Luke-Woods Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 HiI've got a dance show coming up in April and I'm LD for it and I was wondering if anyone could help me on a couple of rigging questions? Is it possible to rig any of the below on their side? e.g on a truss leg? Mac 250Mac 500Tourspot 575MiniMacRobe 575Robe 250 Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Any of those will happily cope with being rigged on their sides. There's the simple answer. Now let the pedantry and off-topic discussion commence! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danjshelton Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Most movers (proffesional standard!) will quite happily be hung on there side, although they are often a pain in the a*&e to rig that way. If you have the room, which you should do based on the size of the head sticking out from the truss, then I would get a boom arm (Such as here) and put the mover on that! On the side is the most stressful position for a mover, especially the Pan motor(s) as it is having the move then entire weight of the head. The boom arms in the link above aren't particularly expensive (£30 - £35 each) and a handy bit of kit to have. Cheers Dan PS: I think this is on topic, is that allowed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stee_cri1 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Hi Dan Great shout on the boom arm, these can also be made with some scaffold and cheeseburgers if you have them. I dont think I would go out of my way to buy some though as I would just hang them on an angle save yourself some money. Moving heads that Robe and Martin make are built to be flown any way you want them with out to much strain on the motors. I have done this loads of times using the same heads and never had an issue Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 On the side is the most stressful position for a mover, especially the Pan motor(s) as it is having the move then entire weight of the head.Unlike when the mover is hanging electronics-upwards, with the weight of all the moving bits hanging on the pan pivot, and the pan motor is having to move the entire weight of the h... oh, hang on a second ... :) A good point about the boom arms, though. If there isn't a specific reason for the units to be hung on their sides (for exampe, if they are rigged on a circular truss surrounding a vertical screen in a Pink Floyd style-ee) and you just want to get one part-way up a truss leg, then a cross bar or boom arm is easier to rig on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke-Woods Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 hey guys thank you very much for all your info, you've confirmed what I was thinking. The show is in Norwich, does anybody have any ideas on where I can get cheap hire from? I already have 2 good quotes from Viking and Stage Electrics but it is always better looking for the cheaper company (Credit crunch and all!!). Also has anybody heard of source 250w moving heads as I have found 4 on hire for £25/week? Luke P.s sorry for going off topic ** laughs out loud ** :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trunker Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 hey guys thank you very much for all your info, you've confirmed what I was thinking. The show is in Norwich, does anybody have any ideas on where I can get cheap hire from? I already have 2 good quotes from Viking and Stage Electrics but it is always better looking for the cheaper company (Credit crunch and all!!). Also has anybody heard of source 250w moving heads as I have found 4 on hire for £25/week? Luke P.s sorry for going off topic ** laughs out loud ** :-) Yep, Disco lights. They will look naff against your generics and you probably won't be able to see them. They don't work off DMX512, only the disco 3 pin style DMX, they are about £300 to buy whereas a Robe will cost about £3000. Pay your money takes your chance. Sorry to be abrupt, but if you want your design to look as pro as you can, avoid these sort of lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunk_1984 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Viking usually supply favourable quotes. Also don't forget to ensure they are supplied with half couplers, although I assume you already knew this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 They don't work off DMX512, only the disco 3 pin style DMX,Huh? Trunker, perhaps you should go edit that comment, it makes you look like you don't know what DMX is/how it works.. And I'm sure that's not the case :** laughs out loud **:. As we all know, (in general) DMX out of 3pin XLR's is no different to 5pin. Personally I'd say go with Viking, if the show's in Norwich, you can't ask for closer support than that. I use them for pretty much all my sub-hire needs.. mainly due to service (if something goes wrong with they're kit, they'll do nearly anything to come fix it/replace it, that day) and the price's aren't bad either. If SLX have trumped whatever price Ian's given you, go back and tell him.. Its a mistake. Avoid the cheap source brand kit.. as well as the other reasons listed, what happens if it goes wrong. Will your stupidly cheap supplier be able to get you a replacement :D? There's more to the price of a hire item than just what it costs to buy! T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trunker Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 They don't work off DMX512, only the disco 3 pin style DMX,Huh? Trunker, perhaps you should go edit that comment, it makes you look like you don't know what DMX is/how it works.. And I'm sure that's not the case :** laughs out loud **:. As we all know, (in general) DMX out of 3pin XLR's is no different to 5pin. It has been said enough times on here that 3 pin leads are XLR not DMX which are 5 pin. Of course DMX will run on 3 pin, but it is the disco stuff normally that uses this. I personally wouldn't run DMX through XLR cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 It has been said enough times on here that 3 pin leads are XLR not DMX which are 5 pin. Of course DMX will run on 3 pin, but it is the disco stuff normally that uses this. I personally wouldn't run DMX through XLR cable.Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.... XLR is the TYPE OF CONNECTORXLRs can be 3, 4, 5 pin - even up to 7 pin as I recall. DMX refers to the protocol, NOT the connector, although the approved standard connector recommended for DMX is of course 5-pin XLR. DMX cable is also what the protocol spec, well, specifies.Audio cable is what the noise boys specify. The two are similar, and in theory either can be used for either purpose - they'll both work in both situations, but you risk potential issues if you do. We've done this SO many times here on the BR...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Veering dangerously back on topic for a moment... :P Forget the boom arms, bite the bullet and go for a side hang - it adds another dimension to movement cues and opens up all sorts of weird and wonderful movement opportunities :** laughs out loud **: Most, if not all moving lights should be able to hang at any angle; how well they've been maintained is what decides whether they can :D Edited spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Outrageously offtopic. Behave! I don't know of many suppliers in the area. You could try Production Bureau, but I would imagine Viking will be your cheapest. Rigging on their side is mostly a pain to program. Positional shapes and fades don't work well at all. Unless you want these 'opportunities'! Where is the event? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Rigging on their side is mostly a pain to program. Positional shapes and fades don't work well at all...Ah, shape generators - the lazy operator's friend. Just do it the old fashioned way (a.k.a. "properly") - with a chase :** laughs out loud **: :D Seriously though: it is possible to do "normal-looking" things with side-hung movers and make their movements "fit-in" with what the overhead stuff is doing - you just have to be a little more careful about how you program your preset foci. When first programming side-hung moving lights, I found it was a bit more work to get the basics in to start with, but that the "Wow! factor" moves happened naturally - the reverse of the normal situation, if anything. Once I got the hang of how side-hung lights behaved, it took far less effort to produce big-looking changes; I didn't have to pull out loads of stops all the time. And yes - they are a pain to rig sideways - but the aesthetic results are worth it IME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmarchand Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 It has been said enough times on here that 3 pin leads are XLR not DMX which are 5 pin. Of course DMX will run on 3 pin, but it is the disco stuff normally that uses this. I personally wouldn't run DMX through XLR cable. Oh dear, best get rid of all my Martin movers then, and my Robe gear as well as my portable dimmer racks. There's me thinking I had brought some good quality equipment but it's got those crappy 3 pin XLR DMX in/outs for disco gear. Damn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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