New follow Spots

[gareth]

I am one off the lighting directors

It's OF, not OFF.

 

these are for me, I left the school almost 4 years ago

So you're buying these units yourself? You operate as a small business which is buying them? Or the school is buying them?

 

The other guy doing followspoting with me works for me

Ah, so you're in business, and you employ him.

 

the school is a poor desgn

To be honest, from the photos it looks like a temporary stage in a sports-hall-type environment, so you can't complain about a 'poor design' given that the space clearly wasn't designed as a theatre space.

 

The school isnt coverd for putting pupils up The scaffold tower nomater how high/low it is

So they need to think about an alternative solution, then. You can't be certain that you and your mate will always be available to operate these followspots ; pupils can't go up the tower ; there's probably no-one else who's available to do it ; there are no other follow-spot positions ... so the school would be left with 10 grand's worth of followspots that they couldn't use, which you'd made them buy, and they'd be cursing you for wasting several thousand pounds of their funds.

 

we were operating the follows from a seated postition as we found it was the best way to controll all parts off them

But it clearly wasn't the best way, as you couldn't access some of the controls without burning yourselves. DMX isn't the answer - you need to address the more basic issues that were confronting you in that situation before you start throwing money around unnecessarily. (And see point 1 above ...)

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

well me and the other guys have decided that we would much rather prefer working with DMX controlled spots anyway weve used different manuals plenty but arent a huge fan off them.

You personally may be fans of DMX - but it won't always be you using these spots (see my earlier points), so you need to consider those who may come after you and not buy overcomplicated equipment for a situation where something much more 'standard' would be far more appropriate. As stated perviously, DMX control isn't the answer to your 'burning' problems - getting yourselves into proper operating positions is.

 

The school wouldnt hire the second tower as it was way out off budget.

If it can't afford to hire a scaff tower, how can it afford to buy two followspots? (Or is it you personally buying them? I'm starting to get a little bit confused ...)

 

I didnt burn myself it was the guy next to me as he had the cantata very close to him too

Eh? But you said :

we were wearing T-Shirts and kept burnning out arms when moving the iris, Dimmer or channging colours

So make your mind up - did you burn yourselves? Or not? I don't think you've really thought this through too well, have you?

[Guest joewhite903]

As ive said before, I go back every year and do this, Im buying these with my money for my buisness, to use in the school aswell , the hall other wise know as the street, Was aledgedly designed for everything. So the hall is the passageway between classes, Is the gathering area at break times, the dinner hall at lunch time and has the stage, There are panels in the floor with mains, DMX 5pin and 16ch off sound all patched into a main panel at the back off the stage to 4 speakers around the hall. There is no where else to put the followspots up a scaffold tower is the only option, The picture which shows the stage, we were positioned halfway up the hall, Its huge and they have a drama area in the room right behind the stage..

[Ynot]

Er....

The school hired the follows in from a company Called THE WAREHOUSE Which supplied us with 2x Robert Juliat Foxie MSR 700 Followspot's.....

...then...

P.S. I didnt burn myself it was the guy next to me as he had the cantata very close to him too

If you hired 2 RJ's, what's the Canatata got to do with the price of cheese in Cornwall...?

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

<snip> Was aledgedly designed for everything. <snip>

Which I'm afraid is usually a byword for "Designed for nothing in particular, and unfortunately it shows!! :)

[gareth]

Im buying these with my money for my buisness

In which case, buying high-value equipment for your general hire stock based solely on criteria which apply to one very short-term job is definitely not the way forward.

So the hall is the passageway between classes, Is the gathering area at break times, the dinner hall at lunch time and has the stage

In which case, I don't think it's fair to complain about the poor design of the space - the architects clearly had many other functions in mind above that of using the space as a theatre - and when the school stages theatrical productions in an area where such usage was clearly little more than an afterthought, then they can't expect everything to be just right, can they?

 

Anyway, to be honest, I'm starting to get the impression that you've already made up your mind regarding this issue and you're going to buy DMX-controllable spots regardless of the advice you receive from experienced respondents to this thread, so I'm going to shut up now and let you do whatever you think is best - it's your money, spend it as you wish.

[Ynot]

If you knew exactly how things were and what we had to achive, I think then you would be impressed as the outcome off the overall show was fantastic.

And sorry to burst your bubble Joe, ut in MY 30 years in 'the business' I've worked on everything from converted 18th century school halls and modern school halls to a wide variety of amateur venues ranging from 250 seaters to 800 seaters. And whilst I won't claim that every show I've done has always looked 'fantastic' I like to think I did a pretty decent job with all of them, and a darned good job with many!

