Strand 300 training

[propmonkey]

I was just asked by our civic theatre board to give a class on the Strand 300 lighting consol. I do not claim to know everything about that board but I know a great deal about it. I'm offering it to anyone who would like to attend. It will be at Beloit Memorial High School Little Theatre on December 11, 2-4pm (will update if date/time changes). Cost is free. If anyone is interested just contact me and I can give you some more info. I wish(and im going to look into it) if I could get a demo of an intel that day to demonstrate patching and using (and for me to learn since I've never had the opportunity to use one).

[Mayhem]

Fantastic. You must know enough to have been asked. Besides, these people will be novices, so your knowledge will be far greater than theirs. Start them off with the basics and you will be fine.

Do you have any idea on the numbers? This will influence whether you will be doing this in a classroom/tutorial manner or as an interactive hands session?

Even with a large group, you can do a general overview of everything and then have individuals step for them and do something hands on.

Have you devised a lesson plan to follow, so that you cover what you want to cover and to help you if you get off topic? If not, I would strongly suggest that you do so. It doesn't have to be a comprehensive document. Simple headings will do. E.g.,

1. Features of the Strand 300
2. Connecting to your lighting system
3. Initial set up
and so on.

A hand out with your key points would be very useful and I think most would like the ability to take home such a quick reference list.

PowerPoint with pictures would also be good, so that everyone can see the buttons, faders, menus etc. This could even be used as your hand out. Would mean getting out the digital camera but if you have the time it would be worth it I think.

Anyhow - hope I have not made your job more complex by throwing these suggestions and comments at you. This is my preferences for teaching and what ever you decide to do, just remember one thing - HAVE FUN!

[propmonkey]

thanks for the ideas. im going to use the basic guideline of the tutorial then adpater for my uses. sounds like there wont be more than 10 people. ill just get the board out on a table and connect it to a projector. im going to start working on a outline. the next few weeks ill be workign on that and im going to try to track down an intel for that day. i need to learn how to run one. im also going to see if they want like a basic design class(this is where im going to struggle alittle) i know basic stuff and ill use the mccandles method.

[Mayhem]

Sounds good.

With the intel - could you find a local company and offer to display their banner, name, logo etc as a sponsor for the training session. Not much to offer them but better than nothing I guess.

[bdesmond]

Grand Stage has a shop in Milwaukee, which is I think an hour or so from Beloit? They're the major Strand reseller in the area, if you tell them what you're doing, you're using a Strand, and let them put advertising or what have you up on the room, they might lend you a Vari-Lite for a couple days. They'll also give you the Strand mover profiles. They're a good bunch of folks that run that company - family business downtown Chicago.

Do you have the big MS trackball mouse? That's the best way to do Intels on a 300 series. The 500s have the dual (or tri?) encoders. Make sure you have the power to run one of these should you obtain one. You should also consider whether or not it makes sense to demo or teach the mover functionality. Does your city have the facilities or need to use them? If not, anything more than you can do x, y, and z easily with intels is too much as its useless information to your key audience members.

If you're doing a hands on, console, table, view of the lights (only takes three or four to do this), and place for people to sit and write/watch will do the trick. If you're doing a demo, powerpoint, three tall with lines prints from the powerpoint do the trick.

Realize you don't have to tell your audience everything there is to know about the console. Once you learn the concepts, you can apply them to all the features. There's a manual and it's actually pretty good aside from the fact that the index and TOC both suck.

[propmonkey]

i thought about power today, we dont have any thing besides 120 avaible in the space. we have a 220(i think) in our work room. ill have our civic theatre call up grandstage(they didnt seem too nice last time we delt with them). it would be nice to get an intel that day. oh and yes we have the ms trackball. i just briefly read the moving light tutorial the other day during class...sounds simple enough.

[pndoran_LD]

If you are still looking for some intelligent fixtures to play with for your demo/class. I own a shop in waukesha, WI. The DJ Shop, Inc. and im sure we could work out a deal, Just let me know.