Question about moving heads

[tkodarkside321]

Hello!!!

So last night the pastor of my church gave me the go ahead to start looking into purchasing moving heads for our stage!! This is a big deal to me as we have been working on a limited budget and right now we just have a basic mixture of parcans and led parcans. There is only so much you can do with static lights and I believe we have gotten about as much as we can out if them. Moving lights I feel will take our praise and worship music to the next level!!!

I've been doing a little research and have my eye on a few lights. My question is to you guys, what is the main difference between a led moving head and an intelligent moving head?? I immediately noticed there is a massive price difference.

Right now, we are going to start off with ordering 2 moving heads and I believe I have sold my pastor on spending around $600 to $700 per light.

Any input on what I should look at is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!!!!

[Nathanrs93]

Hi,

Well as you have noticed there is LED moving heads and BULB moving heads. There is advantages and dis-advantages of each as I'm sure you are aware.

LED Moving heads.
There are good and use less power
There are just as bright as a normal moving head
There are more expensive than BULB moving heads

BULB Moving heads
There are good, but use alot of power and get very warm. (It's not bad just the power they use and the heat they give off. So don't worry.)
There are bright, but you get LED are just as bright now with technology moving on.
There are cheaper than LED moving heads and alot easier to maintain, I believe.

The main difference I believe is the fact that if the bulb goes its easy to replace, where if the LEDs start to die I believe you have to replace the whole unit. I personally prefer bulb as it's easier for the work I do and we have 2 Martin MiniMacs 150w. I know people will disagree with my opinion and yes LEDs are alot longer in life span, but they do die eventually.

Your choice really.
Regards,
Nathan

[BillsGate]

There is a third option: Bulb-like moving heads with a led bulb.

This one for example (quite expensive):
http://www.musicstore.com/es_ES/ESP/Luc ... 008315-000

Or this one (a lot cheaper):
http://www.highlite.nl/silver.econtent/ ... 0_led_spot
(and there are many more manufacturers producing this kind of fixtures)

We use four of the latter one and to be honest, I'm quite pleased with them. Mind you: Showtec isn't an A-brand like Martin/Robe, so you get a lot of plastic for your money. The light output is comparable to a 250 watt msd bulb.

Advantages:
- Lightweight (although I don't know if that is relevant for you)
- Low power consumption
- Behaves like an ordinary moving head (prism, gobo-wheel et cetera)

Disadvantages:
- Colors are added via a color wheel. So you do not have the nice colormixing you get from RGB(A) leds
- Dimming/strobing is done by dimming/flashing the lead bulb, instead of using blinders

[tkodarkside321]

Thanks for the input!!!

I'm looking at starting off with a couple of Chauvet Intimidator Spot LED 250's. They seem to get pretty positive reviews. I just wonder if the 50w LED will be bright enough for the size of our stage. Maybe we should step up to the 350?

[DJDaveSA]

Something to consider. The 250's only have a manual focus. If you want to use the lights from the ceiling then it would be better to get the 350's as you can focus them remotely.

[tkodarkside321]

They would be mounted where I could easily get to them. However, during a show I wouldn't be able to focus them if I needed. I guess I'm more concerned about the brightness. We are going to start out with 2 and add more when the funds are available. Just hoping the 250's will have decent light output for our sanctuary.