Converting an old Kliegl Brothers System

[JessNik]

Hey everyone,
I work for a YMCA in Maplewood and we are trying to move our theatre program to an old church in town. I have been tasked with trying to figure out the lighting for this space. I discovered an old Kliegl Bros. Rotolector circuit board but it looks like the dimming component is missing. It also looks like they have somehow converted it into the main circuit breaker for entire building. There are also Kliegl bros strip lights and some floor pockets.

We want to go from this to DMX controlled dimming and I am way out of my league. I am not sure where to start.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Kliegl 1

• JessNik
• Oct 25, 2017
• 1

Kliegl Brothers Circuit Board

 

[theatricalmatt]

Call in an electrical contractor. Your best bet is to pull off this entire layer and strip it back to the mains; then install a proper main breaker panel for the 'building' side of things, and a subpanel and dimmers for the theater side of things. It's big money, but should help bring everything up to modern code, and keeps the two functions of the space separate.

 

[Van]

WOW ! That is Amazing ! Yes, unfortunately your only real option is to get an EC in there, one who has dealt with theatre renovations, hopefully, and gut and replace. As Matt said it's not going to be cheap but even the most basic of distro upgrades and modernization of Wiring is going to be a vast safety improvement over Open Load panels and exposed wiring.

 

[JessNik]

Call in an electrical contractor. Your best bet is to pull off this entire layer and strip it back to the mains; then install a proper main breaker panel for the 'building' side of things, and a subpanel and dimmers for the theater side of things. It's big money, but should help bring everything up to modern code, and keeps the two functions of the space separate.

Thank you for responding. I had a feeling that was going to be the case. I'm not sure we'll be able to afford that so I'll have to explore some other options.

 

[JessNik]

Call in an electrical contractor. Your best bet is to pull off this entire layer and strip it back to the mains; then install a proper main breaker panel for the 'building' side of things, and a subpanel and dimmers for the theater side of things. It's big money, but should help bring everything up to modern code, and keeps the two functions of the space separate.

Our contractor seems to already have made some modifications which will probably complicate things. Thanks for you response!

 

[JohnD]

Not all contractors are up for the job, notice the comment from @Van .
Are you sharing space with an active church, or will this be a full time location. Is all the lighting available just the borderlights above the stage? Are there any front lighting positions, what kind of fixtures? How about some more pictures, of the space and existing lighting positions. How big a stage, how high? The more the forum members know, the more help they can be.

 

[JD]

What is pictured appears to be a switch bay for routing dimmer circuits, so I assume the dimmers themselves are gone or in a different location. As such, you are basically starting from scratch. I suspect the "dimmers" have simply been replaced with branch beakers on the main panel. You will need a contractor, but first, get an idea about what you want to achieve. This can vary WIDELY, anything from a six circuit architectural dimmer rack, all the way up to a full blown 96 circuit rack, with attached $20,000 board! In other words, formulate a solid idea of what you want before entering the sales game and hiring in a firm.
Since you are starting from scratch, you may even want to question what technology you want to use. Are you going to stick to conventional fixtures and dimmers, or go with LED fixtures? If the current system is up to code (no idea if Kliegl is even attached to anything) and simply supplies non-dim circuits to locations where lights are to be located, and your choice is LED lighting, then no work may be needed! Simply plug in the LED fixtures, run your DMX lines and you are good to go.
As you can see, you want to have a solid idea of your design before hiring a contractor. Your best bet may be to pay a consultant.

 

[avkid]

There is an excellent stage lighting company in Union that can help you.
http://www.pulsestagelighting.com/
I am also local (Millburn frequently)