New moving lights on the market today should have the "WOW factor" when I see them for a demo. WOW is in all caps because if it is going to make a splash these days it needs to be very different. When Robe brought in the LEDwash 600, everyone in the shop agreed that it definitely had the WOW. Now if only it would become popular in the US we could buy some to rent out - because I love that
fixture. When the MAC101 was in for a demo, we all agreed that it had the WOW factor. It was tiny and lightweight and stupid bright and it looked like there was
haze in the room when there was just dust because of how intense the beam was. When VL brings in their new fixtures the WOW factor will already be there - the fixtures in weight and size are in the 250 class but they are ever so much brighter and absolutely packed with features - and VLs are wonderful fixtures all around.
I've hopefully got something really cool coming up that involves MAC101s. I'll post it when that happens.
I find it sad that HES has stopped producing good bread and butter moving heads and has gone on to all of these odd specialty fixtures. I love the DLs and Show-whatevers and all, but the Studio 575 series is still a wonderful
line of products. I work with 575 Spots & Colors regularly and they are decent fixtures still and are easy to work on when they do have issues (which isn't all that often). I am also a fan of the Studio Beam, which was one of the only PC fixtures out there as far as moving heads go. The color saturation was wonderful and the
zoom range was nice. The electronic strobing is also wonderful on those fixtures. And it fit in the housing of a Studio 250, which meant tiny cases for double pack - cases less than half the size of other double moving head cases for fixtures in that class.
I just don't see that when everyone is making basic spot fixtures fixtures smaller and smaller and lighter and lighter that HES is going off in the massive, heavy and two-man-lift-only. Yes, the MACIII is all of those things, but it is also a 1500
watt fixture with an unmatched optical
system and gobos that you feel like you should be able to reach out and touch because they're so sharp when in focus. The Intellaspot doesn't really have that as much and I'm sure that the Technospot won't either, since part of that is the fact that there's a 1500
watt lamp behind it. MACIIIs are phenomenal, 'nuff said.
I miss the old, old HES fixtures. The Intellabeam, where you could tell it to go from
open white to a color and a
gobo and it would be there faster than you could think. I liked a color wheel that could be snapped as an
effect. I liked a
gobo wheel that I didn't have to worry about live
gobo changes with. Oh, and I'm only 23 - we had Intellabeams at the college I went to, and I still love those things when I see them in use.