Abandoned Light Booth

[soundoff]

The drama teacher at my HS is much more interested in acting than tech. Last year for our musical we hired out to have a technical director. While he was setting the lights, he "temporarily" moved our ETC 24/48 to the FOH position next to the sound board on the worlds crappyest table where it has sat since then. To facilitate this change ( i was just told to make it work) i attached a DMX extension to the control cable and threw it out the window. i then routed it across the catwalk and down to the mix position. It looked terrible! then the TD decided to run lights from this position for the duration of the show. so now the light board is in the back of the house with the sound guys. then he wanted the clear com head end down by the lights. all the CC jacks terminate in the booth, so more ghetto extensions being run out the window and across the catwalk to the already crowded sound mix position. now we have the majority of the tech crew taking up almost the whole back row of seats in our tiny theatre, calling cues, and ect.
The booth has remote controls for house lights and other permanant lighting elements (curtain lights and flourecents) as well as the CC jacks, and DMX termination. Now that the tech director hired for the musical is gone, our drama teacher insists that the setup must stay the way he left it. She wants this mess to become permanent. In the mean time she has allowed the english dept. to take over the light booth and fill it with file cabinets and papers.Is it a good idea to permenantly move the light board position to the back of the theatre, and abandon a room that was built for this purpose?

-Max

 

[Les]

You might look in to whether or not those cables are up to code, being rigged the way they are. If not, you're in business! they will either need to get the cables properly routed through conduit or put the board back where it belongs!

 

[Footer]

Speaking as a former Performing Arts High School Technical Director.... Leave it down there. The reason she wants it down there is so she has more control over you during the tech process. Its much easier to keep your eyes on everyone when everyone is in one place. I made the mistake against my better judgment to allow 2 of my lighting students to program the lighting console from the balcony of our black box for one show. After the first day of tech the console was moved down to the house with me. At opening the console went back upstairs. Leave it in the house and stop arguing about it. If she wants it left that way, it should be left that way. Its her job to make sure everyone is accounted for and everyone is doing what they need to be doing. Keeping control of 40 High School students while trying to put up a production at the same time is a hard enough task as is. Don't push it.

 

[soundoff]

Hey thats a good idea! Im 100% sure they are not up to code, especially since it was meant to be run this way for a few days then put back. on the other hand, the school really doesn't care about the code (unforunatley) we have many open splices, im hard pressed to find an extension cord with a ground pin still intact. we have a massive pull box with no cover that feed the elecs. Outlets with no covers, and light switches that have been smashed off the wall but still need to be used to energize work lights and constant circuits. All our instruments have asbestos wires, and are Electro Controls or Century from early 70's. (newest instruments are a few S4's) Sadly, I don't think anyone will care if the job is not up to code. they mostly operate on the "make it work" principle at my HS.

-Max

 

[soundoff]

Footer,

I agree with you, but the the booth was the only place where the lights were run for 38 years. It was just last year that the man she hired put the board down by the sound guys so he didn't have to run up 2 flights of stairs and walk thru a boiler room to get to the light booth (it wasn't even her decision, he just moved it without asking her) Frankly, we goof around more when we are all next to each other. We have a tight bond at my school and the reason we are on tech is because she trusts us it is by audition only. She also trusts us with her keys and to be in the theatre when she is not. And finally im only arguing her judgment because she told ME to "figure it out" how the wiring will be set up to permenantly leave the board down by sound, and i want to do a decent job. but i think there is no way to do this up to code and still spend ziltch. Plus she wants to totally abandon the booth, and NEVER use it again. her exact words.

-Max

 

[Footer]

Footer,

I agree with you, but the the booth was the only place where the lights were run for 38 years. It was just last year that the man she hired put the board down by the sound guys so he didn't have to run up 2 flights of stairs and walk thru a boiler room to get to the light booth (it wasn't even her decision, he just moved it without asking her) Frankly, we goof around more when we are all next to each other. We have a tight bond at my school and the reason we are on tech is because she trusts us it is by audition only. She also trusts us with her keys and to be in the theatre when she is not. And finally im only arguing her judgment because she told ME to "figure it out" how the wiring will be set up to permenantly leave the board down by sound, and i want to do a decent job. but i think there is no way to do this up to code and still spend ziltch.

-Max

If its just a few cables running down the wall... there is nothing code wise that is going to stop you from not moving it. Also, just because its been that way for 38 years does not mean you can not change it at year 39. I hate that excuse, its used far too often. Take all the cables, bundle them into a nice clean loom, and drop them down. If it takes that long to get to your booth, I think its a good thing to keep in down there.

