Cue lights...?

[Diarmuid]

Has anyone had any experience with using cue lights? Our theatre is now changing the rules so that for the first time, people backstage will be calling the show, and we were wondering if it was worth getting cue lights...
Also, whereabouts could we get them from, or could we even make them?

Thanks in advance for your help and input!

[ship]

Cue lights could be useful for providing cues such as for the Pinrail if they are not on the headsets or others of the crew in remote locations that need a visual Go signal but are not in site of the stage manager. It's also useful in moving a mass of people on stage such as for a chorus of them. The Chicago version of the Rockettes Christmas show in past years has used cue lights for instance no doubt for this purpose.

Such a "go" light could especially be useful for less practiced casts or chorus's who might not know what lines to be listening for or have not been following the show. Short of having a "people mover" having some visual "stop light" off stage would be useful.

As for buying or making them, it's fairly easy to make dependant upon how bright, focused and intense you wish to have. Such things are possibly just as cost effective or required to be bought dependant upon your situation. Most theatrical supply companies worth their salt can probably either make or find a source for such things and there would be a number of options from A-Lamps with shatter proof covers on them to some form of LED system. Otherwise if you have surplus lighting fixtures, one gelled red and another gelled green/blue would be sufficient when installed and focused in an easy to see place to be used as a cue light.

Control of them can either be as a switch at the stage manager's podium, or run by the light board as per a lighting cue.

Possibly good to have one lamp (Red) as "standby", the other (Green) as "Go". There is other options such as leaving the red always on other than when in "go" mode. Could do red/yellow/green also in having both options.

[SketchyCroftPpl]

One possible idea if you are making one is to get a 2 way switch. When the switch is in the center nothing is on, push it up and its ready as ship said, and bring it back down and it sends the power to the green. Make sure you never have two on at the same time at any rate.

I actually have a question though as well. For a Cue light , which I have never heard of before, is it a light that is like somewhere onstage or near the arch and everyone out in the audience can see, including say followspots that can't use a headset, or is it in a location where only people offstage or something can see. It sounds rather usefull however.

~Nick

[ship]

What makes sense to you? Would it be a good idea for someting that the audience can see, or if tasked for the follow spot (not normally a us for such a thing but in going with it) something that instead might be better fitted as per a LED above the fixture so it's only the operator that sees it?

Same with back stage be it mounted in a porthole, or dropped in behind a leg of some sort.

Lots of ways to do it by way of origional theater's Q light system were even if removed, there might be a duplex box with conduit near the fly rail if the theater is old enough and you now know what it's there for, or if it's just some box dropped in just above head height that shows some lamps. Perhaps some reverse focused Lekos etc. Something noted as a cue.

On the two way switch, a on/off/on switch would certainly work for having only one phase of power and rated for the amperage. Not specifically as a threeway switch rated for this purpose, nor would a two phase switch when jumped between phases for dong this. Thus is in part the question of making something that is acceptable within the authority of those that make rules for what your theater can and cannot do, verses that wich even if the same at times is made and more factory in construction.

[SketchyCroftPpl]

I guess that depends on what you need to get done. I know that it doesn't make very much sense to place it where the audience can see it, if its only needed for backstage, but more of the application I was thinking would be like at my school where we have two followspots and not always enough working headsets. Something like a go light like that places in an area where it wasn't very noticable unless looking would be rather nice.

Other than that, I was thinking just a really simple system with a 9v and a switch with a couple wires. Nothing to complicated. The idea was that it could be easily put together for a show (in my mind not much has to be more perminant than a week because thats all our shows ever run for) and then able to be dismantled or changed readily for the next show.

~Nick

[Diarmuid]

Thanks for your help.

Now I just need to go and convince the TD.

[JahJahwarrior]

Now heres a question--a system with a control box that has an on-off-on switch in it and a 9volt battery. One could run that through XLR cable, possibly? I know some people use edison cables and adaptors for their speakers, which is dumb, but this is 9volts, so even if someone plugged a mic into it, well, phantom power is DC, right? if it is, then all you are doing is giving a mic 9 volts of "phantom power." And, if you are using it with LED's, you probably only want about 3 volts, so you'd knock it down...infact you coul djsut use two AA's. Anyways, connect one lead to each "hot" side of the switch, and the third to ground, and there is a 2 light cue light system which can be used through a snake.

It's very possible that it won't work, please tell me though, so I'll know. Otherwise, I might build one. My intercom system doens't work well for some shows, and I'm increasingly finding myself running shows that I do not know at all. A cue light would make it rather simple, and avoid having the director who's sitting in the audience whisper me cues (she tends to not talk nearly loud enough!)

[bdesmond]

XLR and a nine volt battery isn't going to work so well. Remember the cable is a resistor. The very low current from the 9V battery will be 0 at the end of any significant run of microphone cable...

[JahJahwarrior]

ok then we run the entire thing off of phantom power. Through the cable it stays at whatever voltage it comes out of the board as, at the light we knock it down to 3 volts.

[Diarmuid]

I will definetly atttempt to try to set up a cue light system like that, thanks for the advice; to be honest I don't know too much about phantom power so i may well mess it up, but i will at least try.