Best budget moving head?

[festymusic]

Hi there I run a small parttime pa co. and we do some outdoor gigs with bands to an audience of 500 odd and I was wondering about getting a couple of moving heads to add to our rig but needs to be easy to operate / maintain and come in on a budget... Has anyone got any suggestions? I have been looking at a couple of second hand mac 250+ but have heard there may be maintenance issues and that they are not as bright as one might hope? Thanks

[WhiskyFudge]

My recommendation would be the ADJ Vizi Spot / Beam 5R (http://www.americandj.eu/default/vizi-spot-5r.html / http://www.americandj.eu/default/vizi-beam-5r.html ). We've been using 6 of each for the past few months and for the money they are both an amazing little head. The cases ADJ do are a little lacking on the quality side, perfectly usable just not perfect.

[CharlieH]

I'll second the ADJ Visi stuff. Despite being put off by having 'DJ' in the name it is really impressive stuff for the cost. Only negative for me is having DMX on 3 pin instead of 5, but thats not a big deal. I used 4 of them on my latest production of Jesus Christ Superstar - Pics here. They stood up very well against the other lighting on stage, and only really looked washed out when in dark blue. Very fast moving and reliable. Fans were quite noisy, but not noticeably so when the band and everything else started. If they're for a really subtle piece of theatre then the noise may be a problem.

 

Hope this helps http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

[paulears]

I won't do the usual thing and bash the cheaper movers, because they can often produce some useful lighting - my question is to see if there's any chance you could do 4, not 2 - because 2 movers rarely impress - you just can't do enough with them. I'd be tempted to spend the available money on more of something else. I bought 12 older mirror scanners that have gone out of favour - and 9 of them work really well - the other three were good for spares - they lit up, but the stepper motors were rough and the colours were unreliable.

 

With 2 rows of four, or three rows of three - you can do some nice stuff.

 

Mac 250s were never the brightest beasts - and older ones that have been used heavily can be pretty well knackered.

[jono9691]

Yeah............not many good mac 250's 250+'s left.

Chauvet is looking damn good atm.

[david.elsbury]

Also worth looking at getting a hazer or smoke machine, or one of each, movers are much more effective if you can see the beams in the air rather than just what they're shining on. (especially if you have a limited number of units)

 

Usual disclaimer, check for fire/smoke alarms first and don't go using them if you're going to end up with several fire engines at the door of your event, gets expensive that way!

 

David

[pritch]

What happened to Uni-lyte? Did a UK distributor for them ever get set up?

[Tomo]

As you said "part-time", it is probably still cheaper to hire in much 'better' (and more) fixtures than you can afford to purchase.

 

Check what your local hire companies have and how much - you may be surprised how cheap some are.

 

Then look at how much you'd have to spend to buy something 'good enough' and add something per year for maintenance and relamping - HID lamps are expensive!

 

You can then work out how long it'll take for you to have spent more on hiring than on owning based on how many gigs you do each year.

- If it's more than four years or so then it's probably not worth buying, as the fixtures will be pretty ancient by then - especially if you're buying second-hand to start with.

 

In general it's only worth buying kit that you're going to use a lot.

Hiring also means you can change them out for whatever you like each time and avoids you needing to do any maintenance.