![]() ![]() Back in the real world, we always seem to end up with more lanterns than dimmers.Īgain, pairing up 2 or more fixtures is the solution. In our fantasy stage lighting world, every lantern has it’s own circuit and dimmer channel giving us the ability to balance the intensity throughout the rig. Having dimmer racks with socket outlets on the front is handy for running extra “ways” locally. Spare circuits are often found in the most “unuseful” places, like in the Control Room – not much help if you need another 2 for your US Cyc bar. Although you could be creative with some Neutral Density gel….Ĭreating more circuits at a lighting position comes down to running a single cable or a multicore of 6 circuits. If you want to balance the intensity of two lanterns with a significant difference in throw distance, they probably need to be on different dimmer channels and so can’t be paired up. Pairing up is limited to the maximum electrical load ratings of your cable, connectors and dimmer channels. Choosing fixtures that can be paired up is a question of lantern focus/job, colour or both. “Pairing” up two fixtures, you obviously sacrifice control – the two lanterns will be powered by the same dimmer. You have two options – Sacrifice control or create some more: Many venues are designed with a pathetic number of circuits on the stage floor. If only you had two more circuits on FOH1 instead of all those on the fly floor that you’re not using. The circuits may be connected directly to the dimmers but often goes via a patch panel, allowing you to choose which dimmer a circuit(s) plugs into.Ī common form of this problem is not having enough circuits in the right place. Lighting “circuits” is a generic term for the system of outlets distributing power out to the rig. Firing a lantern from it’s rigged position across to the opposite side of the stage increases the throw distance (in tight venues, by a significant percentage), making the beam cover a wider area than when lighting it’s own side. If coverage of colour washes is a problem (not quite enough PARs for instance), the old trick is to “cross ’em over”. Either way, don’t forget to reset before the next show. ![]() The idea of a quick half time refocus could also apply to a simple gel change. You can’t clear the front row to get the ladders out. Provided the original effect is not required in Act II, you can easily reach the fixture and the change can be made behind the tabs. On very rare occasions, you might be able to do a refocus during the interval. If those breakup gobos were in a neutral colour, they could be mixed with two different colour washes to produce various effects. Perhaps you could use the DSC area toplight instead of a dedicated profile spot. At college, the Head of Lighting told us that every lantern had to do at least 2 jobs – “specials” had to pull their weight too. Not having enough lighting sources, especially conventionals, is a tricky one that can only really be solved by creative design decisions. Let’s take a look at some workarounds for this “technical budget”. Many of problems are the same, whatever size the show. And if we could just afford another 12 VL’s (and had room on the truss to rig them – bloody noise boy junk), the colour wash wouldn’t have any holes in it. A couple more circuits at stage level would be useful too. How ever many dimmers you have, you will always need a few more. In reality, every show is constrained by technical limitations (not only a financial budget) and every LD has to make compromises. After all, those guys don’t have to deal with a tiny school hall,only four circuits Front Of House and the spare cable you have is one 4 way 13A block. ![]() You might think that lighting large scale professional productions, the problems of lighting on a budget and technical shortages wouldn’t arise. Continuing the “budget lighting” theme, we uncover tricks of the lighting trade when you don’t quite have enough of something– dimmers, lanterns, control channels, chocolate Hobnobs ….(well, maybe not that) ![]() In Stage Lighting Maintenance… we looked at improving the performance of your lighting gear and getting the best from what you’ve got. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |