Booth Lighting

[abeness]

Hi, folks. I'm planning to install glass color filters on our booth LV halogen lighting, but before I go permanent I thought I'd ask here if anyone has a preference for the color of booth background lighting. We're using a couple of jury-rigged layers of 201 CTB gel now, but I'd be happy to try something other than blue before going permanent.

The goal is low booth lighting during performance, but minimal visibility to audience (though all seats face away from the booth). Room walls are gray or off-white. ELV dimmers soon to be installed will hopefully allow us to vary intensity without buzzing, and we don't need to achieve high intensity because we also have fluorescent work lighting for non-performance periods.

Thanks for any color filter suggestions.

Abe

 

[microstar]

I would go with LED replacement lamps, gel to suitable brightness level, and forget the dimmer.
Way less heat and the gel would last forever.

 

[Amiers]

Tbh I don't even have a light on in my booth. The monitors give enough light just by themselves. I have lights but the are on switches and maybe get turned on once a week. If I had it my way I would go led too.

 

[Ric]

We have a number of over head halogen spots on track light. You can buy (at least here at the local hardware)off the shelf blue dichroic halogen lamps to suit, which we have done.
For booth lighting we find these small spots pointed at the key places we need work light, works best. i.e. pointed at places for scripts or running orders.
Most desks have their own work lights, or lit up screens with enough glow to make any other light unneccessary.
We also often have standard edison screw desk lights, with a blue lamp installed (40 watt party festoon lamps work fine), on the desks for people to use.

TL,DR; less over head light, small portable/adjustable light focused to where it will be used, is more beneficial in a booth.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Our basic design includes small par heads in track, usually right over edge of counter, on either an auto transformer or a basic dimmer - Sensor or A21.

 

[kevlar557]

For our control rooms, we have dimmable LED track-light fixtures. The fixtures have different lens degree options, plus frosted/clear options. And they make it pretty easy to sandwich a gel in there too.

 

[WooferHound]

I wouldn't use a saturated color. Your eyes will try to correct for it and will affect how you perceive the color onstage.

 

[TheSwami]

In show conditions, we go without overhead lighting, just Littlites for the LX op, sound op, and Stage Manager.

We have some dichro-blue halogens, like Ric mentioned, on tracklights overhead. We leave these on during tech (there's often someone pulling gel/templates/lamps from storage in the booth). We also leave them on from when the house opens till the places call, so that the board ops and stage manager can move around the booth without having to leave the worklights on.

For general worklight, overhead T5 Fluorescents. We haven't replaced the tube in those in a long time.

Side story: this winter we're presenting a (remount of a) piece in which the stage manager is briefly illuminated, as part of the storytelling. We rigged a couple spare T-5 fluorescent fixtures just above and inside the window to the booth, to illuminate the stage manager. We originally hung them four years ago, but they've proved so useful in providing a worklight for that counterspace that we've left them up ever since. Good worklight is good worklight.

 

[np18358]

I know that in my jurisdiction, the fire marshall has an issue with any lights that aren't clearly theatrical being gelled. It was especially an issue when someone gelled a fluorescent with two sheets of L181. Usually we are able to convince him that it isn't a fire hazard and that there is a need for dark colored worklight backstage, but we are now going through the process of replacing all of our run lights with dark blue/UV lamps. I prefer the UV because it makes some white papers glow, so it is easier to read, and highlighting anything looks cool. UMMV.

 

[BobHealey]

Would you fire marshall have problems with a product designed to gel florescents? Since Rosco actually makes colored sleeves (http://rosco.com/filters/roscosleeves.cfm), that might be an acceptable solution for him.

 

[venuetech]

The various task lighting solutions by littllite can come in handy.

 

[techieman33]

Our booths are are in coves in the house, one HL, and one HR, so my work light is the house lights (we have 22 channels of house lights so it's pretty easy to just leave the lights on over the booth area so we don't have to run full house lighting all the time) For a show I just use the littlelite(s) over my console. If I have a lot of cue sheets I'll occasionally use a desk lamp with a 15w lamp in it.

