Recent content by theatricalmatt

  1. theatricalmatt

    Design Light a set piece the has a ceiling.

    Switch the rake on the ceiling so it's lower toward the audience, and higher further away (which matches the audience's sightline, anyway). Cut out a cove in the ceiling, and light through there.Duplicate natural sunlight by lighting through the window with a very powerful light. Be aware of...
  2. theatricalmatt

    Gels

    The apparent color you see when holding up a gel to, say, a desk lamp is going to be rather different than how it looks when projected onstage. For one thing, theater lights are much brighter, and quite often a different color temperature than household lights -- so it's always best to make...
  3. theatricalmatt

    LED Cycs

    ETC makes an app for calculating the number of cyc lights you need given their height, dimensions of the drop, and throw distance (how far away from the cyc they're rigged). More is always better, of course.I've found that I generally don't like the CS Cycs for lighting up cycs -- many small...
  4. theatricalmatt

    Ion won't patch to some channels.

    I would check to see that you haven't exceeded the maximum channel in your setup or your maximum parameter count, and that you're not operating in a partition that excludes those channels.
  5. theatricalmatt

    Martin Sues ETC for Patent Infringement

    I'm kind of surprised the handles were patentable to begin with. I'm sure outside the field of moving lights there would be plenty of prior art.
  6. theatricalmatt

    Conventional Fixtures Micro Ghost Lights

    Sounds like a job for a 3d printer!
  7. theatricalmatt

    Color matching between Colorsource and lustr

    No - the emitters are different, and the arrays of emitters are different on top of that.I generally find the best result is to utilize the built-in gel libraries, but limit the choices to ones that both render equally well. Tgat generally means staying within the Colorsource's gamut
  8. theatricalmatt

    Grounded receptacle mounting - pin up or down?

    What conflict? There's no conflict!A diagonal cut is mathematically proven to have a longer length than a simple, straightforward vertical cut. This results in more delicious cheese oozing out as you try to eat it. Empirically, sir, you are wrong, wrong, wrong! ;)
  9. theatricalmatt

    EDI Scrimmer II dimmer pack repair?

    I used several in a school setting (north of Boston), though it's been years since I've set foot in that space.Check airflow; bad ventilation means heat gets trapped in the unit, which puts it into overtemp. If you're willing / able to open up the unit, see if the temperature sensor itself...
  10. theatricalmatt

    knot for cable pick

    I'm used to doing cable picks with a clove hitch at the end of line going up to the pin rail (well -- up to a sheave in the grid and down to the pin rail).What you're describing sounds more like a strain relief off of truss, but to each their own.
  11. theatricalmatt

    Cueing spotlights for dance

    Do you have a rehearsal or performance video from previous years? That might be the easiest way of all.
  12. theatricalmatt

    Cueing spotlights for dance

    How tight are your cues? Dance is often, "Spot One on the woman, Spot Two on the man, stay on 'em til they exit." Occasionally you get into lighting couples as a unit, or passing from one partner to another, or lighting a significant prop or set piece, but that's going ot be unique to that...
  13. theatricalmatt

    Tungsten to LED upgrade

    I'd push for a mix of the ColorSource V Spots and Fresnels; you get a wonderful array of lighting tools that have a similar color mixing system, which makes swapping fixtures or blending between systems very easy.The Ovation 910FCs are a little long in the tooth. The KL Profiles are quite...
  14. theatricalmatt

    Back to School: What Is It?

    The second silver bit must certainly be used for developing different emoticons! ;) :p
  15. theatricalmatt

    "Dance Nation" falling light

    My focus with things falling from height is often not that the object might fall on someone -- which, of course, *everybody* is worried about -- but also that things break and go flying and then strike someone. Twenty feet might seem pretty far, but it'd be easy for a knob or gel clip to break...
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