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Scanners or Moving Head Fixtures for a Band

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Craig Leerman:

--- Quote from: Chris Hunt on February 18, 2011, 10:50:58 AM ---Give me you opinion.  Pros and Cons of both for corporate/provate party work.  Full 12 piece band.  What will look and perform best? Thanks!

--- End quote ---

I own and use both scanners and moving heads. I would say that there is no "BEST" one. Each type of fixture has its strengths and weaknesses.

There are three main reasons why you might find a scanner used on one of my gigs. The first is that I want a really fast beam speed and scanners can move the light around faster than a moving head. The second is that I want to "hide" the fixture and just want to beam of light to shine through or over an object. Scanners can fit into some tight spaces and still allow me to get a big moving light show. A good example of this is when I have a low trim height and I don't want moving heads hanging down from the truss.

The last reason I use them is cost. I own a bunch of Trackspots and can give them to a client for way less money than my heads, or rental fixtures. For clients on a budget, scanners can be a good way to get a big show for less money.


Moving Heads are great because you can not only fly them, but place them on the floor. I do that alot for uplighting from the stage. The movers do double duty as aerial effects, and then can splay a color or gobo look across the backdrop or back wall of the stage. Great for ballyhoos, and different looks when placed at the downstage (front) corners of a stage as well.

In addition, I sometimes look at moving heads as a piece of kinetic scenery. Not only can you move the light around, but the fixture itself moves, and adds to the drama and excitement of the performance.

If I had to choose between them, I would get moving heads, just for the fact that you can place them on the floor and also use them for uplighting.

Stephane Desormeaux:
I prefer moving heads to scanners, mainly because you can position moving heads pretty much anywhere you would a scanner, but also position them on the floor, on small risers, on vertical trusses, etc.....

I love the look of heads on the floor, right and left front stage, plus 2 rear stage right & left on vertical trusses, and maybe 2 on the drum riser. You can use all of them on the stage, on the band, on the crowd, etc....

Len Woelfel:

--- Quote from: Chris Hunt on February 18, 2011, 10:50:58 AM ---Give me you opinion.  Pros and Cons of both for corporate/provate party work.  Full 12 piece band.  What will look and perform best? Thanks!

--- End quote ---
Moving heads are more commonplace these days.  There's only one or two good quality scanners still made I can think of, the Cyberlight and Technobeam.  All the rest are really too dim for the amount of wattage they consume.  I haven't used any of the LED movers. 
Depending on your budget, I'd look first at the Elation DesignSpot, which has a nice wash-like feature.  It's not a true wash, but decent.  Whatever you do, I'd also budget a good controller, a dedicated person to run them, good cases, and a good hazer/fogger. 

John Livings:
New to lighting myself, Based on my very limited experience I would try to stay with Elation or ADJ.

I have had a couple of issues and questions, and They took care of things Immediately.

For this reason alone, With our Very limited resources, Elation would be our first choice.

Just my opinions.

Regards,  John

duane massey:
For a 12-pc band I'd go for quantity over brightness. From the rear scanners make more sense, and are easier to program, especially for quick movements. Elation is now shipping the Vizi-series LED scanner, and ADJ has the more basic X-Scan. 6 Scanners from the rear overhead would give you lots of "wow" factor, and movers out front (mixture of wash and spots) would give you good coverage and great effects. Don't overlook some of the "DJ" fixtures as well for eye-candy. ADJ Galaxian, Revo Burst, etc, can be effective behind the drums or other rear special effects, especially if you can get away with a bit of haze or smoke.

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