scrollers
- Thread starter Eboy87
- Start date
I know that at my high school, we have Wybron Forerunner scrollers on ETC Source 4's, so I know that that combo works very well. I've also seen scrollers on par 64's down here at the County College. As for the other instruments, hopefully one of the more lighting-experienced members on controlbooth.com can set us completely straight. I'm curious myself.
digitaltec
Active Member
You can find scrollers for any light practicly. I would look at Chroma Q:
http://www.aclighting.com/Products/Chroma-Q/colour_changers.asp
I have used these and the seem to work the best.
http://www.aclighting.com/Products/Chroma-Q/colour_changers.asp
I have used these and the seem to work the best.
In most cases, as long as the scroller's opening is large enough for the lens/light, than it's fairly easy to either get or make a mounting plate that will enable a scroller to fit onto a fixture no matter the type. Simple as using an old gel frame with the threaded standoffs that would otherwise mount a different plate in many cases.
In the case of a 6" Fresnel for instance, it uses the same gel frame as a 6" Leko and PAR 56, in other words, given companies such as Altman, L&E, Times Square and Strand still make fixtures on the 6" lens type, getting a plate to fit a 6" fixture no matter the type is fairly easy to acquire. Possibly not as easy as a plate for a S-4 but still just as easy and probably using the same type of scroller. Possibly not as large a scroller unit as is necessary to fit a 8" PAR fixture, but similar in design if perhaps a little less expensive due to the smaller size.
All the same, it should work fine given you do either get the right mounting plates or retrofit the plates to fit the gel frame holder.
Also of note is safety cable. Even on a S-4 Leko, safety cabling the scroller is still necessary. Also you might need to add a support arm to the fixture yoke in an effort to help support the scroller. Strangest thing I ever saw was a 10 degree S-4 fixture with a support arm coming off the side of the yoke and running to the scroller. All the same, it made sense in this situation.
In the case of a 6" Fresnel for instance, it uses the same gel frame as a 6" Leko and PAR 56, in other words, given companies such as Altman, L&E, Times Square and Strand still make fixtures on the 6" lens type, getting a plate to fit a 6" fixture no matter the type is fairly easy to acquire. Possibly not as easy as a plate for a S-4 but still just as easy and probably using the same type of scroller. Possibly not as large a scroller unit as is necessary to fit a 8" PAR fixture, but similar in design if perhaps a little less expensive due to the smaller size.
All the same, it should work fine given you do either get the right mounting plates or retrofit the plates to fit the gel frame holder.
Also of note is safety cable. Even on a S-4 Leko, safety cabling the scroller is still necessary. Also you might need to add a support arm to the fixture yoke in an effort to help support the scroller. Strangest thing I ever saw was a 10 degree S-4 fixture with a support arm coming off the side of the yoke and running to the scroller. All the same, it made sense in this situation.
Lightingguy32
Active Member
The Source Fours are the most applicable fixture for using a scroller on. However, one word of caution, be sure to choose one company to get your scrollers and gel strings from and insure that when you swap out gel strings, all of the new gel strings have the colors in the same sequence from on string to another, other wise you could be in for a mess when you go to program a cue when you want a certain color wash. The two scrollers that I would recommend are the Wybron CXI and the Apollo Smart Color. If your school is willing to put some more money on equipment, try getting some Sea Changer Color Engines for the ETC Source Fours. The Sea Changer is a dichroic color mixing system that uses a hexachromic mixing system with CMYxG. This allows for a color palette with much richer colors and more vibrant light tones.
necro post.
If you are going to spend what it would cost to get Chroma-Q's, you might as well buy Apollo SmartColor scrollers. They are quieter, lighter, more durable, easier to maintain, and easer to load. The gel strings are cheaper too. Also, for the same price as a Chroma-Q you can get the SmartColor 7.5 with universal mounting plate that will fit any fixture with up to a 10"x10" color frame holder.
I have both the CQ and SC in my inventory, and the SC is a far superior unit.
soundlight
Well-Known Member
Apollo Smart Color scrollers, or at least the ones that I use, have adjustable mounting brackets to fit a wide variety of instruments. It's called the Universal Mounting Plate (mentioned above). This is achieved by having screws at the ends of each of the for pieces that actually make contact with the fixture. They work great for source fours and source four pars and other ellipsoidals and 6" fresnels (8 inchers are too big for our scrollers). To see how it works, check out the video at the apollo site, on the Smart Color page.
http://www.internetapollo.com/Products/ProductLine.aspx?pl_id=43
I also say Smart Colors over Chroma Q's. We have 12 Smart Colors and 10 Chroma Q's, and always use the Smart Colors first, because it takes much, much longer for them to get out of calibration. The Chroma Q's have to be calibrated by hand and at least once every week or two.
http://www.internetapollo.com/Products/ProductLine.aspx?pl_id=43
I also say Smart Colors over Chroma Q's. We have 12 Smart Colors and 10 Chroma Q's, and always use the Smart Colors first, because it takes much, much longer for them to get out of calibration. The Chroma Q's have to be calibrated by hand and at least once every week or two.
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Lightingguy32
Active Member
Is that a complement or insult?
Wow, I have never had my Chroma-Qs lose their calibration, but they love to rip the little metal hooks off the end of the gel strings every week or so during their power-on-claibration sequence.
soundlight
Well-Known Member
That's always fun, too. I think that we just got a bad batch, and they're not the newest model, either. And they're bulkier.
When Apollo sold the Spectra Q scrollers several years ago (private label of scroller you've just mentioned), we would battle the problem of metal tabs being jerked off the ends of the strings. We found if we doubled up the J-lar or similar tape connecting these tabs to the header/tail, they would hold up a bit longer. After numerous rentals, the dealer would call us requesting hints on how to keep these little boogers on the string.
We don't sell these any longer...
We don't sell these any longer...
lighttechie5948
Active Member
at my community theatre we have Chroma-Q Broadway Scrollers and we just bought 4 scrollers and and 4 Source Four Pars. THey look good
Its not an insult, its just informing people that this was a dead thread and its now brought back to life. Essentially saying, the OP is long gone and odds are whatever they are asking has been taking care of years back. Essentially, we are sitting hear squabbling over nothing. Like the other thread you brought back that discussed lighting consoles, the OP posted in 2003. You were recommending he buy the smartfade, odds are he bought something 4 years ago. When he was looking at consoles, the 300 and 500 series from strand was top of the line, the hog 3 didn't exist, and ETC hadn't had out a new console for a good amount of time. Its annoying to type a huge response and then find out that the person you are trying to help has not been on the site in over 6 months. If you are going to necro post, please say something in the beginning that states that this is an old thread.