Moving Fixture Help Needed

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I am working on a bond issue proposal for our school. This is an intermediate addition for our lighting. The space is a 2000 seat auditorium/theatre with 1500 on the main floor and 500 in the balcony. It had a multi million renovation in 2008 to the facility but most of the dimmers and front light were kept. At this time maintenance isn't a problem. I don't expect the next major renovation to the facility until 2022 at least.

However I would like to try to add about 4 moving fixtures to the first house rail. It's about a 90 foot throw to the stage. Currently hung with 8x12 incandescent fixtures. And we do have a fixed row of LED's that wash color from the front as well as MH6's over the stage.

Because it's a school I have to work with a house plot. The students just aren't capable of rehanging for a show. (mostly due to upper body strength of your average 17 year old theatre kid). So I am putting in for about 4 moving zoom fixtures to fill in gaps and to use as specials. I'd like them to have gobo capability and be able to be zoomed out for area light. I've been asked to spec good but cheap <$2000 per fixture and a professional option with basically $15,000 per fixture limit. I'm leaning toward an LED option.

I would like them to have a life expectancy for the fixture of 10-15 years. It's strange but it's sometimes easier to come up with $40,000 of bond money to buy longer lasting equipment, because we're supported by our voters, than it is to spend $500 to repair a broken fixture with yearly money from the state.

I know I'm a very spoiled high school tech theatre teacher/designer so don't hate.

Thanks for the help

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A couple of things, do you have the infrastructure in place, i.e. dmx runs and constant current power in place.
Try to get demos of multiple fixtures. You can't really tell without the actual fixture up against your current lighting.
At the low end you are looking at Chauvet rogue and similar. At the upper end, try to get a demo of some of the High End fixtures, especially the SolaFrame Theatre and the Robe DL4S and DL7S profile.
 
With a 90ft throw, you’d need a 1200-1500 watt fixture at minimum, shutters probably desirable, likely a 208v unit, so is the infrastructure in place for that ?. I don’t see any of the current crop of LED/non arc source fixtures having any punch at that throw.

And then the question, what do you want these fixtures to do ?. Do you need them to zoom/iris in a lot as specials ?, so maybe no need for shutters ?. I’m questioning whether these are going to actually move around much and thus warrant the cost. Are you wanting a generic front wash ?.

Maybe research a static/non moving ellipsoidal, 5 or 10 deg. lense, LED color changing if possible.
 
The Chauvet Rogue spots don't zoom, so you're best bet from them would be a Maverick Mk 2 - that's a 440W led. The new Elation Satura would be comparable to the that.

That's your cheap option.
 
Because it's a school I have to work with a house plot. The students just aren't capable of rehanging for a show. (mostly due to upper body strength of your average 17 year old theatre kid). So I am putting in for about 4 moving zoom fixtures to fill in gaps and to use as specials. I'd like them to have gobo capability and be able to be zoomed out for area light. I've been asked to spec good but cheap <$2000 per fixture and a professional option with basically $15,000 per fixture limit. I'm leaning toward an LED option.
Wait, what?! Really? I would think that most 17-year-old high school kids are in far better shape than a lot of the rest of us. Even the tech kids. I certainly was in much better shape in HS than I am today.

Suffice it to say, I think that you are selling your kids short. I went to regular public HS and we designed, hung, built, each of our shows. We typically did 5-6 shows in a school year in two different theatres. Re-hanging lights was probably easiest job compared to some of the scenic construction. Unless you are doing so many shows that you literally have no time in between to re-hang them, it seems like it would be a good experience for the students!

All of this is not to say that you shouldn't get moving lights, go for it. It is another piece of technology that people should start learning when they are younger, especially since they are becoming very commonplace across the entire industry.
 

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