Lions, Tigers, I-Cues, oh my!

[Charc]

Okay excuse the title, I'm trying to keep it light heartened here at CB.

Anyways onto the subject. I have searched, and I know that I-Cues have been pretty extensively covered here before, but I hope you don't mind answering some specific questions.

Well last time I posted (almost this exact same story) this story, someone got jealous, so be forewarned.

I walked into Theatre storage (also his office) to have a chat with the maintenance guy who does a lot of our tech. stuff. All of a sudden, in the middle of the conversation, I have to yell out "WHAT?!", noting (yet another) piece of unused Rosco equipment. Well, being unused, and it moves (unlike my old fleet of lights), I (of course) want to get this thing hooked up and working with it in no time. I find myself at almost a complete loss of how to do this. In fact, I am really frustrated. So from my understanding, you have to connect dmx in a "line" by which I mean. If I want to connect my I-Cue to the board, I'd have to re-route the cable (snaked through the building, two stories down, and 150 feet forward, to the I-Cue, then back down? Is there really no viable way to make this work? Further more, I don't think there are any DMX ports or anything up in the cats (so at this point I'm so disappointed) realizing I'll never get this thing hooked up. To add insult to injury, I notice it has 4 pin XLR connector! Four pins?! My god, I've never seen more then 3 (in person). So now I'm thinking, great another challenge for me. So next I think, hypothetically, once this guy is hooked up, what I'll first do with it. Then I realize I know nothing about working with anything intelligent (strand 300 series). Well, now I've reached a sort of work around. Well during this conversation the maintenance guy pulls out... an intelligent fixture board?!?!?!?! My god, what does no one tell me this exists! (On a tangent, no one told me there was a fridge in technical storage! I honestly believed for 2 months that when my SM and director had ice cold pepsis at every rehearsal, they got them from some sort of iceless cooler!) So now my current thought is have a second board operator in the cats, whose only job is to re position the mirror on the I-Cue. So two separate cue lists. Great! Now this is confusing, but it could work. Then I hit my next hurdle! What on earth am I supposed to use with this instrument? I think our narrowest instrument is 19 degrees. We have a lot of 20 degrees instruments too ( a lot older). I figured I should only really use the 19º S4s with the I-Cue. But the throws I was originally thinking of would have been so impractical! I'm at a loss of what to do with my new (not so) toy. (By the way, is this made for complete straight down light?)
Thanks for another question, Charlie

[soundlight]

That's what I call an amazing day. What kind of intelligent fixture board is it??? Anyshways, my favorite position for our I-Cues is in the center of the proscenium pipe or first electric so that they can hit positions from out on the apron all the way upstage to the cyc. You point the fixture so that it would hit about a dozen rows in to the audience, and pop that I-Cue on. Then you can hit just about anywhere on stage! I generally don't use them for frontlight, but rather as a downlight special. Now, if your moving light board has MIDI, you might be able to trigger it from your Strand 300!!

[Charc]

I've been told it's "bad". I didn't get a chance to get the name / model number of it. I'll try and get it tomorrow.

[beltsvillecrucib]

A few things Charlie,

I believe the I-Cue's need a power supply. If you don't already have one (which I would imagine you do considering you have the I-Cue itself) you should be able to get one for not too much money from a rental house or used lighting website.

DMX: DMX will go to the power supply unit and from there 4 Pin XLR (scroller type) will run to the I-Cue providing it power and data. I'm guessing the hardwired DMX in the building runs to the dimmers/dimmer room. You oughta be able to daisy chain from the dimmers to the power supply. There should be a port on the Dimmer rack that says DMX Out. Take a DMX line from this and run it up into the catwalk/first electric/wherever the I-cue and PSU will be. This will probably be your most low cost option.

The other option is that since the strand 300 series comes standard with 2 DMX universes (I believe?), so long as your dimmers run from one universe, you could take a line from the other and run that up to the catwalk. In most places however, the run from dimmers to cat is often shorter. A third option if both DMX universes are utilized, you could use an opto-splitter on one and run the line up to the catwalk.

[Charc]

I'll definitely have to look into that two universes! That is a great tip. It looks like either way, I'll end up with DMX running through the house. My dimmer racks are in the basement. I'm hoping they were smart enough to run a dmx line to the cats, but I've so far seen none. If I were to run a dmx line out from the dimmers, I'd have to leave the electrical room, down the hall up stairs, into the lobby, then up more stairs. Across an addition, 100 feet through the house, along the ladder, along the house right cats, through to the main cats, and forward to the forward most slot... Shoot.

[gafftaper]

So far a lot of good advice.

The power supplies cost a little over $100 if I remember right... hopefully you have one. Mine looked a lot like the one for my laptop with a DMX line hanging out of it. If I remember right you run 5 pin DMX to the power supply (2 of which aren't acutally used) and then it adds power in along with the 3 useful lines for a total of 4 lines (yeah I know makes lots of sense).

Besides searching your catwalks and electrics, I would also search your walls on stage for a 5 pin DMX line. It's not THAT uncommon to have a line there for the LD to plug the console in for focusing.

One more complication. If your DMX run is REALLY long you run the risk of needing an amplifier in the line. These of course are very expensive (probably $400+). The good news is you can get an amplifier that splits the line into multiple outputs so you can run to a box near the stage and then split to separate lines to your house and stage positions.

There was a thread not too long ago about using Ethernet cable to make your own DMX lines and save a lot of money. Do a search. I think it was on the question of the day board.

Oh yeah and I haven't used one but I've heard that the Strand 300 isn't a bad console at all for basic intelligent gear... which is exactly what you have.

[jmabray]

You are correct. One DMX universe runs over three wires. Data +, Data - and Common. The powersupply will usually put 24 - 48vdc on the 4th wire, and will use the same common as reference.

The original spec of DMX called for 5 wires to be able to run a second universe down the same wire. It has since been co-opted for various things, none of which are part of the spec of DMX.

The only time he might need an amplifier is if he gets over 1600 feet and/or 32 devices plugged into the line.

[zac850]

As was said, you need a power-supply for your iCue. Also, what 'moving light' board did you find? Theres no reason you couldn't run the iCue off a 300 if you felt light it. I've never used one, but if the console has no encoders just program 2 submasters, one for pan and one for tilt, and use those. Better then hauling up a console and board op just to reposition the mirror for one iCue.

About the iCue its self. It is a re-positionable special, and thats about it. Depending on your grid height, I'd throw it in a fixture to give me about a 7 foot beam diameter, so, again, it could just be a re-positionable special. It won't make anything change colors, drop in gobos, or do any of the other 'flash and trash' that it sounds like your itching to get your hands on.

However, as always, where you put it and what you do with it relies greatly on the show. I mean, you could drop a gobo in the Source4 and run a gobo around the stage if you felt like it.

Also, the bracket for the iCue is a 6.25" for a Source4, I'm not sure what other fixtures you have, or what there gel frame size is, but gut feeling says you'd have to rig something up if you wanted to put them into your older 20' fixtures.

[gafftaper]

I ran my I-cues on an Express. It's a bit of a mental exercise to set up but nothing difficult. From what I've heard the 300 is a little easier to set up.

[jonhirsh]

Ok dumb sugestion, but you might want to take the icue down to where your DMX line is alredy to test it. insted of running all that cable to find out it doesnt work or you dont have a power supply.

Just a though.
JH