Hi all,
I'm here with a rather strange request. For background, my university degree is in Theatre Design and Technology with a "focus" in lighting technology (hehe). I have worked at several theaters but have been out of the lighting game for a couple years thanks to the pandemic, and a career change into museums. I am now an exhibit technician at a children's museum (target ages 3 to 10) that has a small theater exhibit inside it.
The lighting components in the exhibit are 10 years old, none of them work correctly, they were not maintained properly, blah blah blah. The cables are all actually XLR cables and there isn't a board, just an architectural dimmer system connected to the various buttons on the "console" that used to allow the children to change the colors of the very basic ADJ LED fixtures. I've been asked to revamp the system, which I have a general plan for -- 4 LED instruments, 2 strips over the stage and 2 non-strips over the house (haven't picked exact instruments yet), each programmed to 3 sliders on a light board for RGB color mixing fun, 1 slider per color per instrument, with an elementary guide to subtractive color mixing to get them started.
Which brings me to my question -- is there a manufactured board that might be durable enough to last while being handled by kids, without breaking the bank? The kids are generally extremely rough on everything. I want to custom build a table to set it in so that only the sliders are accessible to museum guests, but my worry is that any light board I find will not be strong enough to withstand the children. and the sliders will break immediately.
Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts/unforeseen problems would be welcome. Thank you!!!
I'm here with a rather strange request. For background, my university degree is in Theatre Design and Technology with a "focus" in lighting technology (hehe). I have worked at several theaters but have been out of the lighting game for a couple years thanks to the pandemic, and a career change into museums. I am now an exhibit technician at a children's museum (target ages 3 to 10) that has a small theater exhibit inside it.
The lighting components in the exhibit are 10 years old, none of them work correctly, they were not maintained properly, blah blah blah. The cables are all actually XLR cables and there isn't a board, just an architectural dimmer system connected to the various buttons on the "console" that used to allow the children to change the colors of the very basic ADJ LED fixtures. I've been asked to revamp the system, which I have a general plan for -- 4 LED instruments, 2 strips over the stage and 2 non-strips over the house (haven't picked exact instruments yet), each programmed to 3 sliders on a light board for RGB color mixing fun, 1 slider per color per instrument, with an elementary guide to subtractive color mixing to get them started.
Which brings me to my question -- is there a manufactured board that might be durable enough to last while being handled by kids, without breaking the bank? The kids are generally extremely rough on everything. I want to custom build a table to set it in so that only the sliders are accessible to museum guests, but my worry is that any light board I find will not be strong enough to withstand the children. and the sliders will break immediately.
Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts/unforeseen problems would be welcome. Thank you!!!