MOVING HEAD LIGHTS - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Moving head light refers to stage light,which has automated or mechanical abilities beyond those of traditional, stationary illumination.Moving head light is in our life,in our business,parties,home,church...

Although the most advanced moving head lights can produce extraordinarily complex effects, the intelligence lies with the human lighting designer, control system programmer, or the lighting operator, rather than the fixture itself. For this reason, moving head lighting is also known as automated lighting, moving lights, moving heads, or simply movers.

More recently the term has fallen into disuse as abilities once reserved to a specific category of lighting instruments (most notably colour changing and variable focus) have become pervasive across a range of fixtures. The distinction has become more blurred with the introduction of machines that would not be considered lights but share the ability to move their orientation and are operated by the same DMX512 control protocol, such as moving yoke projectors.

The history of moving head light:

There are many patents for intelligent lighting dating back from 1906, with Edmond Sohlberg of Kansas City, USA. The lantern used a carbon-arc bulb and was operated not by motors or any form of electronics, but by cords that were operated manually to control pan, tilt and zoom.

1925 saw the first use of electrical motors to move the fixture, and with it the beam position, by Herbet F. King (US patent number: 1,680,685). In 1936 US patent number 2,054,224 was granted to a similar device, with which the pan and tilt were controlled by means of a joystick as opposed to switches. From this point on until 1969, various other inventors made similar lights and improved on the technology, but with no major breakthroughs. During this period, Century Lighting (now Strand) started retailing such units specially made to order, retrofitted onto any of their existing lanterns up to 750 W to control pan and tilt.

The features of moving head light:

An automated light, properly called a luminaire, fixture (or sometimes moving head), is a versatile and multi-function instrument designed to replace multiple conventional, non-moving lights. Depending on the venue and application, automated luminaires can be a versatile and economical addition to a stock of traditional lights because, with proper programming, they can swiftly alter many aspects of their optics, changing the “personality” of the light very quickly. Lighting is typically pre-programmed and played back using only simple commands, although moving heads can be controlled “live” if the operator is sufficiently experienced.

Most moving heads have all or some of the features, each feature is set to a channel number, such as these:

The usage of moving head light:

Moving head lights can be used wherever there is a need for powerful lighting which must be capable of rapid and extreme changes of mood and effects. Moving heads would, therefore, be inappropriate in a setting which does not require strong lighting (such as a home) or where the “quality” of the light required does not vary excessively (although it may need to be very strong for a venue like a stadium). Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule, most notably the use of large numbers of moving heads for international sporting events, such as the Commonwealth Games or Olympic Games, where many thousands of separate automated fixtures are often used to light the opening and closing ceremonies. The 2008 Summer Olympics, in Beijing, had a rig of around 2,300 moving head light which is "the largest single automated lighting system ever assembled for a single event"