Moving lights

[SketchyCroftPpl]

Ok, thanks guys. I figured it was something simple but I just wanted to know the specifics behind that. I know about the glitches to. I work for the IT department of my school over the summer cause we don't do theatre then, we made a new emac image and loaded it. Spent about an hour trying to log on and couldn't figure out what the hell was causing it to fail. yep, turned it around to shut it down, no network cable :-(. Lol, beat that .

~Nick

 

[jumpjet]

Scanners (moving mirror) tend to be much cheaper as well.

 

[Dale]

I think it really comes down to where you need fixtures in a practical sense. Putting scanners in the round isn't that useful - that's where moving heads are handy. Putting moving heads at the back of a procenium stage is possible but too expensive from my point of view. Of course it depends how you use them and where you place them.

 

[soundman1024]

Also consider if that is where they will be for good or if that is where they are for now.

And one other thing I forgot to say is that moving mirror fixtures always move in a straight line to the next waypoint or destination. Moving yokes don't move in a straight line because yoke has to turn. Most of the time I would consider that a non issue, but I'm sure it has been an issue somewhere.

 

[MCVEAN]

Revolutions are ETC answer to the Varilite TSD 1000. They are moving yoke fixtures as opposed to moving mirror and use an incandesent light source. QXL 750 - Basically a strange HPL... They move really slow, which is good for Theatrical applications, they have a color scroller, which is more famliar for theatrical lighting designers, much more usefull than rock and roll dicroics. And they have a modular design, in theat you can buy different types of modules and load them into the fixture, Iris, shutters, static gobo wheel, rotating gobo wheel.

I've used them a few times at work and they do everything they claim to do. However, they are not a good Rock and Roll fixture.

Wheww....

 

[MCVEAN]

New Fixtures in the Market!

I'm not sure if anyone has heard, but Chauvet, a company that typicaly specializes in DJ lighting has developed a fixture called the Legend 5000. It is a moving head spot typ fixture, as opposed to a wash typ fixture and I am wondering if anyone has seenheard or read about the. Currently Chauvet has none in stock but I'm interested in everyone opinion on this fixture as it is CHEAP! ok... cheap-ish...comparatively to a HES studio spot 575.

Things that I'm interested in,

How does the fixture compare? (to other 575 spot fixture)

Can you trust a cheap moving light?

How much does the name matter? Martin, HIgh End, Varilite, Clay Pakay.(consider yourself a finicky LD)

I think that is all...

Tim McVean

 

[The_Guest]

Anyone demo'd or seen a Mac 700 yet?

 

[Inaki2]

Chauvet is cheap because of a reason...I'll let you fill in the rest. Depends on the application it'll work for you or not.
I've seen the 700, but coudln't play with it, so I can't give you lots of info about it except it seemed to be really good. It has a lot of stuff in it, and the light quality is really nice. I don't love the gobos in it, but then again most Martin gobos I tend to dislike.
Yokes vs. mirrors...again it depends. Yokes have gotten faster (but never as fast as a mirror). Personally the way I design lighting I'll never need that speed, and I prefer yokes for various reasons. The main one is...well...there's no mirror that can be broken.

 

[ship]

Anyone demo'd or seen a Mac 700 yet?

They are awaiting a tour where I work but I could not pick one out as opposed to another fixture nor say good or bad. What's that is my normal half interest question when passing beside a moving light that looks odd - as if they all don't.


My current task is to find sources for lamps in them. Not as easy as it might seem in finding a good price and some in stock on the HTI 700w/D4/75. Sometimes the newest gear on the market does not equal ease in supporting it. The lamps in being less available are often more expensive and more prone to development problems and hard to find.

Unless some famous designer for a tour specifies this light, and he or she is amongst many, I would recommend going with what's new in technology until it becomes some form of Industry Standard such as the Mac 2K, Mac 600 or the Studio Spot or Trackspot lines. Even the Mac 550 or some various Krypton styles I might wait on a bit unless end user that makes a profit based on what lights you own.

In an educational situation, what is often and perhaps most considered best is to go with what while not persay newest or best is well known for a good fixture, or some base platform that's dependable thus cost effective to learn off of. It will not fail that even if in school you use the most modern of lights, by the time it's you specifying their use professionally, it will ble ancient technology. Instead learn the platform and general features and don't worry about being modern.

