School Movers

[Josh Barnes]

I am secondary school at the moment and in charge of the technical, We currently have some generic lights and a zero 88 sirus desk, but we want to get 4 Acme IMove 5s' in a couple of weeks. We currently put on about 3/4 shows a year and think it would benefit them a lot. I quite like the gobos and colour mixing on them?

 

What does everyone think of my idea?

[Big Jay]

Can the "sirius" handle movers? It an analouge desk ins'nt it?

 

Be logical, do you need them, can your, (well I say yours, your schools, as legaly you cannot be in charge of something like this) money not be spent on more needy resources.

 

Look at it like this, At my old college, I was really luck to have 14 Martin Movers which to be honest was used nearly all of the time, and looking back they were more trouble than they were worth.

 

You have to think, Time, Resources, Training(If you dont know how to use), A new desk since im sure the sirius is not a DMX desk?.

 

Dont get them for the sake of getting them, there are plently more comments bound to come, Just dont get something becuase you want to look good, In the long run, you'll look back and wish you had got something more needy.

[Josh Barnes]

I was thinking of controlling them individually using the stairville DMX Master, it looks a good enough desk, but I do think they would make life easier and it would make the shows a lot better.

[Big Jay]

Have you used movers/intelligent fixtures? If you have then o.k you no whats involved, if not, hire some on a production first and then see if they are benificial to your production, and see how time consuming they are. Not to mention maintance costs (lamp replacement dont come cheap!!!!)

[jacet]

There have been a lot of threads on schools buying movers, try using the blue room search function. I have a feeling any responses you would get would be similar to the ones found on the previous threads which generally go along the lines of "It's a waste of money". As ToshiBoy says the sirius doesn't do movers well, while it can do DMX (I think, the only one I ever used wasn't DMX but I'm sure it can do it) it won't be easy and so buying a new desk would add to the cost.

Aside from that, welcome to the blue room! One small piece of friendly advice, you'll get better responses from people if you ensure you're using good grammar as it's a subject that many members have very very strong feelings about.

Jacet

[Guest lightnix]

There have been a lot of threads on schools buying movers...

Haven't there :blink:

 

To sum up the advice given in all of them: Don't buy movers - hire them as and when necessary (which may not be for absolutely every show).

 

That way, you won't have to worry about the cost of maintenance and spares. You'll also be able to use a greater variety of units, including perhaps the very latest models and choose the ones that are best for each production. In the end, you and your fellow students will wind up with a broader range of experience.

 

€0.02

[Josh Barnes]

I was considering hiring but we dont have enough money for shows, and I could also borrow them for my discos if we bought them as well

[Big Jay]

I was considering hiring but we dont have enough money for shows, and I could also borrow them for my discos if we bought them as well

 

Had on, how can you not afford to hire them if you going to buy them??? :blink:

 

Thats a bit confusing

[Tomo]

If you cannot afford to hire, then you also cannot afford to buy.

 

You may have the capex budget to buy the units in the first place, but you don't have the maintenance budget to change lamps and cover repairs (generally by paying someone to do repairs).

 

And in that case, the lights will be utterly useless in 6 to 8 months.

[djw1981]

I could also borrow them for my discos if we bought them as well

 

Surely the school disco could hire from the hire company just as easily as the school theatre production can? Uneless this was a personal disco you were meaning, in which case you would be hiring from the school anyway, and you were thinking that your hire payment could help fund the maintenance, assuming you are paying close to market rate for the hire, and have appropriate insurance for the school property on hire.

[Alpha]

I could also borrow them for my discos if we bought them as well

 

Surely the school disco could hire from the hire company just as easily as the school theatre production can? Uneless this was a personal disco you were meaning, in which case you would be hiring from the school anyway, and you were thinking that your hire payment could help fund the maintenance, assuming you are paying close to market rate for the hire, and have appropriate insurance for the school property on hire.

 

You actually think he was planning to pay to hire them from the school???? For some reason I'm guessing not.

[Chris Beesley]

The iMove 5S are more of a disco/dj product than a theatre fixture. They are quite limited in function and with having an ELC 250W halogen will struggle to against the rest of your rig. IF you are to go down the buying route of budget movers I would suggest looking towards the iMove 7 (virtually identical features) as they use a 150W CSS or even the iMove 250S with the MSD250 lamps (also iMove 250 has added features such as prism, focus and 16bit mode). Also it may be worth speaking with Stage Electrics as their budget movers seem to be generating quite a bit of interest at the moment.

 

Where are you located?? It might help guys here put you in touch with some local hire companies...

[mr_cahonjes]

:blink:

[djburnage]

we want to get 4 Acme IMove 5s'

 

Oh Dear!!!

[karl]

I really, really wish movers had never been invented. Sure they can be useful in some circumstances and in the hands of experts but so many people just go "ooh that's sexy I must stuff some of those in my show".

 

Movers aren't a cure all and probably won't make your shows any better (in fact they usually make them worse).