Golden Spot HMI 1200
A storyline / blog page, with restoration moments of 5x Golden Spots HMI 1200
One of my long favourite models from the "heavy" era of ClayPaky fixtures, which I had the chance a few years ago to see from close, as I have restored two for a friend.
Now, this summer of 2023, I had the chance to save from recycling 5x Golden Spots, so this time, a deep cleaning process needs to be done. And this can happen only after a complete disassembly of the fixtures!
So, on that page, moments from the restorations of these 5x fixtures will be posted, from various stages of their restoration!
A successful life on stage!
Golden Spots HMI 1200, in action at Asteria! Pictures are taken from Facebook.
This was the last year before shutting down the venue. It seems that there were 12 Golden Spots, from which I managed to save 5.
These Goldens worked in the well-known stage/venue in Athens Riviera, "Asteria Glyfadas" [the stars of Glyfada], a place with a long history in the city's nightlife, starting from the '50s, accommodating the most famous artists of that era! At the beginning of the 80s, when discos started filling up the cities, the style of "Asteria" changed, introducing the term "show" to its visitors.
Almost every musical artist has performed there, and Athenians from every class, have been there enjoying them.
The Golden Spots worked there from 2006, the year of their construction, to 2013, when, during the major financial crisis in Greece, "Asteria" closed down, and as time proved, permanently. Apart from financial reasons, Asteria remained closed as Athens Riviera would need to change its style and renovate it in order to fit the new way of entertainment and architecture. Plus, the crisis, has changed a lot the Greeks' entertainment life, shrinking it to a minimum. Imagine that, in the golden era of 90s, such concert venues could operate 6 days per week, and Athens had many of them. Apart from theatres, and taverns, in which you could listen and dance to traditional music, there were (and still are today), many concert venues, to which you could see and listen to your favourite artists. Greeks were not waiting for the summer festivals or live concerts to see their favourite artists. They could visit the concert venue which accommodated them, for the winter/spring/summer season!
250 Kgs loaded in the Sunny
My old Nissan Sunny had generally experienced significant moments in its life, as I love to travel and explore. I think it's been ages since my car was loaded with too much heavy stuff! It has been some years since I was scuba diving with friends, loading the Sunny with our gear and travelling on dirt roads to find our favourite diving spots!
In my early years as a collector, I've made many single-day excursions, just to get the old, big and heavy scanners I have found, so there was such a loading experience in a car, definitely not suitable for such a job!
Loading the Golden heavy beasts in my car was really hard and painful, but I made it after all. I was saying to myself "What else you will do for these lights". I managed to fit the 5 fixtures and secure them for a safe trip home.
And then, the restoration party began!
Vacation Pause
The 6th of September finds me in the long desired vacation, in a mountain, far away from home. I always liked to take my free time that season, since I commonly have lots to do in my city. This summer, however, was the worst I have experienced, due to extreme and continuous high temperatures, and because of the wildfires which affected the area I live in, and other major forests of Greece.
So I was not in the mood, or having the inspiration to update the story, and the last month, the restoration work was slower due to the stated reasons.
However, I managed to be on schedule and finish the 3rd fixture, which I am planning to use in the attic, just before my vacation started!
So now, I will have some time to update the Golden Story Line with details.
The Bowl
The “bowl” shape color wheel, is another unique feature that I have seen only in Clay Paky fixtures. And only two models! The Golden Scan HPE, and Golden Spot.
The bowl in Golden Scan HPE, helps the color wheel to be added too close behind the gobo module, and the motor’s resistance module (the extra wheel, with the two ‘brakes’ which are contacting it.
In the Golden Spot, apart from the same reason which is mentioned above, the bowl-style wheel is installed in a place, where also the module itself has a size limitation. The normal wheel’s diameter, wouldn’t be able to fit there.
In the pictures, the limitations of the stepper motor and housing/module can be observed. The bowl fits just perfectly, fulfilling its purpose!
Balance
Ring possition for Stage Zoom module
This adaptive, smart ring on the yoke, is a way that Clay Paky found in order to adapt different modules, for the different models of moving head fixtures of that era. So, while keeping the same housing, they could fit different effect modules corresponding to the models.
The lamp compartment would be the same for all the models, but the module with the effects not, play a role in how the weight would be distributed.
So this part helps to change the center of weight for the yoke, depending on the installed effects module. Only two positions are available, with the axis opening and shaft, even on the top, or the bottom related to the yoke.
The main shafts are secured by two “pin” screws (there are also two points in which the screws are locking the shaft on the silver part, while this part is secured with two pin screws of the same type, from the top of the main yoke part. So a total of 8 screws are keeping the axis/module system together.
