Sea Changer vs Nexera

[jyenish]

Hello there,

I run the lighting at a small liberal arts college. We produce four shows a year (one a Gilbert and Sullivan Musical) and have a 260 seat house. I'm the process of upgrading the overall lighting for the college. A few years ago I replaced the Altman 360Q's with ETC Source Fours, this last year I replaced the Leviton Colortran Innovator with a ETC ION (Yeah I'm a total ETC guy) and now I'm putting together proposals for color changers. I'm looking into starting with a smallish rig of 12 units. My stage isn't all that large and well asking for several thousands of dollars for "light" is never very populars.

My question is what do you feel are the pros and cons of both Sea Changers and Nexeras? I'd love to hear what everyone has to say or maybe a suggestion toward a instrument I'm not familiar with.

 

[jxgriffi]

Nexeras and Sea Changers definitely have their places...

Here is my list of pros and cons

Sea Changer:
Pro - Virtually Silent
Pro - Fits EXISTING Source 4 units
Pro - Very good color mixing
Con - Price
Con - If you don't have Source 4 ERS, they won't work for you

Nexera:
Pro - Virtually Silent
Pro - Self-Contained Instrument (Wash or Spot)
Con - External Power Supply (Similar to Scrollers)
Con - Self-Contained unit IF you ALREADY have Source 4's...

That's a small list. My suggestion...get a demo of each and see what works for you facility....

 

[gafftaper]

I have 12 Seachanger Wash and 8 Seachanger Profiles. I have a Black Box. I use the Wash lights as down light and the profiles for everything from texture to specials.

I had a demo of both. I liked the Seachanger colors better. I liked the ability to plug the profiles in and use them like any other instrument in my rig. Having the a group of S4's in your rig that can change colors is awesome.

There's nothing wrong with Nexeras. If I didn't have so much other ETC stuff in my rig I might have leaned more that way. For some people and some applications they make more sense.

Combined with the color matching powers of a new ETC or Strand console it's amazing what they can do. I love being able to just select R39 and boom there it is.

 

[icewolf08]

Here is my quick 2 cents. First off, the published prices of both Nexera Profiles and Seachanger for profiles on BMI's site is within $100 of eachother, so price is not a good comparator. Second, Nexera adds whole units to your inventory, they aren't small and they require an external power supply. Yes, you can power more than one unit off a PSU, but you still need that extra piece of gear. On the other hand, Seachanger has a built in power supply, so each unit requires power. Seachanger is also a modular device, you don't have to use it if you don't need it, and you don't add units to your inventory. You can put it in any standard Source 4 (not Jr.) which means that you have a wider focal range available to you and you are not locked into a specific zoom range. You also have the option of using it with EDLT lens tubes for better patter projection. Not to mention the fact that in my opinion, fixed focus units yield better output and clarity than zooms.

I think that's about it for the moment.

 

[gafftaper]

In comparing the price of Seachangers you should also plan to buy an extended yoke for each S4. The Seachanger makes the S4 really LONG and lumpy on one side. Without the extended yokes you have extremely limited range of motion. Note even with the extended yoke you still lose some range of motion. I paid $62.50 for them... but as always your price varies.

There is drop off in lumen output with the Seachanger... even at clear. I've got a black box so 575 long life lamps have plenty of punch for the space. I've got 750 long lifes in my Seachangers and the resultant intensity is a pretty close match with the rest of my rig.

EDIT: Also get a MEGA-Claw or something similar to replace your standard c-clamps with. These things are really heavy. You'll hate yourself if you don't have a nice clamp.