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REVIEWED
REVIEWED: CHAUVET DJ Intimidator Hybrid 251SR
Brace yourself for a review of a type of product that has not appeared in Pro Mobile for a long time. A non-LED lighting effect! Just when we all thought that LED had taken over the world (for mobile DJs at least), along comes the Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 251SR. And this is no ordinary moving head – it’s a hybrid.
A hybrid is a versatile moving head fixture that aims to be a triple threat: a spot, a beam and a wash, all in one compact unit. A pair of these will take care of just about every type of lighting you need to use for most spaces, while larger areas could be taken care of with more. Need in-air sweeping beams? You’d like to wash a large area? How about creating pretty patterns with gobos? With a hybrid light you get all of this, and while the cost is always a bit more than a standard one-trick pony, it’s an investment well worth making if you would like extra flexibility. And, yes, the cost is more, but one of these is going to be a lot less than three separate moving heads of similar power.
The fixture is equipped with a 251-W discharge lamp, which some DJs may think is going backwards; however, these products still exist for a reason. HRI lamps are renowned for their raw output, often producing a brighter, more intense beam of light with a higher lux rating, making them ideal for cutting through ambient light in large venues. On top of that, a discharge lamp is also going to produce a different range of colours that LED cannot reproduce. Whites are noticeably warmer, and the overall effect of the discharge lamp is distinctly different from the colours we’ve become used to with LEDs. The colours are rich and vibrant, with a beautiful saturation that feels more organic and powerful than their LED counterparts.
Of course, with all that power come a few things you should be aware of. The Osram SIRIUS HRI® has a stated life span of 3000 hours. This is, of course, significantly less than the number most often stated for an LED source – 50,000 hours. That said, if you use one of these for two gigs a week, powered for seven hours each time, your lamp will still last for more than four years. And you can replace it. A discharge lamp also comes with a higher heat output and greater power consumption. While a light like this might be more demanding on your power, its sheer power and versatility often make up for it.
The lamp’s lifespan can be preserved by properly cooling the unit after use, which involves keeping the fans running for at least five minutes after turning off the lamp. This can be achieved by simply turning the lamp off on DMX or by scrolling through the LCD panel to ‘Lamp Setting’ and setting to on/off. That said, moving heads of this type really need to be controlled by DMX to properly utilise the light.
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of the fixture, the unit’s housing includes the standard CHAUVET DJ LCD colour display with four menu buttons that is super easy to navigate, with carry handles on either side of the base. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a quality fixture, designed for easy handling on the road. For connectivity, there are both 3-pin and 5-pin DMX in/out ports, as well as power linking capabilities. There is also a USB Type-C port for software updates, a simple but crucial modern touch. The ability to daisy-chain power with other units simplifies cable management on stage, which is always a bonus.
The fixture can be operated in several modes, including DMX, standalone (Auto or Sound-Active), Manual, and Master/Slave. It’s great to see a high-end product that could be used in the mobile DJ market that has modes for DJs that don’t want to use DMX. For those of us who use a controller, the fixture offers two DMX personalities: a 13-channel mode and a 19-channel mode. The manual details the assignment of DMX channels and their corresponding values for various functions, including pan/tilt, colour wheel, gobo wheels, prism, focus, zoom, frost, and shutter. Pan and tilt angles can be adjusted to ranges of 540°, 360°, or 180° for pan, and 270°, 180°, or 90° for tilt. There are also options to reverse the pan and tilt operation, a small but essential feature for advanced programming.
For operation without a DMX controller, there are Auto Mode, Sound-Active Mode, or Manual Mode. The sound-active mode responds to low-frequency sounds, and the sensitivity can be adjusted from 1 to 100 from the built-in microphone. Manual mode allows for direct control of various functions through the control panel, and it is possible to program and save steps. While I didn’t get to spend much time with these modes, they are a great safety net and show that CHAUVET DJ understands the varied needs of its users.
The light’s versatility is truly impressive, seamlessly transitioning between beam, spot, and wash modes. The gobo selection is particularly noteworthy, with two different gobo wheels. The first features nine plus open, which are rotating, indexing, and interchangeable with continuous scroll at variable speeds. The second has 17 plus open. Among these are beam reducers, especially useful for aiming at things like a mirrorball or a cake. The static wheel offers a variety of crisp patterns, while the rotating gobos allow for more dynamic and complex visual effects.
Should you replace any of the gobos, you should note that they must be made of either glass or aluminium. This is a critical requirement due to the heat generated by the powerful discharge lamp; using other materials could cause them to melt, burn, or shatter, creating a significant safety hazard and damaging your light.
