Moving head fixture comparisons

[SteveArete]

I have searched for updated comparisons of moving head fixtures but cannot seem to find anything relevant. Does anyone know if there are charts comparing spot fixtures, beam fixtures, and LED pars? PLSN usually has a gear comparison, but I have not had any luck so far finding what I am looking for on their site. A venue I am currently working at is considering updating their rig but wants low cost alternatives to the major manufacturers. Example, I suggested Martin Quantum Spot but they would like to spend less than half that cost per fixture. What I have found from other manufacturers seems to have a dropoff in light output that will be unacceptable to the venue.

 

[coldnorth57]

https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/products/maverick-mk3-spot/

https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/products/rogue-r2x-spot/

just 2 fixtures from Chauvet ...the mk3 spot is more power that the martin and the rogue r2x is just a little less

 

[TimMc]

We've got the Mavericks in our inventory and they're very popular with our own designers and with music concert LDs, too. Once our Chauvet rep got us a firmware zapper we've not needed to send any units for service or updates. I think we own 24 units and 2/3 of them are out on a theatrical rental thru the first of Sept.

One of our venues has Rogue R2 (the first ones, not the "X"). They don't do PMs and "run til fail" is their way. I think their units are close to 4 years old and 2 have gone back to Chauvet for service; turn around was only a couple of days, IIRC.

15 years ago we laughed at Chauvet and considered them and American DJ to be basically the same level of gear. Chauvet has upped their game in ways we didn't imagine at the turn of the century and are making (and supporting) some good stuff. Get a demo and see what you think.

 

[RonK]

I'm looking forward to seeing a demo of the new Martin ERA . 25% less output than the Quantum, but 50% less cost, overall similar feature set.

 

[Michael K]

I'll third the Maverick recommendation. I recently hung a rep rig of Mk2 profiles, and while the first show doesn't open for another month, they've been behaving themselves, and support was quite helpful when I had an issue.

For feature set comparisons, there's this spread sheet I posted here a little while back that has most of the profile/spot movers that are on the market: https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/moving-light-spreadsheet-catalog.44816/

 

[SteveArete]

Thanks for the advice. I had come across the Mavericks, and they did end up on my list of recommendations. We shall see what they decide to do.

 

[macsound]

Tangent but related...
The Maverick Mk3 LED has a CRI of 73ish, but has a DMX filter that raises the CRI to 90ish.
How does this work? Is it just flattening out the spectrum by filtering out the spikes?
Also, how much light does it block by doing this?

 

[Ford]

This is a bit convoluted... But in the absolute simplest terms, the CRI filter (as we call it, High End calls it a TM30 Filter, others call it other things) is a filter that basically knocks the spikes off of the color curve. Basically, we've developed a dichro that blocks the most offensive bits of the color spectrum. In our case, we analyzed the spectral distribution from our raw LED source, and designed a dichroic to bring it back into something closer to the spectral distribution of a High CRI source.
The IQC of these filters is a big pain... but the results are pretty nice!!

We tried working directly with some of the major suppliers of color filters... their off the shelf solution was 1/8th Minus Green. This is in the right direction, but we've found that it needs more customization to get the performance that we required (the Minus Green did get the CRI into the 80s, but the color shift was pretty severe).

 

[mpbld]

I will chime in, in support of the Maverick line, and Chauvet in general. As a mid-sized college program in Ohio with not much funding, I ended up starting to replace our aging fleet of Martin Mac 2k Washes and Performances, and 550s, with Rogue 3 Washes and Maverick MK2 Profiles. I did a small shootout with some other mid- to low-priced units (the top end stuff just was not an option for us), and Chauvet was the clear winner. A year in, and I am very pleased with the lights. The only thing I am not a great fan of is the native "white" of the Rogue 3 Washes. No big deal. I make my own white, and set it as Home. Done and done.

 

[RickBoychuk]

I have searched for updated comparisons of moving head fixtures but cannot seem to find anything relevant. Does anyone know if there are charts comparing spot fixtures, beam fixtures, and LED pars? PLSN usually has a gear comparison, but I have not had any luck so far finding what I am looking for on their site. A venue I am currently working at is considering updating their rig but wants low cost alternatives to the major manufacturers. Example, I suggested Martin Quantum Spot but they would like to spend less than half that cost per fixture. What I have found from other manufacturers seems to have a dropoff in light output that will be unacceptable to the venue.

The new features in moving heads are being introduced so quickly and so abundantly that it is a moving target, at best, and impossible to track, at worse. My suggestion is get you money approved with the best financial information, and when funds are in place, make the most comprehensive list and do a shoot out. Good luck.