We have some dichro-blue halogens, like Ric mentioned, on tracklights overhead. We leave these on during tech (there's often someone pulling gel/templates/lamps from storage in the booth). We also leave them on from when the house opens till the places call, so that the board ops and stage manager can move around the booth without having to leave the worklights on.

That would drive me insane, I couldn't imagine trying to pull or sort gel with a blue or any other colored light being my only source of light.

 

[abeness]

Thanks for all the great input, folks. We've got task lights, too, on our lighting and sound consoles, as well as desk lights, but ambient booth light is still useful. Blue halogens are certainly available at reasonable cost. There seem also to be clip-on blue lenses for MR16. LEDs are of course an attractive option especially given inadequate cooling in the booth. I did visit a local LSI dealer and settled on their Sky Blue dichroic lens as being a decent color, but am waiting for a quote. So nice to be able to consider various options. Thanks again.

 

[TheSwami]

... That would drive me insane, I couldn't imagine trying to pull or sort gel with a blue or any other colored light being my only source of light.

It's not so bad: All the show gel (i.e. gel of colors currently in the show) is in labelled folders, all cuts are labelled with their color. We don't really have to pull/sort anything by color alone.

We do have the bulk of gel storage (cuts and sheets) and the paper cutter in a separate room, unconnected to the stage, that we can leave nice bright worklights on in, in case we're making new cuts during tech.

 

[JerseyMatt]

I prefer the UV because it makes some white papers glow, so it is easier to read, and highlighting anything looks cool. UMMV.

I discovered this as well. I started using a clamp-on worklight with a UV CFL in it. I highlight cues on my script in different colors (yellow, orange, and green show up best), which makes it very hard to miss anything. You can do awesome things with glow tape under UV too..

 

[Roddy Armory Theatre]

Greetings! I cannot figure out the best way to light our booth during performances. I used to use an LED strip, but it fell off of the ceiling. I need enough light for the light board op, sound board op, and stage manager to see with, but not enough to where the audience can see any glare. Here is a photo of the booth so anyone interested can see what I mean:

 

[Evans Poulos]

I hung a pair of blue led a19 lamps with those cheapo aluminum bowl shades from the ceiling. One over each board. I actually need to lower them a bit more now that I think about it...

 

[RonHebbard]

Greetings! I cannot figure out the best way to light our booth during performances. I used to use an LED strip, but it fell off of the ceiling. I need enough light for the light board op, sound board op, and stage manager to see with, but not enough to where the audience can see any glare. Here is a photo of the booth so anyone interested can see what I mean:View attachment 14444

Hello @RoddyArmoryTheatre, I know I've posted several times about the use of individual PAR20 fixtures equipped with four-way doors and individual dimmers for this application but I'm not computer literate enough to know how to direct you to my previous posts. Possibly this will give you enough to search out what was a fairly lengthy series of posts on the subject.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[derekleffew]

Sprinkle http://www.littlite.com/ liberally throughout the space.

If budget is a concern, a USB gooseneck lamp https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002WI8GG8/?tag=controlbooth-20
plus a power supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TUF0AEW/?tag=controlbooth-20
plus a weighted base extension https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001K9BFB8/?tag=controlbooth-20
creates an affordable alternative.

 

[thatactorguy]

Man, I wish our booth were half the size of yours! If it were, judging by your photo, it would be twice the size it is now

To your question, though- our booth is lined with white panels such as one might find on the ceiling. I took a couple of standard clip lights with a blue 25W A19 lamp and screwed the clip end (it had a convenient mounting hole already in it) to the panel. Then I bent the gooseneck so the head of the clip light is as close to the panel as it will go (roughly a half inch away). The ambient light is more than ample for the operators to see what they're doing, and the light can easily be switched off to see the stage during scene changes.