The fixture’s optical system is key to its hybrid functionality. It boasts a variable beam angle, with an impressive zoom range from a narrow, focused beam for high-impact aerial effects to a wider spot or wash angle. With a zoom angle of 1° to 3° in beam mode, 12° to 23° in spot mode, and 7° to 19° in wash mode, this zoom function is what allows the fixture to serve three distinct roles effectively. The motorised focus ensures that your gobos remain sharp and crisp, no matter the distance or zoom setting, a crucial feature for professional-looking shows.
Further enhancing its visual capabilities are the built-in prisms. The Intimidator Hybrid 251SR features both a 5-facet and a 6-facet prism, which can be rotated and indexed. The prism takes a single gobo image and multiplies it, creating a kaleidoscope effect that fills a space with multiple, repeating patterns. This, combined with the gobo and colour wheels, provides a powerful toolkit for creating complex, layered, and dynamic lighting scenes. The ability to layer these two prisms on top of each other creates some truly mind-bending effects that are a far cry from the simple, one-dimensional patterns we’ve seen in the past.
On paper, the CHAUVET DJ Intimidator Hybrid 251SR packs a serious punch with a 251-W Osram HRI® discharge lamp and a comprehensive set of features. I spent some time with this fixture to see how it performs in real-world scenarios.
I used a pair as part of a pretty big lighting rig for a wedding and put them through their paces. I mounted them on my truss totems on either side of the dance floor, and they were easy to set up. Once fired up, it became obvious just how much more powerful they are compared to similarly priced lights. Focusing a small beam right across a room really demonstrated just what they are capable of.
I set up a variety of very clever effects for various parts of the evening, including a slow-moving, colour-changing scene for the welcome, a beautiful pattern for the first dance, and various patterns and movements for the dancing. When moving, you could really see the quality of the light in its movements; they were very smooth with no jerkiness. These are high-quality lights which provide brilliant effects, and I’m sure that I didn’t discover all of the things I could do with it.
The biggest thing I came away with was the contrast between these and my regular LED movers. While the LEDs are great for their simplicity and low power draw, the Hybrid 251SR has a raw power and distinct look that you simply can’t get from an LED source. The light feels more focused, more intense, and it cuts through the ambient light of a large venue in a way that my LEDs just can’t. They don't just add to the atmosphere; they define it.
If you’re after really bright moving heads, which feature a massive range of effects and can also act as beam, wash and spot, then you should put these on your list of lights to check out at your local retailer.
A hybrid is a versatile moving head fixture that aims to be a triple threat: a spot, a beam and a wash, all in one compact unit. A pair of these will take care of just about every type of lighting you need to use for most spaces, while larger areas could be taken care of with more. Need in-air sweeping beams? You’d like to wash a large area? How about creating pretty patterns with gobos? With a hybrid light you get all of this, and while the cost is always a bit more than a standard one-trick pony, it’s an investment well worth making if you would like extra flexibility. And, yes, the cost is more, but one of these is going to be a lot less than three separate moving heads of similar power.
The fixture is equipped with a 251-W discharge lamp, which some DJs may think is going backwards; however, these products still exist for a reason. HRI lamps are renowned for their raw output, often producing a brighter, more intense beam of light with a higher lux rating, making them ideal for cutting through ambient light in large venues. On top of that, a discharge lamp is also going to produce a different range of colours that LED cannot reproduce. Whites are noticeably warmer, and the overall effect of the discharge lamp is distinctly different from the colours we’ve become used to with LEDs. The colours are rich and vibrant, with a beautiful saturation that feels more organic and powerful than their LED counterparts.
Of course, with all that power come a few things you should be aware of. The Osram SIRIUS HRI® has a stated life span of 3000 hours. This is, of course, significantly less than the number most often stated for an LED source – 50,000 hours. That said, if you use one of these for two gigs a week, powered for seven hours each time, your lamp will still last for more than four years. And you can replace it. A discharge lamp also comes with a higher heat output and greater power consumption. While a light like this might be more demanding on your power, its sheer power and versatility often make up for it.
The lamp’s lifespan can be preserved by properly cooling the unit after use, which involves keeping the fans running for at least five minutes after turning off the lamp. This can be achieved by simply turning the lamp off on DMX or by scrolling through the LCD panel to ‘Lamp Setting’ and setting to on/off. That said, moving heads of this type really need to be controlled by DMX to properly utilise the light.
