fireball40k Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I am beginning a search for a suitable DMX controlled hazer for our small-ish theatre. It is a 312 seat auditorium and the stage is roughly 15m by 8m. We need a general purpose hazer for a mixture of rock/pop band shows as well as various drama shows. A decent hang time, reasonable quietness, solid build and good reliability are our key requirements. Our budget is likely to be around £500 - £700. I have been considering the Look Solutions Unique 2.1 and Jem Hazer Pro. Does anyone have any relevant feedback on either of these machines, or any other suggestions for suitable devices? Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I am beginning a search for a suitable DMX controlled hazer for our small-ish theatre. It is a 312 seat auditorium and the stage is roughly 15m by 8m.We need a general purpose hazer for a mixture of rock/pop band shows as well as various drama shows. A decent hang time, reasonable quietness, solid build and good reliability are our key requirements. Our budget is likely to be around £500 - £700.I have been considering the Look Solutions Unique 2.1 and Jem Hazer Pro. Does anyone have any relevant feedback on either of these machines, or any other suggestions for suitable devices? Many thanks Does it have to be water based? I have used both the machines above and getting an even haze is ... difficult - even with various additional fans blowing it around. The output is still quite fog-like and I always seem to spend ages messing with the output level and moving fans around to try to distribute it. On the other hand every time I use an oil cracker machine there is a perfect even haze in half an hour which hangs for ages. But oil crackers seem to be getting banned in a lot of venues - and I don't think there are any in that budget range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireball40k Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Does it have to be water based?I have used both the machines above and getting an even haze is ... difficult - even with various additional fans blowing it around. The output is still quite fog-like and I always seem to spend ages messing with the output level and moving fans around to try to distribute it.On the other hand every time I use an oil cracker machine there is a perfect even haze in half an hour which hangs for ages. But oil crackers seem to be getting banned in a lot of venues - and I don't think there are any in that budget range. Hi Tim, it doesn't have to be water based but as far as I can tell, oil crackers are well out of our price bracket. We hire in a Cirro CS6 from time to time, and that would be lovely to have (with it's pump concealed in the back room), but that's £2K. Water based is not as good, but it will do for our day to day purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Does it have to be water based?I have used both the machines above and getting an even haze is ... difficult - even with various additional fans blowing it around. The output is still quite fog-like and I always seem to spend ages messing with the output level and moving fans around to try to distribute it.On the other hand every time I use an oil cracker machine there is a perfect even haze in half an hour which hangs for ages. But oil crackers seem to be getting banned in a lot of venues - and I don't think there are any in that budget range. Hi Tim, it doesn't have to be water based but as far as I can tell, oil crackers are well out of our price bracket. We hire in a Cirro CS6 from time to time, and that would be lovely to have (with it's pump concealed in the back room), but that's £2K. Water based is not as good, but it will do for our day to day purposes. Yes that was a silly question really, I should have thought about the budget first. I wouldn't say there is much difference between the 2 machines you are asking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jevans Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I don't have much experience with the JEM but I can say that I love our Unique 2.1 - fluid consumption is ludicrously low, very robust, good output. We'd been hiring them for ages, bought one last year finally, and considering buying another in the new year. If you run the haze at high with a lower fan setting it does output quite thick haze that looks more like fog and does dissipate quite quickly, but if you run the fan higher with a very low haze setting it gives you a nice hanging haze - 25% fan, 3-5% haze works well in our space but we've got a smaller stage. No problems at all with reliability, just make sure to let it run the cleaning routine before it turns off (pull DMX a few minutes before the power). On the other hand I've found trying to get, for example, MVS hazers to work reliably is a pain. It's almost like they were designed to forget their DMX address! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I wouldn't recommend a Jem machine to anybody. We have a small fleet of ZR22s (still just about hanging in there, but on their last legs), ZR33s (fairly well used) and ZR44s (still quite new). I've never been impressed with the reliability of Jem smoke products, and trying to get hold of spare parts to repair them is an extremely tedious and long-winded process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Johnstone Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I've been touring Jem Compact Pros on my last two Academy tours and they've been rocking. I prefer them to a unique if I'm honest, the haze seems to be alot finer and they've been efficient when hammered in a rock and roll environment! I've considered buying myself one actually, their newer hazers seem quite good. Siyan seem to be sending them out instead of uniques so I guess they must work well for them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Maybe Jem have upped their game recently ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Coker Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I'd go for the Unique...for all the reasons stated above. KC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Pratt Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 If you can stretch just beyond the £700 mark, I'd go for a Smoke Factory Tour Hazer II. Same parent company as Unique I think, that or the two are related in some way. They share a lot of the same innards but slightly better put together in my view and they come built into a flightcase. All of the good points of the Unique as mentioned above still applyJust like the Unique, make sure you let it run it's self clean sequence before pulling the power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychosoundman Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 I agree with Ken Cocker ........ the Unique is an excellent machine, would also suggest the Robe 1050 they are quiet affordable (well in Australia they are) and very controllable having an in built control pad and DMX input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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