Ring possition for Golden Spot module
Size doesn't matter
Functions do
Just a pause for a comparison. The Stage Zoom effects module is on the left, with the Golden Spot module on the right. The Stage Zoom module is mounted with 4 clips on the head for faster removal, while the Golden Spot with 5 Allen screws. The Stage Zoom main head part has an adaptor fitted, which allows the 4x clips to be locked on. Interesting way of making a fixture interchangeable fast between spot and wash. The major disadvantage is that all the motor cables are going through the yoke, a thing which would make a Pan belt replacement, for example, a very time-consuming process, as the whole yoke must be removed, together with the cables which are passing through it.
Check out the 'artistic' point of view of the Golden Spot's effects module!
Unique Color Combinations
Another thing I love about this model is the unique, deep, atmospheric color shades I can create when mixing the main colors with the extra filters on the effects wheel.
The frost & prism wheel as it is called, apart from the CTO & CTB colors, includes a Turquoise, a Light Green, and a Warm Yellow filter, which can be combined with the main colors, creating awesome for the eyes, shades!
Colors, that I can't create with the CMY color mixing, and for which I had to improvise with their names, as you can see on the Onyx palette on the left! I wish that the camera could capture the true hue, but it is impossible! "Shadowed Pink", "Quantum Blue" and "Pearl Blue" are my favorites. The blue hues are so unique, and only with the Cyberlights I was able to create similar since they have as well filters to 2 wheels. In the Golden Spot, the Turquoise filter makes the mixed colors so unique.
In the gallery below, you can have an idea of how the colors are (not a realistic representation though). These are pictures taken from the module after its restoration, using a Cyberlight's light as a source, and a white paper as diffusion, and the camera pointed in front of the module's output.
 Beer's Yellow |  Ash Yellow |
|---|---|
 Cheetos Yellow |  Shadowed Pink |
 Pearl Blue |  Quantum Blue |
 Mold, On The Wall |  Deep Orange |
 Pink Punch |  Rose Pink |
 Pistaccio |
Photons creator compartment
Another impressive part of this model series which uses the same housing, including the Golden Spot, is the lamp compartment, and how it's designed, using every available space of the inner housing, the air directions, lamp and fan protection, and ventilation vents. This as well, showed the maestry of the Clay Paky fixture designers of that era!
4x PAPST fans are used, three causing the air to flow outwards of the fixture, and one only pushes the air inwards. The front open light output, helps the air go first through the effects module for cooling it off. All the fans are protected against the powerful UV radiation from the lamp, and only the rotating blades are exposed directly to it. Two microswitches protect the lamp compartment, cutting off the power if one of the two covers is being opened. Judging by the years of operation and state of these fixtures, seems that they were never cleaned, however, the lamp compartment was very clean already. I believe that the extremely high temperatures of the HMI 1200 were not allowing the dust to be concentrated in huge amounts in the lamp compartment, as it is tight enough, causing all the metals around it to be very hot. The colder parts of the fixture had the worst dust and dirt, like in the base for example. Only the inward flow fan had most of the dust, in all the fixtures.
Standing Out-being special!
Everyone needs to stand out sometimes, and to be different from the crowd! Seems like the same applies to the lights as well! While all the Golden Spots have precisely the same pattern, from the two glass rotating gobos, there is one light that has "special versions" of them! The light belongs to the same manufacturing batch.
The common versions of "waves" and "dunes" you could see in most Golden Spots.
But, the one special fixture has slightly different versions of these gobos, enough to visually stand out!
This made me want to search old videos from the venue where they worked, thinking as a kid playing the 'hidden treasure', saying 'I will find you!'. And I did! I've managed to spot the special version of the wave gobo, with the characteristic Y wave shape in the middle. It felt like confirmation that this group of fixtures actually worked there!
Their final dedication video!
Sunday, 21st of January 2024: The longest restoration project of 2023 has almost reached an end, but before that, it expanded slightly to the new year, as in the main 5 fixtures I restored the previous months, two more have been salvaged from the same place. These days I am restoring the 6th Golden Spot, after a long pause for the Christmas holidays. I wouldn't be able to just leave them there, ending up in recycling/destruction. I think that this blog/story page covers pretty much my experience working with them, and now, as a final note to it, I have prepared a video presentation. I wanted to 'renew' their presentation, in comparison with the older one I had made with the Golden Spot, which I restored for a friend 5 - 6 years ago. So, I hope you enjoy the video, under the smooth melody of Night Tapes, which fits so much to the atmosphere the colors and gobos projection, of that amazing model can produce!