 

[cprted]

Footer,

I agree with you, but the the booth was the only place where the lights were run for 38 years. It was just last year that the man she hired put the board down by the sound guys so he didn't have to run up 2 flights of stairs and walk thru a boiler room to get to the light booth (it wasn't even her decision, he just moved it without asking her) Frankly, we goof around more when we are all next to each other. We have a tight bond at my school and the reason we are on tech is because she trusts us it is by audition only. She also trusts us with her keys and to be in the theatre when she is not. And finally im only arguing her judgment because she told ME to "figure it out" how the wiring will be set up to permenantly leave the board down by sound, and i want to do a decent job. but i think there is no way to do this up to code and still spend ziltch. Plus she wants to totally abandon the booth, and NEVER use it again. her exact words.

-Max

Honestly what difference does it make where the board is? I know of a theatre where the lighting board isn't even in the auditorium. The LX tech sits in a closet in the basement pressing go and watching the show on CCTV.

 

[soundoff]

Ok, but i have them bundled as neatly as i can now and it still looks pretty bad. there not going just down a wall, its over a large lip type thing, and then taped on to the professionally done audio whip. I would also like to point out that the only reason that she wants to leave it down there is because she thinks the man she hired is god. she is under the impresion that this is why his lighting looks so good, its not for discipline. he does a good light show, but makes such a god awful mess. he knoked over the shelf with all the gels and never picked it up. the reason the man put the board down there was for his convienince. she believes that his lights look good because of this, but really its because he put some thought into them. she usually just turns on the board puts all the faders at 100 with a 1:1 patch and uses what ever is up there. any gel and position. my last point is the cabinet the shop dept. built to hold the board in this new position is literally the worst thing I have ever seen. its 10' deep, and they want to remove seats to put this thing in. second, it has a folding top that actully obstructs views, and lastly SHE PAINTED IT LIGHT BLUE!!!

 

[Footer]

Honestly what difference does it make where the board is? I know of a theatre where the lighting board isn't even in the auditorium. The LX tech sits in a closet in the basement pressing go and watching the show on CCTV.

This is a High School, not a professional house. The two are not even close to the same ballgame. It matters because it is a student operating the console. That student is the responsibility of the teacher in the room at the time. If anything goes wrong with that student, its the teachers rear that is on the line. No teacher should ever completely trust a student to not do something stupid.

 

[soundoff]

I don't know how to explain this any better than I am. My cause for concern was not discipline of the students. Mrs. R hasn't had a problem with students being in a booth away from the theatre ever. thats NOT why she moved the board. my cause for concern is that we are handing over an architectual element of our theatre over to the english dept. to be used as a storage room. The whole position change was based on a misconception between a hired light director and our drama teacher who really doesn't know much about lights. You being a teacher know about the politics in a school. we may never get the booth back. Mrs. R is like 2 years away from retiring. I din't want a permanent change to be done half-assed, especially if its not neccesary in the first place.

-Max

 

[shiben]

Quite frankly, I dont mind running lights from the house, and would prefer it in your situation. To me, it sounds like your booth was in a hellish position, if you have to sneak through a boiler room to get to it. The only person that really needs to be not in the house is the stage manager. If the light blue table is a problem, ask her if you can paint it black to make it look more professional. Not hard, and you probably have cheap black paint sitting around. Just remember to ASK before you do anything. As to the hanging cables, find out if you can install some d-ring brackets, if it does comply with code in your area, to dress them around the ledge. Spray them black before you screw them into the wall, and your good. Rickety table a problem? Ask the set guys if they have a drill-driver, 2x4s, and screws. Reinforce as needed. 10' deep?!? I find that doubtful. That would mean that they actually had to rip down a THIRD sheet of plywood in order to get it built like that (assuming they ran the 4' section along the depth). Even so, if they seriously joined multiple sheets of plywood together to build something of that size, they must have had a reason. If you can, take a photo of all relevant issues, and we can look at them. I highly doubt that there is any issue that you have that you cant fix fairly easily, and that would require returning to the booth.

Edit:
my cause for concern is that we are handing over an architectual element of our theatre over to the english dept. to be used as a storage room.

Bulls***. Your worried that the teacher is making what is in your opinion a dumb move, and pissed that you lost your booth. Get used to it. One of our theaters has been taken over by the music department, and they built a cage in the middle of the backstage, and a rack blocking one of our lighting storage racks. They changed the lock so I cant get into that space's booth. It sucks, especially when I need to call security so that I can adjust the com set. But really, things happen, and even tho they suck we deal with them. Things like this happen, especially in educational settings. One of the guys on here has a very interesting thing in his signature, which effectively says that s*** happens, and our job as techs is to fix it. The more I work in tech, and for more people, I am finding this to be true. I do not mean to be a total jerk here, but having had similar things happen at my previous job, its a good thing to get used to. This situation doesnt really seem that bad. I would recommend making the best of it and learning what not to do, if it really is that bad.

