Leaving Lights Outside?

[SAWYeR]

I came across an interesting thing a few days ago. In my town, we have a thing called "Festival Theatre", which is three plays over three months. All of the lights are ETC Source Fours, PAR 64s, and some Altman 360Qs. All of the lights are hung off of construction scaffolding and are left outside fore three months straight. In fact, as I am writing this, they're out in the rain. Is it okay to leave lights like these out in the open. It is also very, very humid now.

[Ricky Smith]

I believe if the lights are left on at full to burn off the water or rather evaporate the water yes. As for just in the off position I'd assume no.

[Charc]

Wait? They're left outside? As soon as I catch a plane to Chicago, my inventory is getting bigger.

[avkid]

Make certain that all the electrical connections are sealed to be water tight.

[SAWYeR]

Originally Posted by charcoaldabs

Wait? They're left outside? As soon as I catch a plane to Chicago, my inventory is getting bigger.

That's basically what I thought. 15 or so new Source Fours? Why not. As for those connections, does under a plastic tarp count? I'm not actually working the show.

[cue1go]

Those are all pretty hardy lights. Out in the rain I don't know about though. I hope they're tarped over. Ditto on keeping the elec. connections water tight. I know you're not working the show, but watch out for cable wear as a result of the show conditions. I'm not at all worried about the PAR 64s.

[drawstuf99]

I still think that anyway you put it, having theatrical lights outside for three months isn't the best idea w/o protection. I'd be interested in hearing how you could best prep them for lasting...I've seen many shows outside (Disney world...etc.) but their lights are at least always in a covered area. And they've got money.

I saw a Par64 dropped off of a 30 foot genie, crash into the floor and still work. The gel frame slot was a bit bent, but it still works...surprised me the lamp didnt even break.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by drawstuf99

I saw a Par64 dropped off of a 30 foot genie, crash into the floor and still work. The gel frame slot was a bit bent, but it still works...surprised me the lamp didnt even break.

One day, just to test the limits, some of the crew and I decided to try to break a PAR64 MFL lamp by throwing it really hard against a metal surface (with proper eye/ear protection on, of course). As hard as we tried, we found it impossible to break it just by throwing it.

But, on the outside lights question, I've seen a few outdoor theatres that have their lights in boxes with one side open (the sides towards the stage). This keeps them sheltered from the elements, but still allows them to be focused and maintained easily. I think that the backs of the boxes were also doors to make lamp replacements easier. Still, after moisture of any type gets on the fixtures, it's usually good to warm them at 20% for half an hour or so to get all of the water off.

[stantonsound]

This is actually a pretty common practice. I bought a bunch of used fixtures from an outdoor theatre in S. California a few years ago when I was trying to grow my inventory quickly. They do show wear and tear quickly, and there is rust around the edges. I am selling off what is left of these on ebay now, so you can see pic's of them. There is rust on the shutters and at most of the screws/bolts.

[gafftaper]

Yeah I've heard of this sort of thing too. As long as there's a little shelter and some warm up time at low wattage it's usually ok. I would be more worried about security than the instruments themselves. They are pretty hardy.

Do you remember the Super Bowl half time show with Prince in the rain this year? Live Design had a great article about it. It was basically a tech nightmare. They had 66 Martin Atomic strobes that got fried by the rain. But pretty much everything else worked... except for one DMX line that got cut when they brought the stage out on the field. Some poor tech sat in a puddle holding the wires together of the shredded DMX line so that they could run the show.

Let me see... Ok here's the article. It's a fun story.