And I'm also confident that there are going to be a large proportion of those senior Roomers out there who can say the same.

[Guest joewhite903]

Anyway back to the whole point in this post, Has anyone used, owned, Still got any DMX follospots they would recomend having a look into??

[mumbles]

Anyway back to the whole point in this post, Has anyone used, owned, Still got any DMX follospots they would recomend having a look into??

Joe, everyone so far is agreeing that what you want may be avaliable, but there is no benefit we can see to it. None of us really want you to go out and waste your money but at the same time when people on the forum make suggestions that you obstinately refuse to consider, we will give up quite quickly as if you do waste your money, it won't harm any of us. We have all said that having the DMX features is a gimmick at best, and more likely going to get in the way of operation of the spot. Everyone has said that a standard f/spot would seem much more suitable, and unless you can give us a better reason than

Plus were DMX crazy so thought why not.

none of us are likely to change our tune.

 

Before you carry on looking at DMX f/spots, look back and see how many years of experience there are behind the people saying that you'd be wasting a lot of money, and see if you can come up with a more definite need/use for the DMX features.

 

M

[mac500]

The only professional one I know of is made by clay paky. Which is basicly a goldenscan without the mirror and a control unit to control the features.

 

Personally I don't know of any shows that use them? I may be wrong however but buying a product that people will want to use I.e a model by Robert Juliet rather then an obscure one seems to make alot more sense but hey what do I know?

[Ynot]

Anyway back to the whole point in this post, Has anyone used, owned, Still got any DMX follospots they would recomend having a look into??

Well, no-one's had a good word as yet for DMX follows, so I guess the answer is no so far!

But Google DMX Follow Spot and you will get some hits - though probably not from any company many of us here would buy - and unlikely to be any that would stand up to any serious hire use....

[niclights]

SGM make one very similar to the Clay Paky:

 

http://www.sgmtechnologyforlighting.com/index.asp

[Russ83]

This thread got me thinking and 6 hours later I still haven't come up with any valid reasons for wanting DMX control of everything on a followspot.

 

The only situations I can think of are when the operator is unable to do everything themselves eg. untrained students in a school or someone with a physical disability in a community project. In either of these cases there should be a competent person helping the operator at all times for the H&S issues and external control from a remote desk would likely just confuse things further.

 

If you want DMX just so you can do 'fancy' things from the desk while someone else does pan and tilt then do away with the FS opp. and get a moving head/scanner, a laptop and a tracker ball mouse.

 

Another reason against, if they are controlled from the desk then you don't have the option of using the followspots as a backup should the main desk freeze or loose power.

 

Sorry Joe but on this one I really can't see why you would want full DMX. If you wanted to spot 10+ people on an ice ring then maybe yes, you could then get all the colours and brightness to change simultaneously but that is not the case here from what you have said.

 

P.S. Thankyou GridGirl for pointing out the new Selecon followspot's, I will be getting some quotes for those in the near future as these would be my choice for a school hall or similar environment.

[pete LD]

Anyway back to the whole point in this post, Has anyone used, owned, Still got any DMX follospots they would recomend having a look into??

I have used some and they’re **** beyond all understanding!!! There are so many things wrong, simple things on a manual spot have stepper motors doing the work. These break causing problems!. The colour wheels have fixed dicroics which are all useless as they are things like Congo blue and dark red, not L202 or 003.

Then there is the control, what happens if a spot op misses a cue point? on a manual spot it don’t come on, on a spot controlled by the desk it goes with the lighting state if the spot op is paying attention or not!! Same with actors going off when they shouldn’t or other things like that, the op has no control, which is bad!

I sold (gave away for free that’s how bad they are) the spots and bought some nice manual ones!

but you sound like you have made up your mind anyway.

The spots where FAL but seem to be the same spec as the Clay Paky/ SGM etc.

 

OT but on your spot towers in your pics are the spots held up with Gaffa tape?!

Pete

[Bobbsy]

:)

 

Since this topic relates to a use in a school, it has been moved to TNG even though the original poster is older than school age.

 

The question asked for a recommendation of DMX controllable follow spots. The few of these that exist have been named along with strong recommendations from people who KNOW (as opposed to wannabees who think they have a cool idea) why DMX control is a bad idea. Beyond that, this topic is now full of rubbish about who burned what and why.

 

Moderator fingers are currently hovering over the "close" and "delete" buttons. Unless there's a change of tack and some valid posts very soon, this topic is destined for the Blue Room tip.

[Andrew C]

:) and having got up this morning to see how far it has degenerate, my fingers aren't hesitating at all. Anything remotly of value has already been said.

 

:)