Martin Mac 2k Hire

[steve h]

Ive just found a company that will supply me with Mac 2k washes for £40 a week! Im thinking of getting 2 for 2 weeks for the school show this year (guys and dolls!)

 

I fear if I put them on the FOH bars they will just wash out any other spots from the front, and if I put them above the stage (5m up - stage is 10m wide and 6m in depth) then they wont cover enough of the stage

 

Also, does anyone have any experience of the colour tone will get from them. Everything else in the rig is tungsten with gels and I know sometimes the colour may not work

 

I plan to have them in position covering the stage and keep them there for the show so I dont have to worry about bar wobble with the weight of them...but how many do you think I should put on one bar?

 

I also have some stairville LEDs which I will be using...do you think these will be washed out by the macs?

 

Will it be easy to contreol them from my Jester desks?

 

And I only have a pair of zarges so does anyone have any tips as how to get them up into the air!

 

thanks as always!

 

Steve

[JDP]

Depends what 2Ks they are. Control wise. If they are the standard CMY, Colour Wheel, 2 Gobo Wheel etc your be OK. Trying to run a Performance with Framing Shutters, Animation Wheels etc is a different ball game and you need a better desk.

 

Zarges and Mac 2000s, forget it. If its for school, your not even going to be able to lift them out of a box at your age, let alone haul them up a ladder. You preferably need to drop the bars in, otherwise 4 school kids on a rope MAY just pull it up!! Also have you looked at how much your bars can take? Mac 2000s ain't the lightest of units...

 

Also, £40 where from. That stupidly cheap. I am hard pushed to get Smart Macs for that per week! That and Mac 2000's break, lots - if the company are doing Mac 2Ks for £40 a week, then do they not have any Mac 250 Entours or 500s for less, which also weigh less?

 

Will Mac 2000s be overkill, when they work YES. Way. Seriously, look at smaller units!

[Joe Bleasdale]

Will it be easy to contreol them from my Jester desks?

 

 

Which jester do you have?

[Young Johnstone]

Hi Steve,

mac 2K's @ £40 a week!!! may I ask where from :P

What you have to consider is that the 2k's are a 1200 W fixture (1500 if u have XB's) and very bright, so yes it would most likely wash out other lights in your rig... what other lights do you have up and what wattage are they?

 

You need to ask yourself do you need a Mac 2K, or would a 600 be more appropriate?

As for colour am sure you are aware it is a discharge lamp, not an incandescent, so the colour temp will be different and may look slightly out of place alongside your main rig. it will be more white.

 

And for how many to put on a bar you need to know the SWL of the lighting bar, the wieght of the fixture and work from there.

[HobitLight]

I'll also add that with normal incandescent lamps convert only about 10% of the engery supplied into light, whereas discharge lamps convert about 40% of their energy into light. Therefore, a MAC 2000 throws out the equivelent of about 4.8kW of incandescent light. As suggested before, maybe a MAC 600 or even a MAC 250 Wash would be more suitable.

Will it be easy to contreol them from my Jester desks

I find the Jester ML a nice desk to use for basic theatre. It's as easy as selcting the fixture, selecting the attribute and, either by using the wheels or palettes, modifying the attributes. Then just record the cue into the stack!

[Nick LX]

The way my school theatre got Vari-Lites onto our FOH bars was by put a rope round the bar and then attactching the rope through the handles if you understand. That way we just had someone up a ladder guiding them, and 2 people pulling the rope with the VL. Probably belongs on the dodgy technicians group. Haha!

 

Wouldnt' be interested to know the company as well! The LEDs without doubt will be washed out. The 2ks are very powerful. I have worked on a show which used them. I was impressed!

 

 

If the bar can move (like swing) I wouldn't advise putting them on the bars. We put a VL on one of our LX bars as a test to see what would happen. The bar can start to swing when the light pans or tilts.

 

HTH