New School

[Tex]

I am very fortunate to be opening a new high school next year. Here's a sneak peek:



I'll get more details over the next week. One of our amazing ETC reps gave me a few:

• 5 SR48+ Racks (Three for the auditorium, Two split for blackbox and classroom)
• Paradigm Architectural Control
• Lots of Distro Strips and Boxes
• Eos console for Auditorium
• Ion console for Black Box
• Smartfade 24/96 for Classroom
• Full Ethernet Backbone in Auditorium, Blackbox, and Classroom
• Gateways for DMX in/out

More to come. This is going to be FUN!

[Edrick]

Is this a college?

[Tex]

High school.

[avkid]

What's the seating cap?

[Tex]

Supposed to be1000. 500 seats in the lower section and another 500 in the upper. It'll be nice to be able to close the upper section for smaller events.

[Clarkwg3]

I have an Ion 1K on Net3 for Main Theater, Strand 300 Light palette(old mainn theater board, and an upgrade at that) on DMX partition. At C.U.E. in Madison, WI last summer the opening workshops were programming classes. My director wasn't able to get on an Ion, so he had to use on Eos. He said enough of the commands, directions and where's that is different enough to make things difficult.

I amwondering why did you decide to go with two different consoles? I do like the smart fade for classroom, easy and simple.

FYI: Assign your console partitions to limit which dimmers they speak to. I find it very helpful to be able to talk to all 192 every now and again, but not so helpful when someone pushes buttons trying to be funny.

I'm betting your getting a Unison Architectural Control as well. USE IT!!! not just for button, fader stations, take advantage of the 'timed events' feature. Something as simple as having an event to turn all of my 192 dimmers off at 11:59p and again @ 1a has saved my rear a several times.

[Tex]

As is usually the case, this project started several years ago without me. A consultant made those decisions with district officials. If they want me to have an EOS, who am I to argue? :-)


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[Edrick]

High school wowza is it one of those artistic ones or a regular public school?

[Tex]

Public school, but very supportive of the arts! All three high schools have great facilities.

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[Clarkwg3]

If they want me to have an EOS, who am I to argue? :-)

Suspose I'd take an Eos over the Strand. I'm not real happy the people involved decided to save $12000 on another Ion or even an Element, by reusing a totally different brand, syntax console.

[chausman]

And I was happy we could rent an Express 48/96 for three days...

[Tex]

I'm betting your getting a Unison Architectural Control as well.

Well it's one of the new variants of Unison. It's the Paradigm system. I've checked out the Control Designer software and it's very cool!

[Tex]

More pictures:

The pit.


Motors


Catwalks


Seats going in.


Center cluster.


Waiting for the toys...


Half of the shop.


The other half.

I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with the subcontractors to find out exactly what's coming.

[gafftapegreenia]

Open grating catwalk

[Tex]

Yeah, I have floor mats on the startup list. It's a bit of a pain, but not a terrible place to cut costs.




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[Clarkwg3]

Whose coffee on the Winch Control Box? A big no, no in my theater.

[Tex]

You understand this is a construction site, right?

[Clarkwg3]

Construction site makes equipment more susceptible to damage. Especially from liquids.

[MPowers]

I get it, your first show is R&J and the stairs in your first pic are up to the balcony, right?!!? :-)

I see you have Texas Scenic doing the winches, good bunch of guys, you can't go wrong there!

[Les]

Construction site makes equipment more susceptible to damage. Especially from liquids.

True, but enforcing a no food or drink rule is pretty much impossible in a construction site where the contractor is still in control of the premises.

Nice space there, Tex! Love the stadium seating!

