Somebody build this light......

[blasterman]

Was at a small concert last weekend with a local band, and they were running half a dozen small projectors behind the stage and minimal movers, pars and other conventional lights. Looked good...real good, and the projectors they were using weren't high end. Some of the visualizations they were running were cool. Projectors, if done right can do some pretty amazing things, and can get crazy awesome in smoke. Then the wheels started turning. Well, I think I've mentioned this before.

Projectors are getting cheap. Scanners are cheap. Just mount a frikken scanner head to any generic projector and away you go. Mount or integrate an Android driven HDMI dongle with built in Wifi and have a convenient way to upload and schedule visualizations. Elation (I think it was Elation) built a projector onto a full mover assembly, but it was obviously pricey. Using a scanner to direct the light loses some flexibility, but who cares. The entire apparatus gets much simplier with a static projector and simple mirror.

Screw it - already looking for used pocket scans on fleabay to make a prototype.

Or maybe somebody has built something like this....BillESC would know.


new light by blasterman789, on Flickr

[light-o-matic]

There are DMX mirrors you can attach to an existing projector with a standard mount. Here's a link to one eexample: https://www.dynamicprojection.com/mirror-head-en/

But I guess you want something more in the price range of existing DJ lights? That's going to be rare because for anything like this to be really good you need a high brightness projector, then you need the control systems to integrate the video and movement aspects with the rest of your lighting. Pro lighting manufacturers sell these kinds of solutions but they aren't cheap. DJs are looking for more of a plug and play solution. But hey, advanced technology is getting cheaper it is only a matter of time...

[blasterman]

Projectors in the 2k lumen range are already dropping below $200, and since we aren't worried about THX color certification and chromatic aberation in the corners while watching a marvel flick in 4k we can cut out a lot of the other costs. Also, unlike color wheel based LED movers projectors don't fall on their face when using any color except white. That's a big reason you are seeing such a resurgence in HTI bulbs in higher end movers, and thats because those bulbs were designed, you guessed it, for use in projectors.

Automation , DMX and all that other jazz already exists on low price scanners. Why invent what's already there? The only tricky part is most projectors have much wider throws than movers and spots, and narrowing the throw to emulate even the widest angle movers *does* get pricey with a projector.

Using an HDMI android dongle with wifi would really be an advantage for mobile DJ's. They can already do 1080p video, so it's just a software application.

In any respects, thinking outloud. Every year I keep seeing the same lot of dumb *ss movers using the same gobo effects with nobody doing anything innovative. Thanks for the link btw.....have to check it out because I'm doing a renovation and need something unique.

[efinque]

Cool.. it's been probably done before with all sorts of lights though.

And here I was thinking a light rig controlled by a drum machine.. doable but requires opening the unit and pulling some extra wires for control voltages.

[light-o-matic]

Projectors in the 2k lumen range are already dropping below $200, and since we aren't worried about THX color certification and chromatic aberation in the corners while watching a marvel flick in 4k we can cut out a lot of the other costs. Also, unlike color wheel based LED movers projectors don't fall on their face when using any color except white. That's a big reason you are seeing such a resurgence in HTI bulbs in higher end movers, and thats because those bulbs were designed, you guessed it, for use in projectors.

Automation , DMX and all that other jazz already exists on low price scanners. Why invent what's already there? The only tricky part is most projectors have much wider throws than movers and spots, and narrowing the throw to emulate even the widest angle movers *does* get pricey with a projector.

Using an HDMI android dongle with wifi would really be an advantage for mobile DJ's. They can already do 1080p video, so it's just a software application.

In any respects, thinking outloud. Every year I keep seeing the same lot of dumb *ss movers using the same gobo effects with nobody doing anything innovative. Thanks for the link btw.....have to check it out because I'm doing a renovation and need something unique.

Prices are dropping yea, but those <$200 projectors.. the ones I have seen are a joke, their output is nowhere near promised. But you are right that the precision for a video-lighting effect would not have to be as much. So sure, in theory a manufacturer could build something that looks like a typical moving mirror fixture but in place of the wheels you would have a simple DLP projector but stripped down.. no fancy controls or inputs needed. But then you need a video source of some sort.. software to do the video manipulation and storage to hold the video, and a way to transfer the video. The pro video movers have automatic parallax correction, they have media servers, networking... That is what costs the money, is all the software, processing and integration so that you can design your shows and control the video aspect smoothly with the rest of the lighting. That costs money. But if you mean something less fancy, then sure I can imagine that it is only a matter of time before such a light will exist with let's say an SD card that you load video loops and images onto, and a regular DMX input where you can select your file, control zoom, rotation and etc all from DMX. There are already fixtures that are in the thousands of dollars but eventually there will be simpler DJ ones. But I think the brightness has to be really up there, because if you can't get a good beam effect it's kind of pointless.