 

[moojoe]

the revolution is nice. i demoed one recently. def. a nice light, just, i wouldnt call it a moving light exactly. a moving light like say...the Martin Mac series or the High End Studio series. as in they fly around, doing great tricks for that extra look, but when you need, can double as a nice elispoidal or wash. a revolution is essentially a whole bunch of source fours put into one, with a motor on it. the thing i like about the revolution though is its functionality. i love the gel scroller, you can just pop your colours in, no annoying CMY mixing or increadibly annoying dicroics where you can never get that exact colour. (at least my experiance) i also love the gobo slots, as in you can pop in any gobo that you would pop into another light, dont have to worry about the special manufacturer gobos. also, shutters are great, add so much functionallity.

i was actually talking with some designers today about moving lights. someone asked me, "what would be your ideal moving light?"

my response was,
"well, i love the revolution, and i absolutly love the studiospot 575. my ideal moving light would be the revolution, i love the idea of using what ever gel i want, i love the idea of using normal gobos and having shutters. but i want it to be able to act like a studio spot. i want to have that "flash" when i need it. be able to spin around and do crazy cool stuff. but then by the click of a go button, simply become another profile for my design. i also of course want the light to be able to iris considerably, and the gobo holders would be cool if they were like the Apollo Smart Move gobo rotator. where it doesnt only spin, but can shake and do some other stuff, which while not always the most important, come in use ever so often. and of course the price needs to be good, like say the price of a current studio spot.
i think that if a company such as High End designed that, that would be the best moving light on the market, and while that would certainly pose problems in the sheer amount of DMX channels that would have to take, plus its most likely heavy weight, that could be a truely remarkable light.

 

[Inaki2]

Make the DL1 move faster, brighter and more resolutin and its my next big thing

 

[moojoe]

while the DL1 is a truely increadible unit, i wouldnt really consider it a moving light exactly, more a moving projector. now i havent used the DL1 yet, but i have researched it a bit, and it doesnt really seem to have the option to be a generic moving light, which of course is understandable, since that wasnt what it was built for. truely amazing piece of equipment though. im excited to see what the future brings for this type of system, and how it could be implimented in theatre.

 

[dwt1]

We used two Revolutions in a production of "Les Mis" last week and I found them quite satisfactory
in terms of functionality and their ability to blend in with the other conventional fixtures.

If there is a down side I really haven't seen it as of yet with the exception of their size and hence, the inabil;ty to put them in most FOH positions. Also, they would require color correction gel to better blend with other automated fixtures.

As was stated earlier, they do not move quickly and are not capable of some of the "tricks" associated with other automated fixtures.

DWT1

 

[Inaki2]

Yeah still ETC didn;t create them to be a flashy unit, but with theater in mind. I think it was their response to the AutoYoke, a way of saying "Hey we can do it too and do it better"

 

[MSwan]

moojoo spunded like you were describing a MAC 2000 with your wish list for the revloution. @k's have 4 shudders that can be racked and rotated like a Source 4, come in a wash and spot variety, have gobo rotation and shake as well as a really cool animation wheel along with all the other toys that movers have. The only catch with HMI lights is that when you only have one or two they tend to stick out as there color temp. is so different.

With regards to mirror vs. yoke: mirrors are only better than moving yokes for fast movements over small areas (degree wise). Also unless I have missed something there are not any moving mirror fixtures that are wash units, frost effects work to a point but can match the coverage of a true wash moving head.

Noone has asked yet but a terminator is just a 120 ohm resistor (I use 1/2 Watt) arcoss pins 2 & 3. you can use a regular XLR with the correct number of pins for your fixtures and solder in the resistor and save yourself some money generally (I have seen prices as high as $40 (US). The parts cost less than $10.

 

[Inaki2]

Well not all 2Ks have the shutters, only the Wash does and its an option.
The animation wheel is only in the 2K Performance

 

[avkid]

In case you haven't heard, I left school(the theatre aspect of it) about a month ago. Too much crap, not enough artistic freedom. They are for EPAC www.endicottarts.com

update: resolved differences in late May

 

[len]

Noone has asked yet but a terminator is just a 120 ohm resistor (I use 1/2 Watt) arcoss pins 2 & 3. you can use a regular XLR with the correct number of pins for your fixtures and solder in the resistor and save yourself some money generally (I have seen prices as high as $40 (US). The parts cost less than $10.

I've seen them as low as $5.00 on ebay.

 

[vguard420]

the M2K wash dosent really have shutters it has motorized barn doors which do somewhat of the same thing but they do add a huge amount of bulk to the front of the fixture. the Performances are the only 2000s that contain shutters.... and animation wheels