Hi everyone, de-lurking after browsing these forums for the past few years. I'm the Drama Technician at my secondary school (Form 7 to 13, international school in Hong Kong, IB curriculum) and I've been asked to submit a budget for gradual upgrades and wishlist items for the next thee years. I was hoping I could get some recommendations of what to include in our budget proposal.
Our conventional lighting grid is 3.5m off the floor, so depending on the size of which lanterns I use, the angles aren't always ideal. We have a 220-240V power system, and due to Hong Kong's history, we use the UK-style round 3-pin 15A plugs for theatre lighting. It's essentially 10 powered lighting bars, with on average 8-10 sockets each, with cross bars mounted to them to create the grid.
Our current lighting stock consists of:
Source Four jr. Zoom 25º-50 - 7pcs
Source Four PARNel - 24pcs
Source Four Zoom 25°-50° - 6pcs
Source Four Zoom 15°-30° - 2pcs
Source Four 19° - 2pcs
Selecon SF1200 Fresnel - 20pcs
Pacific Zoomspot ERS - 3pcs (1 extra that needs a new zoom tube)
Teatro Comma F / PCs (500/650W), 10pcs mix of the fresnels and PCs. (I use 4 of the Comma Fs as 'floor' lighting on floor stands, they are pretty extensively used by our students (and visiting artists and teachers too).
Our black box drama studio is also our primary teaching space for all drama classes and recently it's where we've decided to almost exclusively do our productions so that other members of our school community use out auditorium. All of our lighting stock was purchased before my arrival by either of my two predecessors. Currently we have 96 sockets up in the grid, and 48 sockets on floor-level spread across 8 patch boxes around the walls of the black box. It's all run by an ETC Express 72/144 and powered by 3x Sensor Classic dimmer racks up in the 'sound room', but I have the lighting board on the floor in the black box itself because it's used daily in classes.
I've found that the SF1200s are just too big and overpowered considering their suspended only 3.5m off the floor... even worse if we build up different acting areas using Q-Build stage frames. These should really be in our Auditorium with it's traditional proscenium and high lighting bars. I was considering purchasing several of the DTS Scena 300/500 MK2 FR Fresnel which are basically a match for the Teatro Comma Fs, so that we mainly use for washes and soft edge lighting.
I'm also building up by ordering a couple more S4 jr Zooms... apparently our original spec sheet says that we were going to have 20, no idea why we don't have any at all (i've scoured every gym, the auditorium, under the stage, in every storage closet in the last 8 years to find any of the missing fixtures), as these are pretty much the correct size for when we need spots, hard edges, 'specials' etc.
In this year's current budget I am purchasing an Ion Xe 20 with one usb 40 fader wing, with 2 monitors. We want to buy some LED fixtures next year, and I'm think that we'll start with a few colour wash units. I'm thinking of putting in the budget the retrofit upgrade to the Sensor 3, put in for 10 ThruPower modules so that I can change one socket on each main part of the grid to hard power for future LED fixtures, a DMX splitter to have signalling up on the grid level...
Any suggestions on perhaps a better small fresnel (i.e. ease of use, parts, maintenance...), or even what else I should flesh out my fixture stock with? Suggestions on ways to work with the lower height and still get good lighting in defined areas without too much spill or the dips when the lights don't quite cross enough as an actor moves.
Thanks in advance!
Jaime
Our conventional lighting grid is 3.5m off the floor, so depending on the size of which lanterns I use, the angles aren't always ideal. We have a 220-240V power system, and due to Hong Kong's history, we use the UK-style round 3-pin 15A plugs for theatre lighting. It's essentially 10 powered lighting bars, with on average 8-10 sockets each, with cross bars mounted to them to create the grid.
Our current lighting stock consists of:
Source Four jr. Zoom 25º-50 - 7pcs
Source Four PARNel - 24pcs
Source Four Zoom 25°-50° - 6pcs
Source Four Zoom 15°-30° - 2pcs
Source Four 19° - 2pcs
Selecon SF1200 Fresnel - 20pcs
Pacific Zoomspot ERS - 3pcs (1 extra that needs a new zoom tube)
Teatro Comma F / PCs (500/650W), 10pcs mix of the fresnels and PCs. (I use 4 of the Comma Fs as 'floor' lighting on floor stands, they are pretty extensively used by our students (and visiting artists and teachers too).
Our black box drama studio is also our primary teaching space for all drama classes and recently it's where we've decided to almost exclusively do our productions so that other members of our school community use out auditorium. All of our lighting stock was purchased before my arrival by either of my two predecessors. Currently we have 96 sockets up in the grid, and 48 sockets on floor-level spread across 8 patch boxes around the walls of the black box. It's all run by an ETC Express 72/144 and powered by 3x Sensor Classic dimmer racks up in the 'sound room', but I have the lighting board on the floor in the black box itself because it's used daily in classes.
I've found that the SF1200s are just too big and overpowered considering their suspended only 3.5m off the floor... even worse if we build up different acting areas using Q-Build stage frames. These should really be in our Auditorium with it's traditional proscenium and high lighting bars. I was considering purchasing several of the DTS Scena 300/500 MK2 FR Fresnel which are basically a match for the Teatro Comma Fs, so that we mainly use for washes and soft edge lighting.
I'm also building up by ordering a couple more S4 jr Zooms... apparently our original spec sheet says that we were going to have 20, no idea why we don't have any at all (i've scoured every gym, the auditorium, under the stage, in every storage closet in the last 8 years to find any of the missing fixtures), as these are pretty much the correct size for when we need spots, hard edges, 'specials' etc.
In this year's current budget I am purchasing an Ion Xe 20 with one usb 40 fader wing, with 2 monitors. We want to buy some LED fixtures next year, and I'm think that we'll start with a few colour wash units. I'm thinking of putting in the budget the retrofit upgrade to the Sensor 3, put in for 10 ThruPower modules so that I can change one socket on each main part of the grid to hard power for future LED fixtures, a DMX splitter to have signalling up on the grid level...
Any suggestions on perhaps a better small fresnel (i.e. ease of use, parts, maintenance...), or even what else I should flesh out my fixture stock with? Suggestions on ways to work with the lower height and still get good lighting in defined areas without too much spill or the dips when the lights don't quite cross enough as an actor moves.
Thanks in advance!
Jaime