[Tex]

Texas Scenic is awesome! They're a huge supporter of TETA and worked with ETC and others to furnish a very impressive LED rig for our stage. I'm still waiting to find out who's doing the lighting install and get an equipment list. If the recent upgrades at a sister school are any indication, there will be Seladors for cyc and wash. Whoever they are, the put constant power in the floor pockets, so I like them already. :-)
Les, your comps will be waiting for opening night of the first show! I'd love to give you, Chris and Elisha the grand tour. What I love about the seating is the ability to open and close sections based on the size of the audience. I also like the location of the booth. I haven't found the elevation showing the finished booth yet though. Hope they don't make it soundproof... :-)

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[Les]

I love the booth location! That'll really help aid in communication during tech, and if the LD is also the board op (as I often was in high school and am to this day), seeing the lighting from the audience's perspective during tech will be a huge advantage. Loving the levels also -- my high school had a mid-house drape, but this is much neater and easier to regulate.

I'd love for us all to get together sometime! Hopefully we can all meet on the same day! I haven't gotten to talk to Chris and Eleshia in quite some time. Great people, they are. If I had any teaching credentials, I'd definitely be knocking on your district's door about a TD position!

And thank you for the offer! I'd love to.

[Chris15]

Construction site makes equipment more susceptible to damage. Especially from liquids.

Construction site also means contractor has not handed over.
So any damages are their problem to fix not the client.
So why should we care?

[teqniqal]

The catwalk picture clearly shows no kick-plates (toe boards) on the edges. This is clearly an OSHA violation. OSHA doesn't apply to public schools in Texas, but it does apply to the construction site, therefore, they should fix it now and you reap the benefit later. The benefit being no student or teacher slipping and falling under the railing.

You should inquire upstream through the proper channels to see what it will take to get the kick plates installed. This missing equipment exposes the Architect and his design team to the liability should someone slip and fall under the railing. I would think they would want to get it fixed. It never ceases to amaze me the number of simple items like this I find in brand new construction.

[Tex]

I was looking at the drawings yesterday and kick-plates are clearly indicated there. I've only been up there once, so I'll go take another look. If they're not there, they will be.

Edit: I took a look at the original picture that I took which is larger and higher res than the one I posted. There does appear to be a kick-plate that is part of the structure in which the grating sits. Whether it's high enough is another matter...

[museav]

Construction site also means contractor has not handed over.

This is an issue I often encounter, until it is handed over and your accept it then you are pretty much liumited to whatever conditions were agreed to when everything was contracted.

A similar issues applies to requests, direction, etc. to the contractors, it's great for them to work with you but typically they are not working directly for you so both you and they need to be careful about anything that may be beyond or deviating from what has been contracted. I had one contractor that had to redo several days worth of work on a project because they did what the techs on site asked and when they submitted for payment the people paying for the work identified that what was done was not what was contracted or a change that had been properly authorized and directed the Contractor to redo everything to be as contracted before they would pay them. And that is actually the way it is supposed to be. I've seen many Contractors lose much of their profit on a project, and a few go out of business, due to similar situations where they tried to be responsive to the end users but did so without first getting the existing Contract properly altered to accommodate the changes.

If that sound ridiculaous, I was involved in one project where well over $100,000 worth of payment to the AV Contractor was witheld because there were two patch cords missing that an end user admitted having taken before everything was inventoried. That did not matter to the Owner's purchasing representatives, they would not release that payment until they could physically verify that the contracted number of cords was provided.

[Edrick]

Which is exactly why the world we live in is BS. Not so much it's because it's that way but it's because it has to be because of jerks who either swindle or scam or parties who like to screw others over.

[museav]

Which is exactly why the world we live in is BS. Not so much it's because it's that way but it's because it has to be because of jerks who either swindle or scam or parties who like to screw others over.

While I agree with the sentiment, I don't think it actually applies in this case as it would really be a mess if you had multiple parties with authority to provide direction to the same parties, claim ownership of the same work, etc. In my experience it is the aspects such as the various relationships and the construction processes and documents such as RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, Change Orders, Addenda, Payment Applications and so on where many of the struggles and problems occur for people that may be technically competent but that are not familiar with design and construction processes in general or with those specifically defined for that project.

[Edrick]

While I agree with the sentiment, I don't think it actually applies in this case as it would really be a mess if you had multiple parties with authority to provide direction to the same parties, claim ownership of the same work, etc. In my experience it is the aspects such as the various relationships and the construction processes and documents such as RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, Change Orders, Addenda, Payment Applications and so on where many of the struggles and problems occur for people that may be technically competent but that are not familiar with design and construction processes in general or with those specifically defined for that project.

