Posted this in the basic advice forum, but I realized it would probably be more appropriate here. My college is building a fine arts center with two performing spaces, a 750 seat
proscenium auditorium and a 47' by 70'
black box Theater space. The architect is putting together some tech package options for us, but I'm wondering what you think would be the minimum basic lighting package to split between the two spaces? We wouldn't be running full productions in both spaces, but we need enough lighting for concert/chapel events in the
auditorium space while running plays in the black box.
As others have alluded to, it's not always that simple. Two of the main variables between particular lighting instruments is their lamp
power and their
beam angle - both can be directly related to the size of building they're going into. For example - a Source 4 26dg pointing straight down from a bar at 5m
trim will give you approx a 2.5m circle on the
stage floor. But to get the same size beam on the floor with a 10m bar height, you would need a 14dg
lens. So if your bars in the
auditorium are going to be higher than your bars in the black box, you may need to consider at least purchasing additional lenses in order to accommodate for the standard flying arrangements of each space.
LED products for this reason might prove less efficient - the
zoom models can be a lot more expensive than fixed
beam angle models; whereas on the other
hand, if you bought Source 4 PARs they would be cheaper to begin with, AND you could simply swap the lenses for different spreads (S4 PARs come c/w 4 lenses).
We will be getting two
ETC boards for control and will stick with
LED instruments. The
auditorium space will have at least two
FOH and 4 to 7
electric battens. Also, can anyone give me info on non
ETC LED ellipsoidals? I'm particularly interested in any issues with stepping while fading.
A few pointers on this subject which as you've probably already noticed is a
bit contentious.
1.
ETC Boards are good. But why have you chosen them? They are very
theatre orientated. Will that definitely be your main focus? For a
multi-purpose room, you might also consider options from other manufacturers such as MA Lighting.
2.
LED Instruments can be good. But remember that most touring productions - if you intend to host any - will want conventionals and
gel. It's the easiest way for them to ensure they get good
continuity each night, with the same colours each time. Obviously there is the option to use
tungsten white (usually referred to as Warm White)
LED and
gel... but the output of most
LED units is not yet good enough for that really - few
LED PARs can put out the same kind of light as a 750W S4P or 1000W
PAR can.
3.
LED Ellipsoidals - there are good and bad. The Source 4
LED is a great
unit in my opinion, although there is also the
Robert Juliat Tibo 533 to consider, personally I rate RJ optics as better than
ETC... they are also usually far mechanically smoother to work with which makes detailed focussing easier - very useful for long range applications.
4. You say on
stage you will have 4-7 electrics battens. Personally I don't spec LX battens full stop. It's far better,
IMO, to just go with a set number of fly bars, and then add IWBs /
Soca breakout boxes to the bars which you will use as electrics... (as well of course as
DMX /
Ethernet runs) this allows you to position LX wherever you want it, not being limited to set positions. It can be a little more expensive with cabling and infrastructure, but far more flexible long term, easily upgradeable in the future, and far easier to fix faults in the cabling too.
FOH bars though - it's fine to cable them permanently because they're seldom used for anything else.
As exciting as an LED-exclusive space sounds, you may come to regret that later on, if only because there is such an availability of standard
dimmer fixtures out there at some pretty kick-a** prices, if you go hunting.
LED has come a long way, but there is still a ways to go before that becomes
the standard, I feel. Why not install standard
dimmer boxes, and use
Edison or
Twist-Lock to
Stagepin adapters? You can still buy your full rig of LEDs, but then you are not locked in to that as your sole option.
You end up with the full cost of both. IMHO, the only place that
LED elipsoidals are
cost effective is when you don't need to bother with dimmers. But for the beancounters looking at dollars alone, you're talking about spending $$$ on dimmers only to spend even more on
LED's that'll make the dimmers obsolete. Also, you don't want to run an
LED on a
dimmer module, so you're talking about overstock of
dimmer modules and constant swapping for every re-hang.
A mix might be to
wire for
LED, but
stock a few SmartModules or the like that you could hook up for any conventionals that you may want to use.
Of course the ideal solution really is to install
dimmer packs which allow switching of the curves to make them a
dimmer or a
relay circuit. Then you can just program them, as per the gig, to do the task that you're looking for. Now I like Sensor3's as much as the next person, SmartPacks would also do the job, but I've come across an excellent
unit called the
LSC GenVI which I believe there are plans that will allow you to
switch between
dimmer curves (including the
non dim 'curve') using
RDM, which means of course that you can save the information into a showfile, and program it up front, and then on the get in, you can
switch it all in an instant.
An alternative solution could be to install a mixture of dimmable and
non-dim modules in a
dimmer rack with a
patchbay. Then simply
wire the mixture into the socas so that they come out where you want them. In this scenario, the mixture of dim and
non-dim modules would be based on your expected needs - based on your
lantern stock which you
purchase at the same time - and then as long as you purchased dimmers which could be set to run as relays, you could always add additional non-dims for the times that you are using more
LED / intelligent fixtures, than normal.