Jayne Eyre

[themadhippy]

Another vote for the old skool methods,either a wheel or a couple of profile (patt 23's worked well for me) flame gobos, multi colour gel,and the old "strips of frost hanging in front of the lantern" trick to add a bit more movement,add a flicker type chase voila one fire effect

[Psychedelic Theatre]

An Alpha pack would work well, runs off a 13A socket and has a current limiter so it shouldn't trip the power. This would give you another 3 channels to work with, which may well be enough to create the effect you want. Perhaps an Alpha pack for each of the effects? Easier to program, and probably cheaper than hiring in movers, even if you need to hire the lanterns to go with the Alphapacks.

 

They can be run off DMX, I can't remember exactly, but I think it's either Higher takes presidence, or DMX takes presidence. Either way, keep the sliders on the dimmer at 0 and control the dimmers through DMX and they'll work fine.

[mbthegreat]

did Jane in February (oh er), used two 247s with flame gobobs patched together with two 123s in different reds behind a curtain.

[GTG]

You could always get an actual electric fire (as in something you would buy to put in your lounge!) and control it via DMX to be the fire place. It probably wouldn't be bright enough to shine into the room, but you can use a couple of flickering floods for that. Electric fireplaces do look very realistic now, and I don't see any reason why it would object to being DMXed! I've done it with small flame effect torched before :)

[Ynot]

I wasn't aware that there were any real dimmer packs that could be used for this!

Well, you could try these as a starter - heck for the price Thomann are selling them you could BUY a couple for the hire price of 2 or 3 moving heads! And yes they're DMX. You'd need some IEC to 15A adaptors tho...

 

If hiring, you would probably find some Betapacks or Alpha packs from the usual sources. either would do, assuming you calculate the max load as under 3K and do the necessary checks for other kit on the same 13A ring you'd be fine.

 

Heck, I have some Showtec 4-ways in our stock that I might be persuaded to hire you. (Not the same as those linked above, but similar to these but with IEC outs). I use them for small-scale specials when I run out of channels, or want to group a small number of lanterns in awkward places.

[DaveBeattie]

An Alpha pack would work well, runs off a 13A socket and has a current limiter so it shouldn't trip the power. This would give you another 3 channels to work with, which may well be enough to create the effect you want. Perhaps an Alpha pack for each of the effects? Easier to program, and probably cheaper than hiring in movers, even if you need to hire the lanterns to go with the Alphapacks.

 

They can be run off DMX, I can't remember exactly, but I think it's either Higher takes presidence, or DMX takes presidence. Either way, keep the sliders on the dimmer at 0 and control the dimmers through DMX and they'll work fine.

 

You might need to be a little careful with Alpha packs, as I think that they are limited in the DMX addresses that they can use: max DMX start address is 28. This means that you might have to re-address the in-house kit.

 

Dave

[Genus]

I have to agree with the idea of using Alphapacks, they're great little units and really handy, and will probably do for the effect you're after, on the other hand be careful which version of the Alphapack you hire, Alphapack 1's only have faders (and possibly analogue - not sure) but they DO NOT have DMX, it's the Alphapack 2 you need. I speak from painful experience of a hired alphapack showing up without a DMX input.

 

Genus

 

<edit> point elaborated

[Sam_Lowers]

max DMX start address is 28. This means that you might have to re-address the in-house kit.

 

Can you reccomend any other dimmers then because there is no way of re-addressing the inhouse dimmers!

They are that old that they are un-marked!

 

Sam

[themadhippy]

if your using a 520 cant you use the second universe?

[son of lx dad]

A Martin Mania, as recommended by Ynot, would be a very simple and effective choice to create the effect. They are disco type units so consequently are very cheap to hire, and also do a water type effect. They are not DMX controllable however. You just bung them into the wall and away they go, no lamp warm up time. Fantastic for corporate events as well. Most hire companies can supply them.

[smeggie]

Going from what I've used this for, if it is a 'slap it on and keep it on till I say so' then the martin mania worked very very well, but if you have either not enough people, too large an area to cover or want it to fade in.

 

Then the Showtec multidim units are great for just bunging in the end of the chain - it has whatever dimming curve you get but of course you can edit that on the 520 to give you whatever you want to achieve.

They're the one's from thomman.de and are great value for the price. although of course it's not as smooth a dimming curve as the more expensive/developed units.

 

Hope it's of some use.

 

Have fun.

AC

[Sam_Lowers]

if your using a 520 cant you use the second universe?

 

Very good idea!!!!!

[david.elsbury]

The last opera I worked had Manias, just plotted them into the standard q's and faded in and out. Seemed to do no damage (Even though they have fans etc)

[DaveBeattie]

max DMX start address is 28. This means that you might have to re-address the in-house kit.

 

Can you reccomend any other dimmers then because there is no way of re-addressing the inhouse dimmers!

They are that old that they are un-marked!

 

Sam

 

Sorry, I don't do much with the small dimmers. As themadhippy says, run a second DMX cable and use the second DMX universe on the 520. There may well be units that would work for you, but a quick google only shows ones with IEC outputs.

 

Dave