I understand there's reasons behind it I started my degree in construction management before switching. But there's a lot of stuff that's done to lowest bidder then they make their money on change orders and a lot of time the lowest bidder does nothing but make a mess. I was just saying its unfortunate that there's so much of a hassle to fix things but it has to be that way.

[zmb]

Construction site also means contractor has not handed over.

My occupied and finished school building is under control of the contractor for a year after construction, push pins into the drywall is a big no-no still, but tackboards can easily be requested.

[Tex]

Closer to done...
Should be able to install consoles in a week or two. It's like I'm 6 years old and waiting for Christmas!

[chausman]

Closer to done...
Should be able to install consoles in a week or two. It's like I'm 6 years old and waiting for Christmas!

I feel the same way (although, not quite as much). We just got our new Element yesterday, and now get to spend finals period getting everything set up, while everyone else paints the stage! We've been waiting for several weeks for ASB to approve it.

Anyway... Congrats again! What MHs are those hanging?

[Tex]

Those are HES Studio Spots and Studio Colors. I don't know why those were specified by the consultant. Even though they're tough as nails and I'm very familiar with them, they probably wouldn't be my first choice at this point in time, but I'll take 'em!

[marmer]

Well it's one of the new variants of Unison. It's the Paradigm system. I've checked out the Control Designer software and it's very cool!

Yes. In an institutional setting Unison can do a lot of great things for you. We run a lot of concerts just with Unison presets and it's also easy to allow the "civilians" to turn on work lights for rehearsals.

And I second all the nice things everyone is saying about Texas Scenic.

[Tex]

Architectural systems are great, but for concerts or rehearsals I prefer to have students run the console. Those simple events are a great first opportunity for young students to get a crack at running the console (with a more experienced student looking over their shoulder).

[marmer]

Architectural systems are great, but for concerts or rehearsals I prefer to have students run the console. Those simple events are a great first opportunity for young students to get a crack at running the console (with a more experienced student looking over their shoulder).

I agree with that, but as it works out in our situation (no real student techs) the Unison is a very good solution for a lot of things.

[Tex]

The lighting systems are in and working. Rigging control and the Diva shell have been assembled. It's starting to look like a theatre. I have a key.
AV is a little behind them because they're installing every system in the building and there are many. The FAC system will likely be the most complicated and the last one finished. Pit filler won't be installed until just before school starts. My shop tools have started to arrive and my shop is still full of furniture and construction materials. Here are some (pretty crappy) pictures. I'll post some better quality pictures someday...

From the second mezz.

An outdoor amphitheater in the courtyard between the FAC entrance and the Gym entrance. Screams for a Greek play, right?

Fluorescent works on the electrics.

Large storage under the FAC seating. Probably furniture, flats and platforms.

The lobby. Theatre entrance and restrooms. There will be flat screen monitors on either side of the center arch.

Cleaning the seats.

Texas Scenic installing control and programming.

Roll tops. There's an M7CL-48 in the desk on the right.

This looks like an emergency power system. Anybody have details? (Edit: Should have Googled first. It's a Myers Illuminator CIII, a 3-phase emergency power inverter.)

[DuckJordan]

Let me know how the M7 works out for you, we're getting one in our main stage space to replace an 02R

[chausman]

Can I come to DFW?

[Tex]

Chase, I would LOVE to have you in my program! I've been doing this for a long time, and I haven't run across very many kids your age with the knowledge and passion to learn that you have. I have no doubt that if you were here, you would have already read all the manuals and be teaching me stuff!

Will do, Duck. I just want to hear the system at this point, but looking at the amount of work left to be done it may be another week. Just from reading, I think the M7 may be a great board in a high school setting. It appears to have enough analog-type features to make it fairly simple to run a quick assembly and the right digital features to make running the musical less stressful. Can't wait to play with it.