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ADJ | Vizi BSW 300
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Blizzard | The Kryo Mix CMY
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Chauvet | Rogue RH1 Hybrid
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Elation | Proteus Beam
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ElektraLite | ML-902
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High End Systems | The SolaSpot Frame 2000
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Martin | The Rush MH 6 Wash
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Mega-Lite | Axis Gri
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Vari-Lite | The VL4000 BeamWash & VL4000 Spot
At some point, most contemporary churches seeking to boost their tech productions consider moving lights. When used appropriately, they can serve to augment the emotion that’s being created within the worship space, and thus strengthen the effect of the message that’s being conveyed. And, as with most things tech, they’re getting better—and more accessible to churches.
With all of these electronics and mechanics packed into a tight space with a lamp source that produces a lot of heat—combined with the fact that the unit is very often in motion––it’s not a matter of if the light will break down, it’s when….
Greg Persinger, owner of Vivid Illumination, a lighting design, consulting and training firm based in Nashville, Tenn., points out that moving LED lighting technology offers churches a number of advantages, mainly because it eliminates the need for lamp replacement. “Now, a lot of manufacturers are coming out with some pretty cost-effective LED light engines, and while they’re a little more expensive to purchase on the front end, they’re very low maintenance,” he says. “When you look at it over the life of the fixture, comparing lamp changes and potential problems with the lamp power supplies [in conventional fixtures], using an LED light engine has a lot of benefits in the church environment.” For one thing, it’s easier to project system expenses because one doesn’t have to account for lamp failures.This doesn’t mean that moving light—seven if they’re LED fixtures—don’t require some maintenance. “A moving light has complex electronics and complex mechanics, and those all wear over time,” Persinger says.
With all of these electronics and mechanics packed into a tight space with a lamp source that produces a lot of heat––combined with the fact that the unit is very often in motion––it’s not a matter of if the light will break down, it’s when.Moving lights also get dirty, and C. Andrew Dunning, owner of Landru Design, a lighting design firm based in Nashville, Tenn., urges church lighting techs to blow the dust out of their fixtures with an air compressor several times throughout the year. “Otherwise you get a year in—especially if you’re running haze—and the filters are clogged up with dust, air is not moving through the fixture, you’ve got heat problems, and then you start getting failures,” he says.
Programming Smarts
When it comes to using moving lights, Persinger warns churches to book more time for programming. While conventionals and LEDs involve basic parameters such as intensity and color, moving lights expand the playing field considerably. “When you go to a moving light, you could have 10 or 15 different parameters because you have pan, and tilt, and intensity, and strobe, and color mixing, and a color wheel; and a lot of times you have prisms and gobos, and those gobos can rotate, and you may have 20 different [gobo] choices,” he lists.
Suddenly, a tech accustomed to spending an hour programming a conventional rig finds that they’re investing 10 to 15 hours programming their moving light rig, depending on how exacting their process is. “There’s a learning curve––you have to learn what the lights will do, and how to manipulate them in the console.”This is one of the reasons why Dunning emphasizes the importance of operator training. “Before [churches] even start thinking about all the effects and everything they can do with them, they’ve got to ask themselves: are they going to be prepared to invest in the training of their volunteers and their staff?” he says. If they don’t, they run the risk of purchasing a lot of expensive equipment without ever putting it to good use. “Training involves not just the gear but also how to control it—how to do lighting well. I’m old-school, I want to see good quality light. The effects, those are nice, but am I able to light a stage effectively? Is the light actually usable? Those are the sorts of things I’m asking [myself].”
