Automated Fixtures Highend solaspot1000

[justKC]

I am the resident lighting designer is a 500 seat theatre we do mostly community theatre but do bring in some smaller acts for one night preformances. We just upgraded our system to an all LED rig run by a ETC ion. We have some money left over and are considering some movers to be hung at front of house. I am not overly familiar with movers our consultant is recommending highend solaspot 1000 and my boss asked my opinion I would like to know a little more about them and what people think of these before I give her my opinion.
Thank you

 

[SteveB]

They are reasonably new, so maybe hard to find anyone whose used it.

If it were my money, I know I’d want a unit with shutters in FOH, but that’s dependent on how you intend to use them.

 

[theatricalmatt]

I've used 'em; I love 'em.

 

[danTt]

I've heard good things, but I still struggle with an LED fixture that uses subtractive mixing. You lose output, you add more moving parts, and you lose a lot of the software abilities that additive mixing lets you do. I'd reccomend taking a look at the Robe offerings in that price range, they are pretty incredible as well.

 

[sk8rsdad]

If there is no urgency then you may want to wait a while for the ETC/HES merger to produce their first fixtures. It seems likely they would be working on something that makes use of the color engines from ETC's LED products since it is no secret ETC has been looking to re-enter the moving light market for a number of years.

 

[derekleffew]

If it were my money, I know I’d want a unit with shutters in FOH,

Absolutely. SolaTheatre, SolaSpot Pro 1500, SolaSpot Frame 2000, or the just-released SolaFrame 750, all have shutters, and would be my choice over the SolaSpot 1000.

But ETC/HES, those names! It's almost as confusing as "Is that a VL2402 or VL2204?" used to be.

I did an awards show two or three years ago that had one SolaSomething. Before I knew what it was, I had no trouble believing it was a 700 or 1200W HID lamp. The fixture did what it was supposed to do.

 

[jxgriffi]

I've been using the Solaspot CMY Pro's for 3 years now and love them. I've had designers try and tell me they can't the light to douse at the end of the night because they thought they were arc lamps.

With that being said, I'd recommend the SolaFrame 750 so that you have shutters over the Solaspot 1000. The other option would be the SolaTheatre for noise sake as they are completely silent. They are BIG (because of the heat dissipation) but I don't think you can go wrong with any of the line.

 

[mike1023]

I am the resident lighting designer is a 500 seat theatre we do mostly community theatre but do bring in some smaller acts for one night preformances. We just upgraded our system to an all LED rig run by a ETC ion. We have some money left over and are considering some movers to be hung at front of house. I am not overly familiar with movers our consultant is recommending highend solaspot 1000 and my boss asked my opinion I would like to know a little more about them and what people think of these before I give her my opinion.
Thank you

HES Frame750 all the way. I've personally been very impressed with the fixture and we can hardly keep them on the shelf.
Quick rundown of the best features in my opinion:
- Zoom Range 6-50. Completely usable throughout the range. No issues with gobo focus.
- Shuttering. Some of the early series Solaframe products struggled with shuttering gobos, this has been cleaned up significantly in the 750
- Fixture Size - Compact
- Optics - Layering ability is surprising without losing a ton of output.
- Continuous Animation
- Good looking CTO - doesn't trend orange

http://plsn.com/main-news/24064-studio-gear-invests-in-solaframe-750s.html
https://www.highend.com/documentation/SolaFrame750/SolaFrame750-10-16-17.pdf

 

[Pie4Weebl]

I really like the solaspot fixtures, very bright! I would defiantly get one with shutters for your application. On the same token if you are feeling spendy you should give a good hard look at the Mac Encore, or if you are feeling a little more thrifty check out the Chauvet MK2 Profile.

 

[Lekolite48]

I've heard good things, but I still struggle with an LED fixture that uses subtractive mixing. You lose output, you add more moving parts, and you lose a lot of the software abilities that additive mixing lets you do. I'd reccomend taking a look at the Robe offerings in that price range, they are pretty incredible as well.

I understand this sentiment. But right now we're having to choose between acceptable Keylight CRI and additive mixing ability. If these will be used for 'Mobile specials', then subtractive over white LED is the way to go. If they are flash and trash, then you can look at an additive LED source a little more. Then there is the high output/high CRI choice throughout the HES Sola line.

 

[danTt]

I understand this sentiment. But right now we're having to choose between acceptable Keylight CRI and additive mixing ability. If these will be used for 'Mobile specials', then subtractive over white LED is the way to go. If they are flash and trash, then you can look at an additive LED source a little more. Then there is the high output/high CRI choice throughout the HES Sola line.

Have you sampled the Robe DL7? I would put it up against almost any light in the industry for keylight. It's certainly not a fixture only good at flash and trash. Add in the variable/virtual white points, variable CRI, and adjusting between virtual cmy/rgb/7 color color mixing and you have so many more options than you do with subtractive mixing.

Maybe you have tried it and found it to be lacking, and if so I'd love to hear more, because I have been blown away with the DL7 every time I get to use them.