help me pick out a haze machine?

[ludosc]

Looking to buy one, possibly two haze machines for a large auditorium (1,750 seats). Want to use it for concerts and theatrical productions.

I have a budget of $6,000 to work with.

I need it to be dmx controllable and as quiet as humanly possible...

any help would be very appreciated...thanks...

EDIT: I also want to be able to rig it from a truss system...

 

[Wood4321]

For that budget, there is only one brand I would consider.
MDG.

This model is not rig ready, but for that size venue I would go with a single MDG Atmosphere machine.
They are amazing! Very quiet, Low residue, and great hang time. MDG Atmosphere Site

If you can stretch your budget a bit, the MDG "The One" is riggable, and from what I understand it does everything the atmosphere does and more.
MDG "The One"

 

[wiscolighting]

I would check out options from Ultratec FX and Antari as well. Have worked with units from both of those companies in similarly sized spaces, most recently a Ultratec Radiance hazer in a 1,200 seat auditorium, I used it both rigged and with a road case that has a built in fan... Many hazers have picky DMX settings and profiles but once you get them set up they work great... that was my experience with the Radiance... I used it rigged at about 20 feet with a Antari low lying fogger on the ground... worked great. High output of just the hazer was able to give a ambient haze throughout the whole stage and house with in a minute or so and in about 2-3 minutes of sustained use on high output we had a dense cloud that had built up in the theatre as well as the grid above the stage (grid height is about 50 ft.). The Ultratec was actually so good we had to be careful with how we used it and how we vented the space to control the flow of the haze.

 

[BillESC]

+1 on the Radiance. For about $ 1300.00 it's hard to beat and if you needed a second or third unit, you'd still have money left over.

 

[cbrandt]

The radiance is a great hazer for high output, but man, the fan in the touring system sounds like a banshee. Moves a lot of air, but is loud as all get out. I often find myself unplugging the fan and putting one of my 24" fans in front of it on a low speed to lower the noise output. The radiance is slightlty flaky on hang time, as well. You basically have to keep them running to keep a large space full of haze.

All that being said, they're my favorite hazer in my inventory, and I haven't found anything to replace them.

 

[wiscolighting]

The radiance is a great hazer for high output, but man, the fan in the touring system sounds like a banshee.

Haha I forgot about how loud the fans in the touring systems are... the fan works well in applications when you have a lot of ambient noise to cover it up but if you fire that thing up and people are not expecting it the reactions are hilarious... ran the fan a little too hard in a transition/ blackout between acts in rehearsal for a show once and scared the hell out of some people... but they were actors... and we all know they need scaring on occasion.