Morpheus Panaspot I & II and Color Ranger Scroller Manual

Hi,
I am in the process of cleaning out my road box and ran across a number of old equipment manuals. This seemed like the perfect place to preserve them.

Regards,

Terry
 

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Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Terry. You're correct, ControlBooth will take all the (virtual) literature ya got. We've discussed a special area to contain such items, but can't seem to get any traction on that.
 
Hi,
I am in the process of cleaning out my road box and ran across a number of old equipment manuals. This seemed like the perfect place to preserve them.

Regards,

Terry
Just one comment: It's kind of amazing how Morpheus had not much of an idea how to be a serious manufacturer, yet was the only viable competition for Vari*Lite for a number of years.

The "documentation" you showed us tells the story.

At Production Arts, I had two system installation experiences with Morpheus: "Fantasmic" for Disney, and the Lido de Paris.

Neither was particularly happy.

Proves one truth: building gear for a rental operation where you and your road staff stay in control of the gear (and its failures) is just not the same thing as manufacturing gear that you release into the wild to stand on its own reliability.

ST
 
Reminds me of the days when a certain early moving light manufacturer was very protective of anyone seeing the insides of their fixtures, so they would build a hidden workshop out of their dead long fuzzy boxes (and many boxes of spares) at each gig so they could service their fixtures in secret. It was like being invited to meet the Illuminati if you were allowed inside to peek at a fixture's insides. "Dont tell ANYONE or we can all get in trouble"

Of course, there was a time lot of electronic equipment had the labels ground off of IC's...
 
Reminds me of the days when a certain early moving light manufacturer was very protective of anyone seeing the insides of their fixtures, so they would build a hidden workshop out of their dead long fuzzy boxes (and many boxes of spares) at each gig so they could service their fixtures in secret. It was like being invited to meet the Illuminati if you were allowed inside to peek at a fixture's insides. "Dont tell ANYONE or we can all get in trouble"

Of course, there was a time lot of electronic equipment had the labels ground off of IC's...
On the audio side of the aisle, ShowCo was similarly protective of their Prism® loudspeaker array design. If one were a local hand and was needed to help service a unit, there was an NDA involved. What I can say... the primary secret to the Prism rig was not the stuff covered by the NDA, but the clever, "let's use physics" layout of the entire array, not just individual loudspeaker cabinets.
 
Just one comment: It's kind of amazing how Morpheus had not much of an idea how to be a serious manufacturer, yet was the only viable competition for Vari*Lite for a number of years.

The "documentation" you showed us tells the story.

At Production Arts, I had two system installation experiences with Morpheus: "Fantasmic" for Disney, and the Lido de Paris.

Neither was particularly happy.

Proves one truth: building gear for a rental operation where you and your road staff stay in control of the gear (and its failures) is just not the same thing as manufacturing gear that you release into the wild to stand on its own reliability.

ST
I loved those Morpheus PC Spots for Fantasmic. I know they had issues mostly with belt tention, but so do the current fixtures.
I think their punch for the wattage and also the design, compared to the newest design that I believe still has Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200s which gives you a very sterile output. While some of it surely has to do with lighting design choices, I could assume some of it also is about lamp and reflector design, as well as Morpheus' CMY color theory stemming from theatre and not rock + roll.
Also their iconic shape. I think the moving lights of the 90s-00s were designed to be visually iconic, like a car, whereas now, they all are similar enough to be mistaken from all but up close, also like current cars.

It looks like my Disneyland Technology section from the Fantasmic wikipedia page has been mostly gutted, but I'd love any other info you remember about the Fan! install as it's been a personal inspiration for its entire run.
 
I did some searching and found a photo of the PC spot from this lovely company who made the microcontroller
pcspot2.gif

Also the Fader Beam, also a Morpheus product and used in Fantasmic.
faderbe2.gif


From memory I believe there were 10 PC Spots and 5 Fader Beams for tower A & C, Tower B had 15 PC Spots and 10 Fader Beams.
Here's a poor photo from the internet of Tower C. Also one Strong Gladiator under a cover there on the top of the tower.
20070916_015.sized.jpg


Sorry to go off topic from this thread's original purpose, trying to keep it on Morpheus theme 🤣
 
So, dusting off a few cobwebs of my own, I remember a few Morpheus moments. Steve Miller tour, first time the Pana-Spot went on tour. Several IATSE locals would bring in follow spot ops for. every Pana-Spot Spotlight as all spotlights had to have ops.
The other joy with Morpheus was their truck pack. Everything was 1/3 truck width. Case lined each side of the truck and truss ran down the middle. Great system that made the out a lot quicker and smoother.
 
Here’s some other shots of the towers from Disney that I shot, and the original sales brochures I kept from back in the day.
 

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