New Member/Mac250 question

[beltsvillecrucible]

Hey all, greetings from the states.

 

I'm an 18 year old senior in high school bound for Purdue University next year.

 

Just as a little background I'm from the Boston, Mass area and do some load in/load out stuff at various houses around the city. Like many other students, I'm the resident LD/tech handy man around school.

 

The question I came to you all with is an issue I'm having with a current design project. We have a cabaret style show coming in on sunday; thus far I have 6 McCandles style areas FOH. (If you can picture it three run across the lip of the stage with one on each side extending on the outside area and three across the orch "pit," one for the chorus and two for the orch.)

 

On stage I'm using a front wash of 500W Par64's and 6" Fresnels gelled R51 surprise pink. I'm taking a bunch of 360Q's I have and using them as backlight washes in three colors plus one lower beam angle wash gelled N/C for that big rock look. In addition I'll have 4 Mac250+'s floor mount upstage. My question is when the frontlight wash is up (albeit at a fairly low level), will the Mac250's be able to cut through the wash?

 

This is my first time using any discharge sources so I really don't know how to scale that wattage to output. I've seen both 1K profiles in action and Mac2000's and although the lamps in the 2000's are only 200W greater than the 1K, they sure looked a hell of a lot brighter.

 

Edit: oh and I'll have one neutron Star XS hazer

[woody74]

In a way, you answered your own question: they will be as bright as the rest of the light is dim. That sounds really wishy-washy, but it's true. The haze will help make them more obvious, and the color temperature of the arc source vs. the tungsten will separate them as well, but it really comes down to making it look right with trial and error.

 

In terms of wattage to output, it depends on both the lamp and the optics of the fixture. The manufacturer should have specs on their lamps, but that only is for a bare lamp, not inside a fixture.

 

Lastly, a bit of advice: don't flood out your 250's. The more tight the beam, the more it will be seen. I tend to think of it like water: X amount of water in a small area will dampen more than X spread out over an entire floor. You have X amount of light coming out of it, make it count.

 

Three hours behind,

-w

[StevieR]

Firstly, discharge lamps are generally a lot brighter than their tungsten equivalents. This is why they will save energy albeit at the trade-off from the expense of the lamp. Their lamp life is also much greater and the colour temperature higher.

 

The old Mac 250/250+ were never that great in terms of the output and will struggle against high ambient lighting conditions - even with a hazer. Depending on the intended throw distance I would try to get your hands on the new 250 Krypton/Entour models which have vastly improved optics/light output or Mac500/550's.

 

Steve