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[brad smith]

Looking to upgrade my small light rig.I had 8 par 64 Chauvet slimpars and 4 Blizzard hotboxes RGBW fixtures. I sold the slimpars and kept the hotboxes. I have 4 trees that I used two for front lighting and two on the back on with either side of the drums.

My budget is 1000 to 1200 dollars and I'm preferring to stay with the blizzard line. I would like something easy to set up and tear down with the convenience of packing into keyboard bags for protection (thanks for the idea from here) I use an obey controller and would like to convert to wireless Ipad and possible wireless dmx. Still have cables, etc. Just looking for ideas on should I just buy a bunch of hotboxes to light the stage. Not looking for anything yet like movers, etc. That may happen one day when I move to totems etc. Just looking for ideas from people that are doing this more than me.

[Nils Erickson]

Hotboxes are nice lights and work well for small stages... they are also good truss warmers when your rig grows down the line.  The EXA version has some more color options, but if you already have the RGBW version, get more of the same.  Programming is faster and easier when you have multiples of the same fixture, IMHO. 

Cheers,
Nils

[Steve Garris]

Looking to upgrade my small light rig.I had 8 par 64 Chauvet slimpars and 4 Blizzard hotboxes RGBW fixtures. I sold the slimpars and kept the hotboxes. I have 4 trees that I used two for front lighting and two on the back on with either side of the drums.

My budget is 1000 to 1200 dollars and I'm preferring to stay with the blizzard line. I would like something easy to set up and tear down with the convenience of packing into keyboard bags for protection (thanks for the idea from here) I use an obey controller and would like to convert to wireless Ipad and possible wireless dmx. Still have cables, etc. Just looking for ideas on should I just buy a bunch of hotboxes to light the stage. Not looking for anything yet like movers, etc. That may happen one day when I move to totems etc. Just looking for ideas from people that are doing this more than me.

Hotboxes are great - bright but very narrow beams. I don't like the square box - not sure why but I don't? For wash lights, you should get RBGA - the Amber really stands out and you simply cannot get it with RBGW. These more powerful lights from Blizzard have every feature to make them perfect in my opinion:
http://www.blizzardlighting.com/products/par-cans-and-wash-lights/item/361-lb-par-quad-rgba
Look for a dealer price - they retail at $200 each but I'll bet you can get them cheaper from a board member.

If you want wireless iPad then you will need a dongle and appropriate software (Luminaire). I've looked at that software, but still haven't made my mind up about needing a software based controller. I use a board (Magic 260) with the Donner wireless dmx plugs. It's simple and really works great. One transmitter is plugged into the board, and I have 1 receiver on each tree, eliminating all the cables (trees are pre-wired). I transport my T-Bars with everything attached in keyboard bags.

[Jeff Lelko]

This question comes up quite frequently here.  If you haven't yet, I'd suggest digging through a few recent threads on here since the discussion is generally the same barring any unique aspects to your situation.

So before suggesting any fixtures, are you able to elaborate on the scope of your desired upgrade?  What's driving you to do this, and what is it that your current system isn't doing for you that demands more/better equipment?

[ProSoundWeb Community]