Many many intel questions....

[Minion]

Hey guys, I am designing lights for my high schools production of The Laramie Project.

With designing I am fine, I know what looks I want and everything. Mostly my questions revolve around the technical part of the lighting. I have a solid knowledge of conventional fixtures, but with automation (which I will be dabbling into) I am clueless.

Here is the system we are currently running:

Dimming: Two EDI EX Racks, one full to capacity with 2.4kW dimmers another with about half capacity.
Dimmer Spread
1-30 Catwalks
31-80 Electrics
81-118 Floor Pockets
119-148 House Lights

Control:
EDI Bijou 512

Fixtures:
11 ETC Source Four
3 Altman 360Q
6 Par 64
1 Par 16
3 3” Fresnel
8 6” Fresnel
2 8” Fresnel
12 14” Scoops

That is basically our rig, but now I plan on renting the following from Atmosphere Lighting Inc out of Bethesda, Maryland …

2 Mac 2000 Profiles
24 ETC Source Fours
1 DF-50 Hazer

So now I have a bunch of questions about the Mac 2ks and the DF-50, I have never worked with automation before so sorry if I am totally off with these…

How would I wire the Mac2ks and the DF-50 with DMX to the board? Daisy Chain them then plug them directly into the second universe?

How do I run two universes at the same time with the conventionals in one universe and the automated in another?

Do I plug the Mac2ks and the DF-50 into the rig through the dimmers for a power source? If not where do I plug them in for a power source?

When I program the show along with the automation how do I make the lights move in one cue? Individual use of their channels or does it involve the macros? (I have no clue what a macro is, so that might also be good to know!)

How do I work with the firmware on the Mac2ks, do I need to work on the fixture every time I need to run the show? (They would be in an inconvenient spot to get up to them often)

Thanks!
-Andrew

[propmonkey]

all i know is i would either daisy chain them to the 2nd universe or get a DMX splitter.

just a comment: thats going to cost alot for that equipment...

[Minion]

Originally Posted by propmonkey

all i know is i would either daisy chain them to the 2nd universe or get a DMX splitter.

just a comment: thats going to cost alot for that equipment...

Yup, I know! (About the cost)

My director is crazy about Laramie, he is going all out. The set will contain about 20 TVs a bunch will be flat panels. I asked him about a budget, he responded, "What budget?!"

[len]

All dmx runs daisy chain. So yes, a, b, c, d, etc.

How you can connect them to the board, I can't say. Once they'e patched in, just program. The whole idea of a multi-universe board is that you don't have to wory about which universe a fixture is on.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, run any dmx fixture through a dimmer pack.

I believe the M2K needs a 220 line. Check the manual.

The M2k requires depending 21 and 31 channels, depending on exactly which version it is. Can your board handle it? If not, look into renting a 512 channel console.


I would also consider using a splitter WITH an amplifier in it. This will help boost the signal over long runs.

[Minion]

Originally Posted by len

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, run any dmx fixture through a dimmer pack.

Yeah that’s what I thought, for a power source can I just plug it into a wall outlet?

Originally Posted by len

I believe the M2K needs a 220 line. Check the manual.

No clue what this means? Could you explain more?

Originally Posted by len

The M2k requires depending 21 and 31 channels, depending on exactly which version it is. Can your board handle it? If not, look into renting a 512 channel console.

They are M2k Profiles, is that the exact version you were looking for? My board should be fine, it has two 512 universes.

Originally Posted by len

How you can connect them to the board, I can't say. Once they'e patched in, just program. The whole idea of a multi-universe board is that you don't have to wory about which universe a fixture is on.

The board is on “one to one patching: cannot be edited.” Again it is a EDI Bijou, not a board many people are familiar with. With it being one to one once I plug the fixtures in and restart the board would it pick them up right away?

[Peter]

"What budget?!"

WOWOW lucky you! lol normally when I hear that (ok, ya, I always hear that) it means that we have $0 not $oxo (my sad attempt an an infinity symbol)

Where are you guys getting the $$ for this? do you know some pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that I dont know about? :-)

[Minion]

Originally Posted by Peter

WOWOW lucky you! lol normally when I hear that (ok, ya, I always hear that) it means that we have $0 not $oxo (my sad attempt an an infinity symbol)

Where are you guys getting the $$ for this? do you know some pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that I dont know about? :-)

Our department roughly gets 20,000 dollars per school year. That is our whole budget though. That is the standard for the schools in my county (Fairfax, VA). I think it is either the 2nd or 3rd most wealthy county in the nation. Every single school in the county made that list of the top somenumber highschools in the nation. The school board also LOVES the arts, that helps too.

We tend to turn a profit on our shows, so we are basically in the money.

Our director is rather thrifty with money however, so we never spend all of our budget. It just goes back to the county.

Sorry if I am making you jealous, but you are more than welcome to move here! We need smart techs!

[propmonkey]

our budget is under $8,000 for the entire year and our district doesnt really support the arts.

[Peter]

lol, jealous, ya abit! We got a new building and new everything last year, so we are decently equiped, but that stuff replaced a 50+ year old building with 50+ year old equipment in some cases. Still, all addtional stuff has to come streight from my pocket. I dont think we have ever turned a profit on a play. We simply live in too sparsely populated an area. we get the people's families who are involved, and maybe the normal % of the surrounding towns populations who are interested in such things, but our towns populations are so small and widely spread (people would have to drive 45+ mins to come see the shows) to get anything close to a good turn out. (we normally have about 150 people max for each of the two shows)

[SteveRB]

*Please feel free to correct me if any information in this post is wrong, but I am sharing my experience with this equipment, which could have been different*

Do I plug the Mac2ks and the DF-50 into the rig through the dimmers for a power source? If not where do I plug them in for a power source?

You CAN NOT run Mac2ks or a DF-50 off of dimmers. Not to get into too much detail but dimmers essentially chop up the sin waves of the electrical signal sent to the fixture, which may cause damage to the electronics of the Mac2k's and DF-50s. In fact I do not believe that the DF-50s will even turn on if plugged into a dimmer. The DF-50s can be plugged into standard 120Volt outlets. The Mac2ks are designed to be run off of 220 volts but you can ask the rental house to re-tap the fixtures to run off of 120 Volts. Then you can run them off of standard 120Volt outlets, but be sure to ask for the proper adaptors, and make sure you are not overloading your circuits. You may want to ask about renting a power distribution panel.

I would strongly recommend that you discuss any question that you have with your account manager or a technician at the rental house. I know that you may not want to but it is better then damaging their equipment and they will be the most helpful and knowledgeable since it is their equipment.