Ollie Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 Have heard from a couple of people that there is an intelligent followspot out there. I don't know if this is fact or fiction but I will tell you what they told me and see if it rings any bells. Have said that basically it works by following a sensor that is attatched to the person/thing being followed. You then do all the adjustments via computer such as and gobos, beam width, etc. Was just wondering if this is actually true and these things exsist. If anyone has seen or heard about them could they let me know and any websites that might feature them would be greatly appreciated. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 iirc, its a martin jobbie - they sell the sensor, cant remember if they also do the spot. take a look at their website for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattwright15 Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 Again only here say, but from wat im lead to believe it uses a standard moving fixture, or are u refering to the martin "tracker Pod" which u select the moving lights, outline the stage on the tracker pod, and away u go, track the target. im lead to believe this is best used with Mirrors then heads due to the move spead. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisD Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 I seem to remeber seeing a rather cleaver following "thingy" which you point at your victim and it can be set so that all the movers in your rig follow where you're pointing, but I'm not sure who makes it (I thought it was Martin, but there's nout on their site). You can also set intensity/focus/colour/frost etc levels to change as the victim moves across the stage. Never used it, never will, but I'm sure someone must have had some experience with one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 Martin Trackpod, or Wybron Autopilot. They're control devices for existing moving fixtures. I also have a vague recollection of a followspot "shotgun" type thingy from a dark and distant PLASA, but I can't remember who made it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisD Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 The trackpod was what I meant, but for some reason that link took me to a review of the product. This is the actual product itself - http://www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=trackpod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 Ah yes, so it is - for some reason I thought the Trackpod was a beltpack system like the Autopilot. Looks a bit like a massively overbuilt camera tripod, doesn't it?http://www.martin.com/product/Prod_img_gen/trackpod.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 ...Wybron Autopilot. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Quick story... A famous German band, named "Pur" were on tour in the late 90s, using Autopilot to cover the lead singer; he had the sensor fixed to his nice, tailor made jacket. One night there was a particularly appreciative audience and to reciprocate their appreciation he took it off and flung it into the crowd (the way rock stars sometimes do). After the gig he asked, "Vy did ze lights go into ze audience during [number] and not vollow me for ze whole of ze rest of ze show?" :huh: :( :** laughs out loud **: :** laughs out loud **: :** laughs out loud **: Please pardon my crappy accent :) And now, back to the on topic stuff... ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 There was an ultrasonic ranging system which tracked a solo performer but failed in noisy surroundings, and the sensor follow system, Both from Martin I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 hmmm, I do remember a conversation in the pub along these lines - the different variants were tried by martin and most were found to be unreliable/ impractical, from the looks of it; they have settled on using light ranging to give the third dimension and a person on the ranger to give the other 2. [or maybe not - it was only a pub conversation] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 I've seen similar systems used in videoconferencing, to enable the camera to "follow" the speaker. Some work better than others. The most useable one (in my opinion) was our simple, but home-made one.... Some use a remote "device" that the camera follows - a useful trick when doing a videoconf is to clip this to the radio mic... Others use multiple mics and "triangulate", or even some sort of basic pattern recognition. We tried one of these systems once, it would "lock on" to a face. But you could stick your hand behind that person's head, slowly move it towards you, and "steal" the video..... Oh how we laughed.... Bruce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 On a related note, the Liverpool Everyman's (Lovely little theatre, great atmosphere) panto used a pair of Moving Heads as followspot, but I think that was just immensely detailed blocking, programming, and timing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slim_mcslim Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 didn't the lord of the dance show that was some what popular a whilw ago use some tracking gizmo? I seem to recall reading about it in live magazine a few years ago..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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