Lights on the Move — The Latest Offerings
ADJ recently released its Vizi BSW 300 moving head, a hybrid LED fixture that will serve as a beam, spot, or wash. Its pan and tilt ranges are 540 and 270 degrees respectively, and its 16-bit fine positioning is designed to give operators precise control when projecting gobos and beams. (A motorized zoom allows for remote adjustments via DMX.) The fixture includes two built-in, independent color wheels, and features such as zero to 100 percent digital dimming, variable speed digital strobing, and Auto X-Y repositioning.
s a three-in-one beam/spot/wash CMY moving head. Featuring a 1.5 to 35-degree zoom, its CMY color mixing system is comprised of three color wheels with gradual cyan/magenta/yellow fade. (Each wheel features five color filters.) Dual gobo wheels provide bidirectional rotation and shake, 540-degree pan and 280-degree tilt, a 12/36-facet prism with auto beam adjustment, motorized zoom and focus, a frost filter, and a one to 18Hz cycle strobe.
Chauvet’s Rogue RH1 Hybrid combines beam and spot effects into one unit. In Beam Mode, the fixture produces a beam angle of 2.5 to eight degrees, and in Spot Mode, a zoom angle of five to 19 degrees. Outfitted with a 330-watt 8,000K Osram Sirius lamp, the fixture will discharge 111,000 lux at 15 meters. Two prisms (six-facet and eight-facet) are independently controllable, and the frost feature can be layered with the eight-facet prism. Additional features include two gobo wheels (one rotating and one static), and a separate color wheel with 13 hues.
Elation’s Proteus Beam is an IP65-rated moving head set that incorporates a Philips 14R 280-watt lamp and produces a two-degree beam. The fixture provides full CMY color mixing, a 13-slot dichroic color wheel, eight rotating, replaceable gobos, and 13 static-fixed gobos. When a softer wash effect is required, operators may apply features such as the five to 35-facet rotating prism combined with a frost filter. Proteus Beam includes a built-in thermal cooling system, as well as the company’s E-FLY wireless DMX transceiver to enable rapid set up with decreased cabling.
The ML-902 from ElektraLite is a full-featured moving head profile spot fixture powered by a bright 120-watt cool white (6,500K) COB LED that delivers an output equal to that of a 250-watt HMI discharge lamp. Additional features of the ML-902 include a rotating five-point prism, wide-range strobe with various features, zoom, focus control, and fine (16-bit) pan and tilt, in addition to the digital dimming features, as well as coarse (8-bit) pan and tilt operation for maximum control of beam movement.
The Sola Spot Frame 2000 by High End Systems, based on the manufacturer’s SolaSpot Pro 2000 spot fixture, incorporates a Framing Shutter System for improved beam control. Its Bright White 600-watt LED light engine outputs 35,000 lumens of brightness (a High CRI 6,500K version of the fixture will produce 29,000 lumens). Additional features include rotating and fixed gobo wheels, a rotating prism, iris, frost, a five to 45-degree zoom-wash mode, auto focus, linear animation, a fixed color wheel, and a CMY + CTO system.
The Rush MH 6 Wash is an adaption of the company’s popular Rush PAR 2 RGBW Zoom, using the same LED engine and zoom system, but additionally featuring moving head capability. The Rush MH 6 Wash offers a fully pre-mixed color system from 12 x 10 W RGBW LEDs with a 10°–60° zoom. It also offers full electronic dimming, strobe effects and temperature-controlled fan cooling for quiet operation.
The Mega-Lite Axis Grid is a moving head featuring 36 LEDs arranged, as its name suggests, in a grid. The grid is capable of the pixel control required for projecting letters, numbers, and shapes, and offers “infinite pan and tilt,” according to the manufacturer. Control is achieved via DMX 512 or ArtNet, and the unit features a macro channel with pre-programmed numbers and letters. Both three-pin and five-pin XLR, ArtNet, and PowerCon in and out connectors are made available, and users interface with the fixture using an on-board LED display.
The VL4000 BeamWash and VL4000 Spot are based on Philips lamp technology with user selectable output levels between Standard mode and the ultra-quiet Studio mode. In Standard mode, the VL4000 BeamWash produces a powerful 43,000 lumens, and the Studio mode outputs 35,000 lumens. With the VL4000 Spot, the Standard mode boasts 33,000 lumens while the Studio mode outputs 25,000 lumens.
