two movers for spotting

Posting a lot, but I need input lol.

Looking at acquiring two movers to use for spotting. As some of you know already, our venue seats about 300, so I'm not needing crazy big power. Just enough to decently highlight cast members.
I had all but decided on the Martin MH 1; however, I started wondering about used Technobeams with Iris. The throw is about 30'. Conventionals would be a possibility but our supports for lighting do not offer much space at all to fit the amount of conventionals it would take to do the job.

Thoughts?
 
Are you looking for moving lights that you can use for specials? Or moving lights to use a spotlights?

The main purpose will be using them as spotlights.

And let me clarify: Not follow spotting. Just spotting. There can be a big difference between the two depending on implementation.
 
Neither of those fixtures will punch through a standard frontlight wash.

A rightarm/autoyoke/icue/elipscan as with a source 4 as Victor mentioned will do what you want and give you the punch you want. Unless you want to upgrade to a Mac700 or something of that variety you won't get through most traditional tungsten fixtures.
 
My 2 cents.

First of all - I would ask some questions. I'm assuming you have a rig with mostly conventional fixtures at this point in time.


Do you want the lights to blend in with the fixtures you have, or do you want them to "punch through" and look different. This is a key question as a 'blend in' moves you toward the realm of tungsten instruments. a Punch Throuogh takes you to arc sources or some LED fixtures that have a much cooler color temperature

Do you want to have color control on the fixture? What about Gobos

How do you feel about fan noise in your theatre?

And finally how long is the throw and how big do you want the spot to be.

The first and last time I used a technobeam I was surprised at just how narrow the beam angle was. ( 17 degrees ). This narrowness of beam is typical for moving mirror fixtures. At 17 degrees a 30 foot throw will give you a spot of 9 feet. Is this big enough for what you want to do? I tried to look up the beam angle for the Martin MH 1 and could not find it on the web site anywhere. This worries me.


As others have suggested, ( Assuming you want the light to blend in - not punch through ) I am a fan of considering something like an Apollo Rt Arm, color scroller, and DMX iris with the appropriate S4 for the beam spread you want. It will end up costing about $2500 to $3000 new, but you will blend perfectly with your existing units and you will have a lot of control over your beam spreads.
 
I've had a lot of luck using Mac 250 Entours as remote focus specials. They have enough punch to read through (when you don't have any of the colors in), and to show up as visible. If you put the CTO in, you'll blend pretty nicely with the rest of your fixtures. If you want it to really stand out, or to have the ability to change colors, you'd need to look at something larger.
 
My 2 cents.

First of all - I would ask some questions. I'm assuming you have a rig with mostly conventional fixtures at this point in time.


Do you want the lights to blend in with the fixtures you have, or do you want them to "punch through" and look different. This is a key question as a 'blend in' moves you toward the realm of tungsten instruments. a Punch Throuogh takes you to arc sources or some LED fixtures that have a much cooler color temperature

Do you want to have color control on the fixture? What about Gobos

How do you feel about fan noise in your theatre?

And finally how long is the throw and how big do you want the spot to be.

The first and last time I used a technobeam I was surprised at just how narrow the beam angle was. ( 17 degrees ). This narrowness of beam is typical for moving mirror fixtures. At 17 degrees a 30 foot throw will give you a spot of 9 feet. Is this big enough for what you want to do? I tried to look up the beam angle for the Martin MH 1 and could not find it on the web site anywhere. This worries me.


As others have suggested, ( Assuming you want the light to blend in - not punch through ) I am a fan of considering something like an Apollo Rt Arm, color scroller, and DMX iris with the appropriate S4 for the beam spread you want. It will end up costing about $2500 to $3000 new, but you will blend perfectly with your existing units and you will have a lot of control over your beam spreads.

Our front lighting is all conventional. Mostly I'm looking for a little punch. The spotting is more for times when the sanctuary will be very dark and I need to spot someone, say, in the aisle.
Gobos and color control would be nice, but not absolutely necessary.

The throw distance is about 30'. Spot size can be anywhere from 6'-9' in diameter. Fan noise is not an issue.
 
Before you go building a FrankenLight, you might look around for some used VL1000's. Or other small spots.
 
Before you go building a FrankenLight, you might look around for some used VL1000's. Or other small spots.

VL1000's are anything but small. They are also all old enough that they will require a lot of maintenance to keep working.
 
VL1000's are anything but small. They are also all old enough that they will require a lot of maintenance to keep working.
They are a decent size fixture, but I consider them small in size and output, to a lot of other fixtures. And yes it does depend on the age and past use of the fixture, but some maintenance is to be expected with any moving fixture, at least eventually.
 
They are a decent size fixture, but I consider them small in size and output, to a lot of other fixtures. And yes it does depend on the age and past use of the fixture, but some maintenance is to be expected with any moving fixture, at least eventually.
Just looked up some and they seem definitely out of price range unfortunately. However, I will keep them in mind for applications in the future!
 
They are a decent size fixture, but I consider them small in size and output, to a lot of other fixtures. And yes it does depend on the age and past use of the fixture, but some maintenance is to be expected with any moving fixture, at least eventually.
They are bigger in size than a VL3K and have the approximate output of a source 4. For a moveable special from the front a leko on a right arm (no dmx iris needed) is a way more economical option than a dated tungsten VL 1K.
 
They are bigger in size than a VL3K and have the approximate output of a source 4. For a moveable special from the front a leko on a right arm (no dmx iris needed) is a way more economical option than a dated tungsten VL 1K.
I 100% concur, a right arm with a s4 750 is likely your most cost conscious option.
To be honest, the vl1000 is pretty much a dinosaur. Unless you really need a tungsten source in a moving spot, stay away!
The color mixing system is poor, the shutters aren't great. And as stated in the quote, it's huge, larger than a VL3k and nearly as large as a Mac 3..
 
I 100% concur, a right arm with a s4 750 is likely your most cost conscious option.
To be honest, the vl1000 is pretty much a dinosaur. Unless you really need a tungsten source in a moving spot, stay away!
The color mixing system is poor, the shutters aren't great. And as stated in the quote, it's huge, larger than a VL3k and nearly as large as a Mac 3..

Thanks guys for confirming!

I personally am going to go on a rabbit trail here: it's a little frustrating to me when the big names (especially High End) make HUGE/HEAVY fixtures. One Cyberlight is over 100lbs. The Technospot is 90lbs and is quite large. I for one would like to see a little bit of work towards "all-around-efficiency" by some of these companies. Ok, now I'm off the personal rabbit trail... :D
 
Rosco I-cues, are pretty cheap too. I would not go to the trouble of adding an iris and scroller unless you already have them.
The VL1000 was available in An arc lamp with external power supply ...But why?
Other 250-575w fixtures might not be a bad Idea, but there are inherent maintenance cost in any fixture.
 
They are bigger in size than a VL3K and have the approximate output of a source 4. For a moveable special from the front a leko on a right arm (no dmx iris needed) is a way more economical option than a dated tungsten VL 1K.
Shop around and you might come across them for very cheap, plus shutters and color are nice, and they are really only longer than a 3k with a ridiculously small base.
 

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