 

[soundoff]

Dude. lights in the house? there calling follow spot cuse with a ticket holding person sitting less than a foot away. It just bugs me. your right the table in more likley only about 7 or 8 feet deep, but its still huge and wildly inappropriate you its use. and to answer your question, no it was never designed much more than "hey shop kids! build us a table that will hold somthing with these dimensions" 2 months later the worlds worst table comes out of the shop. I would also like to add that to get power to this section of the theatre an orange extension cord (SJO) is being taped across an isle! yes you heard right it crossed an isle in the theatre.

-max

 

[soundoff]

dude, your totally right. i understand now. not my choice no matter how much it pisses me off. oh well, i guess ill just have to do a nice job on the install back there, and ask district for a permanent outlet. Thanks guys i just got a little flustered when i heard this news today. lots of memorys in that booth. we worked really hard my freshman year to get it back from the english dept. cleared for almost 3 years now.

-Max

 

[shiben]

Youll be fine man. Crappy situations are pretty normal, and youll learn to deal with them, we all have (and still are). It might help to look at the situation as a challenge. Try and figure out how to make it great with the situation you have. This has worked for me several times in some terrible situations, and actually can make the experience fun (go figure). The permanent outlet, thats a good call tho.

 

[soundoff]

cool, thanks guys. I highly doubt the district is going to split the slab in their theatre to put in an outlet, but do you guys have any better solutions than an extension cord across the isle?

-Max

 

[tjrobb]

This is being fixed as part of an upgrade, but we had to run all the data and power to our sound bay (in-house) across an aisle. We got a small rug (think commercial door mat, 3x2), set it over the cables where they crossed the aisle, taped the rug to the floor with WHITE (key) gaff, and then added hatching (like a crosswalk) to the rug itself. Makes it visible, unlikely to shift, and our Fire Marshall has no issues with it (it was like that for years).

If you attempt this, there are 3 key points: WHITE gaff tape (make it visible), WELL secured to the floor (trip hazard, especially in a panic), and CHECK WITH YOUR AUTHORITIES!

Hope this helps.

 

[shiben]

Is it an option to drop it with the other stuff? I have done that in some instances, and run a 12/3 heavy insulation cable with a hard jacket (some version of SO... Whats the water resistant one?) and that worked nicely, but thats more of a temporary solution. A yellow jacket (similar to this, but they make them not so big Miscellaneous Electrical Supplies ) would work really well. Im not sure about that as a more permanent solution, but its better than gaff tape and no rug, especially if its not a theater-grade cable. The above solution would work as well, but I personally prefer something hard, and if its ADA compliant, even better.

 

[soundoff]

i guess i could drop a cable, even if its against code, they have MUCH bigger fish to fry in our theatre. Kinda seems like our always theatre turns into an electrical free-for-all. I like the rug idea, but that is what we are doing now. could i potentially (with permission, of course) tap off the isle light circuit? its a 20A breaker and all it has on it is 4 or 5 little 10w bulbs. we have a very small theatre (250 max cap.) only problem there is is someone turned off the isle lights FOH would go down. could put in one of those key switches?

-max

 

[cprted]

Honestly what difference does it make where the board is? I know of a theatre where the lighting board isn't even in the auditorium. The LX tech sits in a closet in the basement pressing go and watching the show on CCTV.

This is a High School, not a professional house. The two are not even close to the same ballgame. It matters because it is a student operating the console. That student is the responsibility of the teacher in the room at the time. If anything goes wrong with that student, its the teachers rear that is on the line. No teacher should ever completely trust a student to not do something stupid.

I agree with you 100%. The point I was trying to make was that the lighting board doesn't need to be in a lighting booth or anywhere specific and can in fact be anywhere and then cited an extreme example of the lighting board not being in a lighting booth.

Given the description of the existing booth given by the OP, the teacher's decision in this case seems like a good one--cable aesthetics aside.

 

[cprted]

i guess i could drop a cable, even if its against code, they have MUCH bigger fish to fry in our theatre. Kinda seems like our always theatre turns into an electrical free-for-all. I like the rug idea, but that is what we are doing now. could i potentially (with permission, of course) tap off the isle light circuit? its a 20A breaker and all it has on it is 4 or 5 little 10w bulbs. we have a very small theatre (250 max cap.) only problem there is is someone turned off the isle lights FOH would go down. could put in one of those key switches?

-max

Unless you are a licensed, certified electrician, do not attempt this.