Moving lights

avkid

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As many of you know, I have been aching for a chance to see(up close) and use a moving yoke. My dream is about to come true, 2 Clay
Paky spots will be arriving within a couple of months!!
 
Congratulations. I'm sure everyone else here will join me in saying: Congratulations you lucky son of a bitch.


:D

So, tell us. How much, how did you get them, and can I have them?
 
My questions didn't make much sense. I was more asking, is this for a school or a real theater that you work in. If its for your school, how did you (or whoever) convince the school to shell out however much it would be for them.

I was thinking earlier this year of trying to get some intels. I ended up deciding it wasn't worth the money when we had other things to buy (like a com system and a genie lift).
 
The moving heads are so pretty(so cute)...and i suposse you'll have stagezooms 1200...But i preffer moving mirrors.In my opinion they have practically instant movements,and many of this fixtures,have yet RGB colormixing...i'm talking about machines like cyberlights SV,or TURBO.
what you think about it?
 
I like scanners better as well. I think they look better and I could be wrong but because it's only a small mirror moving they are more reliable than moving heads. I've never really had experience with moving heads.
 
well,i'm actually working with a company here in spain,which has both kind of fixtures,and as you well said the moving mirrors only have to move a little mirror,for this reason they don't have normally problems with the pan & tilt drivers...the other vintage is that you can use them practically in any position...try to use a mac600 or 500 in a 90º to the truss position,pfff...may i suggest that don't use in this way,or in not much time you'll have to change the pan motor...i had to do that the last year and i spent more than 4 hours only unwiring the head...

i like as well the moving heads,but not for theater purposes.maybe i'll use them for slow shows,where the movement don't have to be faster than 2 seconds...
 
for the unfamiliar, these are a few examples of moving heads or moving yokes. http://www.martin.com/productsubgroup/productsubgroup.asp?psg=movingheads

As for hanging them, they can be hung at any attitude, just like moving mirrors. The difference being the center of gravity is different, and they require different rigging preparation. I've cantilevered pipe off a truss, and hung them up or down off the truss, I've canted them off the side of a 24" box, I've even had a guy custom design some bases so I could hang some out a window over a room. It's all about weight, fulcrums, etc.
 
My only experience with these lights is seeing them on broadway. This was a field trip to see "Sweet Charity" after we did it for our musical. They used prolly 50 or so of these above the stage. They had them programmed to zoom in/out all at the same time, and all move into one spot. Coming from a run down, out of date, crappy, "theater," My jaw pretty much hit the floor several times after seeing all the stuff they did.
 
I am uncertain if there is a best choice when it comes to automated fixtures. However, assessing what you need the fixtures to do is going to be the deciding factor.

I opt for moving yoke fixtures in that the pan and tilt allows for greater flexibility 370 x 255 (Pan and Tilt for a HES Studio Spot)) as opposed to 170 x 110 (Pan and Tilt for a HES Cyberlight)

Also, there does seem to be a bit more research and product development involving moving yoke fixtures.

For those of you suffering from "fixture envy", do you ever rent the equipment as opposed to waiting for purchase?
 
I've never found mirrors to be that great. Although there probably more versatile than moving heads, i've always found them to be not ‘quite right’.

Some Martin RoboScans I’ve used seem to have developed a constant mirror 'flick' which can be very distracting when trying to track an actor with them. Has anyone else had this problem? (I suspect the desk is to blame)

I agree with what dwt1 said about greater flexibility with yoke fixtures, since it means they can be placed closer to the stage, and still maintain pan coverage.

Has anyone had any experience with ETC's Source 4 Revolutions? These are the lights we are currently trying to get our hands on, although we haven't been very successful! :(
 
Illusion:

We are preparing to use two Revolutions as part of our lighting rig for a production of "Les Mis". We were fortunate enough to have ETC loan us the pair.

I'll post our impressions of them next month after the show closes.
 
Moving lights are great. I like them alot. Myself I can't really say I am partial to moving yoke or mirror. They both have their applications, strengths and weaknesses. Moving yokes don't make much sense if they are against a wall or only need to hit what is in front of them. I have also found it easier to move them and hang them. On the other hand moving yokes typically have more options for the light output and can light up almost anything around them. I find them harder to move and hang though. That may differ with other fixtures but with what I've used that is true.

At any rate congrats on your moving lights. Make sure you do the routine work necessary. Also have a bulb or two laying around for your fixtures, never know when they will burn out on you. And for the love put a safety cable on them, make sure they don't fall. I would hate to hear of any entire light falling to its end on here.
 
Hmm check out this page:

http://www.hollywoodlights.biz/production/catalog/intellights.htm

(I just found it on google image search)

That page shows both kinds. The moving yoke ones are like the very first one on the page and the moving mirror type are like the second one. Basily the whole light moves with a moving yoke and with a moving mirror just the mirror moves and directs the light to different places

I hope this helps abit. I am sure others can fill in alot more details, as I have never used either kind!
 
That's the only difference. On a performance basis, a moving mirror will TYPICALLY be faster than a moving yoke, because there's a lot less weight to move in a mirror. However, the range of coverage for a moving yoke is much greater. Older moving mirrors could only pan about 165 degrees, and tilt about 110. Newer moving yokes can cover 540 degrees of pan in about 2.5 seconds, which is pretty fast. Still not as fast as a moving mirror, but nothing is perfect.

And don't get too excited about not having access to a lot of moving yokes. the more sophisticated the equipment, the more likely something will be broken.

Not a single show goes by where there's some minor glitch I have to deal with. Sometimes, it's very minor. Last Saturday, one fixture kept coming up with a head temperature error. Fortunately, we were near the shop to get replacements. But several fixes later, same error on 2 other replacements. Turns out, it was just too damn hot in the venue and a box fan directly behind the one unit (which had to be near an air conditioning return) solved the problem.
 
illusion mentioned a "flick" we had a situation like that with a moving mirror attached to a S4. the solution was to put a terminator(i think thats what its called) on the dmx out on the mirror.
 

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