What kind of moving light is most prevalent?

[Pie4Weebl]

So I might be running around this spring on a little tour where I get to carry a ground package of Mac250s and a desk. (hog1000). If it happens I will get some time with the rig in the shop for pre-programming and I think it might be a good idea to ask for a truss in the shop I can hang a half dozen spot fixtures on. I can then program them in with the rig so I have a data in there when I go to a house with moving heads. I can then clone them as needed. So two questions, first does Hog II have any sort of cloning feature in it?

The main question is though, what is the most prevalent moving spot fixture out there that I will run into in those thousand seat theaters? Mac 2K, 500, Vl2500, X-Spot, something else?

If I end up advancing a 120K plot with the venues I could spec 2Ks which would probably make me see them the most, but I am curious what I'll be likely to see in venues that have a house concert rig.

 

[bishopthomas]

Is there a reason you left MAC250's off the list? I don't know if you're doing any House of Blues dates, but the specs of every venue are listed on their web site. Go to House of Blues online | HouseOfBlues.com, Venues, select the town, Contact Info, Production Specs. I looked up the LA one (MAC700's) and the Atlantic City HOB (HES Color Spot and Wash 575's), but they're all there. Most major venues have specs listed on their web site.

 

[jhdesynz]

Its rare to find just a specific model of mover in a venue. Usually you will find just one brand, but multiple models. For instance: In a club, you're likely to find Martin MAC 250 Kryptons and MAC 250 Washes. If its a new club, maybe MAC 301's or MAC 401's. Its more likely to find VL fixtures in venues that are multi-purpose concert stages. But it also tends to vary by region. In the Southeast for example, your probably going to find alot of Robe and Chauvet fixtures. In the Northeast, its mostly Martin.

If you are trying to figure on what would fit the best, think less power needed and smaller size and that's what you will usually find.

In regards to your 1000 seat venue question, a MAC250 is still going to work fine. I am the house LD at a 2300 seat venue and we use DesignSpot 250's which Elation modeled off the MAC250 (same lamp and basically a copy). They work great and still have an excellent punch to the back wall. We don't have a 120K conventional rig, but we do have 40+ conventionals used in most performances and I don't usually have any problems. If you want to step up to a 700w fixture, I would recommend the MAC700 Profiles over the VL2500's. They are more reliable and faster. I would look at the MAC401's for wash fixtures. LED source, homogenized color mixing and basic pixel capability.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

Its rare to find just a specific model of mover in a venue. Usually you will find just one brand, but multiple models. For instance: In a club, you're likely to find Martin MAC 250 Kryptons and MAC 250 Washes. If its a new club, maybe MAC 301's or MAC 401's. Its more likely to find VL fixtures in venues that are multi-purpose concert stages. But it also tends to vary by region. In the Southeast for example, your probably going to find alot of Robe and Chauvet fixtures. In the Northeast, its mostly Martin.

If you are trying to figure on what would fit the best, think less power needed and smaller size and that's what you will usually find.

In regards to your 1000 seat venue question, a MAC250 is still going to work fine. I am the house LD at a 2300 seat venue and we use DesignSpot 250's which Elation modeled off the MAC250 (same lamp and basically a copy). They work great and still have an excellent punch to the back wall. We don't have a 120K conventional rig, but we do have 40+ conventionals used in most performances and I don't usually have any problems. If you want to step up to a 700w fixture, I would recommend the MAC700 Profiles over the VL2500's. They are more reliable and faster. I would look at the MAC401's for wash fixtures. LED source, homogenized color mixing and basic pixel capability.

Thanks for the response. If I get the gig, the package is going to be one already picked out by those above, hence the 250's. Though I would love to carry Mac 301's and Clay Packy Alpha Beams.

Really I was curious what I would see out there most often, as I will hopefully add in a truss of a few lights for programming sakes. I figured I would use the most common light for programming and then clone from there.

 

[PadawanGeek]

It really depends on the venues. Most venues that i've been to that have their own rig have mostly some form of a mac (700, 250, or 550).

I just started using the Jands Vista a couple weeks ago, and it has a really cool feature called the generic fixture model. It means that you can program with one set of lights (vl 3000s for example), but then down the road if you have to swap those lights out, you can just change them to Mac 2Ks in the patch, and most of the information (position, CMY color, color wheel, zoom, iris, focus, intensity, etc) will carry over, so the most that you will have to reprogram is gobos and other fixture-specific functions if you happen to be using them. You can read more on their site: About Vista « Jands Vista

You could run the PC version with a wing as a second console on the tour if it is worth it to you, or do the whole thing on the Vista instead of the Hog. It's a really easy console to use, I learned it almost completely in under a week.

 

[len]

I would make a point to get contact info for each venue, and ask them directly. Find out inventory, addresses, locations, etc. At the least, you could pre-program pallettes, etc., for each venue during down time. Also, I would consider a change of desk. AFAIK, the 1000 doesn't have very good or any fixture cloning (apologies in advance if I'm wrong). Getting something where that is a big feature will probably make your life easier.

Or, depending on what's in the talent's contract with the venues, you could put your own plot together specifying certain fixtures and make the venue bring that in.

 

[derekleffew]

... and it has a really cool feature called the generic fixture model. It means that you can program with one set of lights (vl 3000s for example), but then down the road if you have to swap those lights out, you can just change them to Mac 2Ks in the patch, and most of the information (position, CMY color, color wheel, zoom, iris, focus, intensity, etc) will carry over, so the most that you will have to reprogram is gobos and other fixture-specific functions if you happen to be using them. ...

It is a cool feature, which Strand supports as well. Pioneered by Horizon Controls, see Horizon Controls - Abstract Control Model WhitePaper-2005-02-21-ACM.pdf . One wonders why other manaufacturers haven't adopted a similar philosphy? Perhaps it's that, once the "DSL" position palette is made, no one cares if that is P/T at DMX 105/243 or 65°/-27°. Or that "Slow Rotate" means more to an operator than 2.7 rpm.

... first does Hog II have any sort of cloning feature in it? ...

Not in the way you're thinking of, as a means to exhange fixture types, like more recent consoles.

 

[metti]

You are not going to be happy without a board that offers a decent morph/clone functionality. There a many boards that do this (GrandMA, MA2, Hog 3, Chamsys, Vista, etc) but the Hog II platform is not one of them. I know of LDs who have done tours that sound similar to yours with a rented Chamsys wing and computer and have been very happy with that. I brought my Chamsys MQ100Pro on a few week long tour I LDed last June. We brought an LED/ML deck package and then I worked with the existing conventionals/ML in each venue. There wasn't enough space to fit my board at FOH in one venue so I ran the show off of the PC Wing and X-Keys that I had brought along as backup and I found that the MagicQ setup was pretty great.