Geni Shiva 250

[JWigPVB]

Hello all!

I'm a volunteer at a community theatre here in Jacksonville Beach, FL, which is cool because I finally get to start doing some of the stuff I went to college for 20 years ago!

I found a couple of Geni Shiva 250 instruments in our closet, but no one at the theatre has any documentation for them. The taiwan link for Geni seems to be inaccessible, and I emailed one place in England that appears to still sell them, to no avail. Does anyone here have any tips on how to set the dipswitches to address them, or any other info about the lights?

Thanks!
Jim Wiggins
Players by the Sea Community Theatre
Jacksonville Beach, FL
Welcome to Players by the Sea! - Players by the Sea

[derekleffew]

I've never heard of these fixtures, but perhaps the glossary entry dipswitch chart can help in setting the address. I'd start by addressing a fixture to 001, and with a console patched 1-to-1, bring up each channel to figure out what it does. Until you find the "intensity" channel, others such as color, gobo, focus, etc. may appear to not do anything.

Are these your fixtures? It looks like Ch.2 Gobo must be greater than (16/256)= ~6% for light to come out.

[len]

Used them once a long time ago. I don't remember them having more than one personality so addressing should be the only concern. I don't remember if these do, but some fixtures use all dips off as 1, since there is no address zero.

Just remembered that Irradiant has some info about Geni/OBY products on its website. Try here http://irradianthq.com/index.php?opt...d=52&Itemid=80

[Kelite]

And yes, Neo Neon had purchased the assets of Geni early in 2009 if memory serves me.

It looks as though the Florida rep firm for Neo Neon (and legacy products, presumably) would be:



Quest Marketing



Quest Marketing - Audio, Video, Lighting, Sound Contracting, Musical Instruments & Electronics

5920 Pine Tree Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33140-2125
Office: 305-993-1213
Fax: 305-993-1217

It could be worth a call to Quest, perhaps a manual is floating around their office-

[JWigPVB]

Those are exactly our instruments. Looks like the link you've provided me has just about everything I need, thank you so much!

Cheers!

[JWigPVB]

Those are the buggers! Thanks a bunch!

[Esoteric]

How do you like them? I thought about picking up a couple of Neo Neon units.

Mike

[Kelite]

The Control Booth is certainly MY favorite place for all things lighting & such. Glad to be of service to you!

[JWigPVB]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

How do you like them? I thought about picking up a couple of Neo Neon units.

Mike

I don't have an opinion yet, because I haven't been able to get them to work. I plan to play around with them this weekend...

[JWigPVB]

Originally Posted by Kelite

The Control Booth is certainly MY favorite place for all things lighting & such. Glad to be of service to you!

Well, I've got good news to report, we were able to get the Shivas up and running. The profiles built into our Element were very helpful, and we were able to manipulate all of the instrument parameters.

Key lesson learned-make sure the DMX cable physically connects the board and the instruments.

Now the hard part. I'm looking for some resources on how to actually USE these instruments in a show.
Are there any textbooks or anything that go into theory and practice? Writing cues with anything more than instrument intensity levels is entirely new stuff since I did my theatre minor back in school.

We do mostly straight plays and musicals in our house, and would likely only have the instruments move or change color visibly (other than rotating a gobo or two) on occasion. My college design textbooks are hopelessly obsolete in this topic.

I'll be down at LDI next weekend, and look forward to learning a lot and meeting you at your booth.

Thanks again,

Jim Wiggins
Players-by-the-Sea Community Theatre
Jacksonville Beach, FL