For high school theatres on a budget, I always caution you to '
phase out' things carefully. When you're talking about such a small budget... more older stuff is often better than less newer stuff. Though not always.
Personally... I'm really excited to see what the price
point turns out to be on the new
ETC Element as far as consoles go. This may well become THE board for high schools and small theatres.
As for your lekos... if the Colortrans are working for the most part (ie. the reflectors aren't burned to the
point of producing really nasty and nearly useless light) then I would start by acquiring source-4s of whichever beamspread and to whatever quantity you need to provide straight in frontlight in roughly 8' areas to your entire
stage. Next I would start in on source-4 pars for overhead use (backlight,toplight, higher angle sidelight.)
Depending on the beamspread of your colortrans... I would use them (until you REALLY have enough newer equipment to never want them again) for
template washes, pipe end sidelight, and color washes on top of the source-4 front light.
Eventually, for a high school
auditorium, without knowing anything about what you actually do there... I would personally aim for a bare minimum of.... Source 4s - enough for straight in front light, pipe end sidelight, and 6 or 8 moveable specials. Source 4 Pars - Enough for solid backlight coverage, plus 8 or 10 for special functions (diagonal back effects... light through set windows...
uplighting on scenery or walls...
etc.) And then (this part will make SOME people
choke....) a healthy quantity of
altman 360Qs (say... 16 of them.) for
template washes. The source-4 optics NEVER make me happy with
gobo washes... they just don't soften the way I want them to, and they don't look clean enough sharp if I want them hard edged either. The
360Q... sometimes with a
donut... has a totally different and often quite pleasant quality for
gobo washes... We've all cursed at the old altmans when we've been working in a
theatre with 30 year old fixtures and they're all sticky and the reflectors are burned... but those reflectors aren't hard to change, the lights are easy to
bench focus, and the light is different and useful. Nobody's SEEN what a 30 year old source-4 looks like yet, have we?
When I get to spec equipment from scratch for a
theatre, I always try to get a mix of s-4s and 360Qs in the inventory. People think I'm crazy... until they've had the pleasure of using the right
fixture for the job without having to compromise on their other fixtures.
Art Whaley
www.artwhaley.com