Intelligent lighting

A moving head, sometimes referred to ( moving head) as a moving head or in the German engineer jargon as a loose bulb, loose bucket or just wobbles is a freely movable multi-function headlight from the theater and event technology. It can be pivoted about all axes and is equipped with a color changer system and gobos. Also, can regulate the light output ( "Shutter " or "Dimmer ").

Moving Head headlights are in contrast to scanners: When moving heads, the "head" of the headlight moves with the bulb itself For scanners the light source is fixed and the light beam is deflected by means of a movable mirror or mirror roller.

Connection and control

Moving lights usually have 3 - and / or 5 - pin XLR inputs and outputs in order to receive a DMX signal and loop through (eg scanners ) to the next device. Professional equipment often also feature an Ethernet jack, which allows transmission of DMX data using ArtNET. Some devices offer a stand -alone mode, which in some cases can also control other devices, but most of it is controlled by a DMX controller or DMX software. Moving Heads can be (usually a USB-DMX Interface) driven via normal PC that have been retrofitted with DMX outputs. Many of the PC software solutions, and, increasingly, classical lighting consoles set for easy programming to 3D Visualizer, which can simulate the lighting in real-time.

By means of additional products such as Tracker transmitters can also automatically focus on people in the room can be realized.

Power is usually separately with an IEC connector or, more rarely with PowerCon connectors.

Bulbs

The light sources usually gas discharge lamps such as HMI, MSR, MSD or xenon lamps are used. Especially with wash lights, LED technology is used more and more because it needs less power for saturated colors as gas discharge lamps, maintenance works and has a lower heat. But often compromising mixed colors have mostly come out as pastel colors and white are made ​​. Only systems with RGBAW LED can be reasonably used as a white light bulbs.

Known manufacturers

Known manufacturers of moving heads are, inter alia, Vari * Lite (inventor ), High End Systems, Martin, Clay Paky, Coemar, Robe, Future Light, Coef, SGM, German Light Products (GLP ), JB -Lighting, PR -Lighting, Expolite, euro Lite and Showtec and Stairville ( Thomann ).

Structure and Types

A moving head consists of three modules:

There are mainly three categories distinguished the so-called "wash- Lights" or " washer", the "spot" or " Profiler ", and " Beam".

Wash lights conform to the conventional Fresnelscheinwerfern of stage and theater technology, while the spot or Profiler is a projection lamp, which corresponds to the profile headlights. The latter are equipped because of their ability for sharp imaging with much more effects, while the wash lights usually have only a dichroic color mixing system ( subtractive Farbm. CMY) and movable lens or a frost filter for controlling the emission angle feature. Both types of lamps typically have a mechanical dimmer ( with very few models with halogen lamps, also via an electric ) and a very fast mechanical shutter, the "Shutter " is called. It usually two usually toothed plate wings are swung into the beam path. This unit is also used for stroboscopic effects. For some types of lamp dimmer function is performed via intermediate positions of the shutter with.

As a rule - depending on the manufacturer - the power supply, DMX - electronics and the drive mechanism for the arm, the "Pan " movement ( Panorama ) performs the so-called horizontal, housed in the base. The first moving head moving head manufacturer Vari -lite still had a central control module, where several lamps were connected. All connections (power, DMX, fixing and safety-rope ) can however be found in current devices in the base.

The arm is the link between the base and the head, and executes the horizontal rotational movement (pan), the arm further includes the drive mechanism for the vertical movement of the head. The horizontal rotary motion is usually up to 540 °. The head contains the actual projection unit of the moving heads and houses the lamp, the effect filters and optics. The head leads the pivotal movement "Tilt" from, mostly in a swivel angle of about 270 °.

By this construction one obtains a very high freedom of movement, so, in the context of its mechanical movement depends on the location of the suspension or the erection almost everywhere can align toward the light of the projector. Moving Heads are available in countless designs and in the power range of 150 W to about 2000 W of electrical power. Typically, discharge lamps come with a high color temperature and light output are used, which produce in combination with Dichroic color filters brilliant colors. Alternating and rotating pattern templates ( gobos ) made of metal, glass or other optical additional features such as iris, prism (often also rotatable), Shutter ( as optical shutter for example: strobe, pulse effects) and dimmer ( for dimming the brightness ) allow a variety of uses and effects.

Are a new trend Wash Lights that use instead of the conventional structure of discharge lamp and subtractive color mixing directly on additive color mixing with LEDs. The more compact design and lower power consumption are deficits in the optical system with respect to (mostly dirty mixture, no adjustable angle ) and a very low in comparison color rendering index.

Pros and Cons

Advantage of moving heads is that you, unlike the scanner does not light loss because the light rays are not deflected. In addition, when moving heads, the radius is larger. Disadvantage in comparison with the scanner is that a scanner can be a lot faster movements, since the mirror compared to the head has a smaller mass that must be moved. Thus, the moving head is conditional or to recommend possible only with scanners for Disco use. Another disadvantage is that moving heads are usually louder than scanners and scanner thus better ect in musicals, theater. be used. Moving Heads are commonly found on medium to large stages and very common to see beyond the television. Moving Heads are often used in particular shows.

Areas, History

Moving Heads are an indispensable part of the modern entertainment industry. Concerts, TV productions, theater, fashion shows and of course discos are the typical areas of application. The invention of the moving heads is the company Vari * Lite awarded, the breakthrough of this technology succeeded in 1981 with the Genesis Abacab world tour.