Yes. I have noticed that when trying to blend ellipsoidals from a close range, it can be hard to eliminate the dip between each beam, due to the defined
cone shape of the beam. I was doing
Clue in-the-round and the set was more like a square -- there was a center
stage area, and there was a small 8'x8'
stage in each corner of the
venue (this was a blackbox). The audience sat on each side of the center area. Think "tic-tac-toe board".
My original
plot called for 12x 36 degree ellipsoidals to light this center area (3 from each side). The fixtures were to be placed up and behind each seating area which was approximately 12' deep and about 15' from the actual
stage. On the first night of tech, the shadows and peaks and valleys the actors were walking through were driving me insane. Though ever so slight, they were there. I had used the ellipsoidals to afford me the most control and to hopefully avoid glare and
spill in to the opposing audience's eyes, but the apparent trade-off was that the beam was a little too defined at this close of a range (it is possible that if the audience wasn't so close to the subject, the subtle differences in lighting from area to area wouldn't have been noticed). Lack of
dimmer channels prevented me from doubling up on instruments.
The next day I replaced each
ellipsoidal with a 6"
fresnel and the problems went away. Unfortunately, we didn't have tophats or barndoors, so the glare and
spill just had to be accepted (this was a low 12'
grid). Overall, I found that if you can afford a small loss in control, fresnels are almost always the way to go in intimate, in-the-round settings. I know that the OP's situation may be very different, and may not be at all "intimate", but hopefully this helps.