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[Rick Powell]

+1

We are focused (pardon the pun) on lighting as a differentiator.  Problem has been, none of us knew anything about the tech or art of lighting. 

I have learned a little, and the main thing is getting a coherent show instead of just blinky lights. 

We are going to hold off on moving heads at least until we can get some good ones.  In the meantime I will doing a lot of programming.  At least I can test them full strength in the garage and no one complains about the noise.

I have downloaded the Chamsys (PC version) and poked a bit, reading the manual.  Wow.
 

We had the Chamsys and the dongle for a while and it was too deep for us to figure out with the time we wanted to spend; I agree that, if we had spent time to master it, it would have been able to do many complex and effective things.  Instead I found an original Elation Show Designer for $150 off of ebay.  We also bought some generic Chinese moving lights (50w) for about $250 each off of Alibaba and they are effective at our level.  We usually have them just do a move and a color change for each scene...we do a few chases where they are moving more, or rotating the gobo.  Where LED could improve IMHO is with a cost effective 50 or 75 watt watt static spot that changes colors...this is the essence of rock show lighting along with flood lighting to cover the stage.  These days, to get an effective LED spot, you need to buy a 50 or 90 watt mover, whether you really need it to move or not. 

[duane massey]

There are quite a few RGBW or RGBWA fixtures on the market that would work for stationary spots. You just have to look for the ones with a narrow beam, but they are getting brighter and cheaper. The MegaLite Baby Color is pretty impressive for it's price point.

[Rob Gow]

There are quite a few RGBW or RGBWA fixtures on the market that would work for stationary spots. You just have to look for the ones with a narrow beam, but they are getting brighter and cheaper. The MegaLite Baby Color is pretty impressive for it's price point.

I'm by no means a light guy, but I'm getting better. I use DMXIS to program my lights. For movers I picked up 4 used Martin Minimac Profiles, they run around $450 each used. My wash lights are Blizzard 3NX, and I have some moving pinssots on the top. They are the Chauvet Intimidator Spot Duo's. $600ish each, but you do get 2 moving heads with each fixture.

The nice thing about DMXIS is the use of Oscillators for use when programming. It helps set movement and can be used for pan & tilt on moving heads, on dimmers, colours etc. On any channel. Using these, you set up scenes. Instead of say your obey 70 where you do:

Moving head up
Moving head down
Moving head up
Moving head down

And running through that as a 4 scene chase, you would use the oscillator, set your limits and speed and then that head will move up and down during that scene all night until you choose another scene.

Here's some examples: again, I'm no Lampie so if there are obvious technical faults its out of complete ignorance.

11 3NX on a truss (I use 11 so there's a middle light for different colours)

This is running through the scenes fairly quickly.

http://youtu.be/3Hlfh-1lxEA

Now adding a hazer and the 4 Martin Minimac Profiles

http://youtu.be/t3imH3s32RQ

And then adding the 4 Intimidator Spot Duos on the top

http://youtu.be/whrMkJ6gRvQ

So you can see how the different beam angles play nicely together and give you some contrasts.

Beam angle:
3NX: 25° field angle 29° 27W
Minimac: 17° 150W bulb
Spot duos: 6° 10W LED


http://youtu.be/t3imH3s32RQ

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