get even coverage out there as well.

Yeah, that's never an issue for me as I don't typically do quite theatre. Isn't there any loud part of the show where you can run the fans then turn them off? If you have such poor air flow maybe you can just haze the hell out of the place before the show and allow it to hang for the duration. Maybe rehazing during intermission. Otherwise, you could probably do the job with lots of fans set to low. To have access of blower control I plug them into a relay and turn them on/off as needed via the console.

 

[cbrandt]

Yup, the DF50 has been the go to hazer for a long time and it's why I purchased one, even though it's noisy as heck. It works, it uses fluid the way a Ford F250 uses gas and it ain't cheap. But it works.

We built a baffle box for our DF-50s. I'm using one in a show in a cathedral space (acoustics are excellent), and I can't hear it running unless I'm standing on top of it. Doubles the size of the unit, but it just makes me love the DF-50 even more.

 

[ejsandstrom]

I have the HZ-300. Puts out a ton of haze pretty quickly. No problems with it in the year that I've had it.

HZ300. Ours has been flawless. We have a Gym sized auditorium. I haze it to a perfect level with 2 bumps of 10 minutes. That includes losses due to open doors and AHU's. IIRC it was around $400. Sips fluid, we have bought 2 gallons in 2 years and we use it a couple days a week and all weekend.