Vertical fog LED machine for small stage

[bagel]

Are you sure this type of unit will produce the effect you want? In my experience you don't start getting a decent cloud of smoke until about 1m above the unit and they generally couldn't run cryo type fluids so ultimately it didn't provide any meaningful cover for the performers entrance and after they had arrived there was a cloud of smoke perfectly blocking their faces.

 

When we do effects like this we use a massive traditional smoke machine (Jem ZR units, something of that power) with a cryo fluid in it either mounted under the stage vertically or horizontally on the floor behind a scenic item firing towards a small piece of wood at the point where you want the "plume" to shoot upwards to create a wide wall of smoke instantly and which dissipates straight away.

 

That sounds interesting. However, it's only a small stage, and the intention is to get an effect rather than completely hiding the performers. We'll try them and see anyway.

[bigclive]

With well placed LED lighting you can create a bright masking effect that will dazzle the audience while the performer steps in. Just like the traditional flash effects. Plus you get to choose the colour of the flash and add a suitable sound effect. (Green light and a farting noise for the villain?)

 

The fast dispersion fog fluid is usually just a low glycol content fluid to create a plume of fog with less actual glycol output.

[dbuckley]

Are you sure this type of unit will produce the effect you want?

 

The other thing is that the speed of production of the cloud on every machine I've tried is nothing like a pyro, it starts slowly then builds.

[Shez]

The ADJ is pretty "jet" like. Not as fast as pyro or CO2 but certainly not slow. It can fill our 300 seater in not many seconds though when using standard fluid so it would be worth looking in to the type of fluids that Tom referenced that will disperse more quickly.

[ImagineerTom]

Just FYI - cryo fluid is literally just watered down regular fluid (don't use tap water, use proper deionised water) but what you really need to make it work is a very high powered machine. A big ZR type unit at full power with a heavily dilute mix produces something incredibly close to a CO2 yet (a plume of thick smoke that dissipates almost instantly) but if you use cryo fluids in a less powerful machine the effect is very wimpy because the smoke isn't produced fast enough and in a big enough volume to get the effect right.

[cedd]

What’s your stage made out of? We have a steel deck extension and did this using 40mm plumbing pipe and a Perspex panel with DB4 colour blocks under it. The section is only maybe 50mm wide and just sandwiches between the sections. We have blank sections as well so the whole width of the extension is spaced off by the same amount. Meant we could have a standard 1kW Martin unit under the stage ducted up. Once the panel’s made once, you can just store it and use again in the future. Effect worked nicely and spread the smoke pretty wide from nice and low - I guess because it had lost a lot of its’ “squirt” travelling up the pipe.