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of the fixture, the unit’s housing includes the standard CHAUVET DJ LCD colour display with four menu buttons that is super easy to navigate, with carry handles on either side of the base. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a quality fixture, designed for easy handling on the road. For connectivity, there are both 3-pin and 5-pin DMX in/out ports, as well as power linking capabilities. There is also a USB Type-C port for software updates, a simple but crucial modern touch. The ability to daisy-chain power with other units simplifies cable management on stage, which is always a bonus.
The fixture can be operated in several modes, including DMX, standalone (Auto or Sound-Active), Manual, and Master/Slave. It’s great to see a high-end product that could be used in the mobile DJ market that has modes for DJs that don’t want to use DMX. For those of us who use a controller, the fixture offers two DMX personalities: a 13-channel mode and a 19-channel mode. The manual details the assignment of DMX channels and their corresponding values for various functions, including pan/tilt, colour wheel, gobo wheels, prism, focus, zoom, frost, and shutter. Pan and tilt angles can be adjusted to ranges of 540°, 360°, or 180° for pan, and 270°, 180°, or 90° for tilt. There are also options to reverse the pan and tilt operation, a small but essential feature for advanced programming.
For operation without a DMX controller, there are Auto Mode, Sound-Active Mode, or Manual Mode. The sound-active mode responds to low-frequency sounds, and the sensitivity can be adjusted from 1 to 100 from the built-in microphone. Manual mode allows for direct control of various functions through the control panel, and it is possible to program and save steps. While I didn’t get to spend much time with these modes, they are a great safety net and show that CHAUVET DJ understands the varied needs of its users.
The light’s versatility is truly impressive, seamlessly transitioning between beam, spot, and wash modes. The gobo selection is particularly noteworthy, with two different gobo wheels. The first features nine plus open, which are rotating, indexing, and interchangeable with continuous scroll at variable speeds. The second has 17 plus open. Among these are beam reducers, especially useful for aiming at things like a mirrorball or a cake. The static wheel offers a variety of crisp patterns, while the rotating gobos allow for more dynamic and complex visual effects.
Should you replace any of the gobos, you should note that they must be made of either glass or aluminium. This is a critical requirement due to the heat generated by the powerful discharge lamp; using other materials could cause them to melt, burn, or shatter, creating a significant safety hazard and damaging your light.
The fixture’s optical system is key to its hybrid functionality. It boasts a variable beam angle, with an impressive zoom range from a narrow, focused beam for high-impact aerial effects to a wider spot or wash angle. With a zoom angle of 1° to 3° in beam mode, 12° to 23° in spot mode, and 7° to 19° in wash mode, this zoom function is what allows the fixture to serve three distinct roles effectively. The motorised focus ensures that your gobos remain sharp and crisp, no matter the distance or zoom setting, a crucial feature for professional-looking shows.
Further enhancing its visual capabilities are the built-in prisms. The Intimidator Hybrid 251SR features both a 5-facet and a 6-facet prism, which can be rotated and indexed. The prism takes a single gobo image and multiplies it, creating a kaleidoscope effect that fills a space with multiple, repeating patterns. This, combined with the gobo and colour wheels, provides a powerful toolkit for creating complex, layered, and dynamic lighting scenes. The ability to layer these two prisms on top of each other creates some truly mind-bending effects that are a far cry from the simple, one-dimensional patterns we’ve seen in the past.
On paper, the CHAUVET DJ Intimidator Hybrid 251SR packs a serious punch with a 251-W Osram HRI® discharge lamp and a comprehensive set of features. I spent some time with this fixture to see how it performs in real-world scenarios.
I used a pair as part of a pretty big lighting rig for a wedding and put them through their paces. I mounted them on my truss totems on either side of the dance floor, and they were easy to set up. Once fired up, it became obvious just how much more powerful they are compared to similarly priced lights. Focusing a small beam right across a room really demonstrated just what they are capable of.
I set up a variety of very clever effects for various parts of the evening, including a slow-moving, colour-changing scene for the welcome, a beautiful pattern for the first dance, and various patterns and movements for the dancing. When moving, you could really see the quality of the light in its movements; they were very smooth with no jerkiness. These are high-quality lights which provide brilliant effects, and I’m sure that I didn’t discover all of the things I could do with it.
The biggest thing I came away with was the contrast between these and my regular LED movers. While the LEDs are great for their simplicity and low power draw, the Hybrid 251SR has a raw power and distinct look that you simply can’t get from an LED source. The light feels more focused, more intense, and it cuts through the ambient light of a large venue in a way that my LEDs just can’t. They don't just add to the atmosphere; they define it.
If you’re after really bright moving heads, which feature a massive range of effects and can also act as beam, wash and spot, then you should put these on your list of lights to check out at your local retailer.
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 133, Pages 74-76.
