Direction of circuit numbering?

sotonfan

Member
The company that did the electrical installation in our theater couldn't seem to make up its mind which direction to number the lighting circuits. Over stage, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. On the balcony rail, the circuit numbers run house right to house left. Up in the cove, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. This causes confusion every time we have a visiting LD. I had always thought everything was supposed to numbered running house right to house left. Someone please set me straight here...
 
The company that did the electrical installation in our theater couldn't seem to make up its mind which direction to number the lighting circuits. Over stage, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. On the balcony rail, the circuit numbers run house right to house left. Up in the cove, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. This causes confusion every time we have a visiting LD. I had always thought everything was supposed to numbered running house right to house left. Someone please set me straight here...
Why do your LDs care about circuit numbers? That is the whole point of being able to softpatch a lighting console. It allows the LD to call the light by whatever name they want (channel number) and not care what circuit it happens to be plugged into. Only the house crew/ME really needs to know the circuit numbers.

To answer your question, there isn't really a standard for circuit numbering, though consistency is nice.
 
Ha! Well said. So I guess my proper question just has to do with best practices. Is there an industry standard, or is it just whatever works best at the time of install?
 
... I had always thought everything was supposed to numbered running house right to house left. Someone please set me straight here...
Numbering from SL to SR as a convention only applies to Instrument Numbers (Unit Numbers). There is no standard as to which way circuit/dimmer numbers should go (and as noted above, it doesn't much matter anyway). We've argued on here elsewhere whether channel numbers should go SL to SR or SR to SL. https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/your-philosophy-on-assigning-channel-numbers.15380/ Designer preference. I still contend it's an age thing. Once lightng control moved from backstage, it's no longer required that lighting be numbered from the actor's viewpoint.

While it is slightly peculiar that your installation has numbers running both ways in the same venue, it shouldn't be a big burden for any LD. Do you provide a circuit map?

711circuits.jpg
 
Awesome - I will follow that thread. Yes, we provide a full circuit map - it's just confusing if someone is trying to call stuff up on the fly in a 1:1 patch. More of a rock concert thing than a theatrical plot where we have things totally set up ahead of time. Thanks to all!
 
The company that did the electrical installation in our theater couldn't seem to make up its mind which direction to number the lighting circuits. Over stage, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. On the balcony rail, the circuit numbers run house right to house left. Up in the cove, the circuit numbers run house left to house right. This causes confusion every time we have a visiting LD. I had always thought everything was supposed to numbered running house right to house left. Someone please set me straight here...
@sotonfan Entire books and university thesis have been written on this subject [A fellow by the surname of Warfel (Sp?) comes to mind] I've been involved with theatre lighting since the 1950's and I don't believe Moses ever handed down a standard carved in stone. I've seen at least three layouts employed from Broadway, London's West End, Offenbach / Frankfurt, Germany and several places across the U.S. and Canada. Honestly, I don't believe there is any ONE standard layout although low number SL does appear to be extremely common along with numbering out from either side (In front and behind) of the curtain line for locations such as 1st FOH, 2nd FOH etcetera and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th LX behind the curtain. Fixtures on booms, either in the FOH or in the wings, tend to number from top to bottom and low number closest to the curtain at any given elevation. I suspect @derekleffew will be along shortly to correct, elaborate and elucidate.
EDIT: I see @derekleffew dove in while I was typing.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Numbering concepts changed as we moved to FOH boards. Remember, in the "old days", the "Cage" was usually backstage. As such, the view of the operator was from the stage perspective. Along came the split, where only the dimmers were backstage and the control board was FOH with a "house view" and the confusion began! From what I can see, the argument probably has at least a generation to go before us "old timers" are all dead and can no longer argue on behalf of SL-SR lighting layouts. In recent years, I find myself using HL-HR layouts as well. (Fewer people walking in circles as I try to explain their left and right are wrong.)
 
Numbering concepts changed as we moved to FOH boards. Remember, in the "old days", the "Cage" was usually backstage. As such, the view of the operator was from the stage perspective. Along came the split, where only the dimmers were backstage and the control board was FOH with a "house view" and the confusion began! From what I can see, the argument probably has at least a generation to go before us "old timers" are all dead and can no longer argue on behalf of SL-SR lighting layouts. In recent years, I find myself using HL-HR layouts as well. (Fewer people walking in circles as I try to explain their left and right are wrong.)
Frankly, I think that speaking in terms of Stage Left and Stage Right leads to far less confusion. Sure, a new hand with no entertainment experience may get lost for a hot minute, but at least then everyone is on the same page. It is like Port/Starboard on a ship. Once you throw in a second set of directions (house left/right) you just confuse people. Leave "house" directions to the FOH staff. If we just use stage directions, everyone uses the same terminology and goes to the same place when you tell them where to go.

Mind you this if for speaking, I don't care how you number things.
 
Frankly, I think that speaking in terms of Stage Left and Stage Right leads to far less confusion. Sure, a new hand with no entertainment experience may get lost for a hot minute, but at least then everyone is on the same page. It is like Port/Starboard on a ship. Once you throw in a second set of directions (house left/right) you just confuse people. Leave "house" directions to the FOH staff. If we just use stage directions, everyone uses the same terminology and goes to the same place when you tell them where to go.

Mind you this if for speaking, I don't care how you number things.
@icewolf08 Then the videots visit and bring "camera left" and "camera right" with them plus want my Super Trouper color corrected and dowsed down 'til I need one of their monitors beside me to see it while I'm following.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
P and OP are my favorite.....
@BillConnerFASTC I find that varies with whom I'm 'P'-ing and 'OP'-ing on and then there's the British and Australians with their 'BP', "Bastard Prompt". I wonder if that's what their BP Petroleum station signs were alluding to all those many decades? My mind, what's left of it, wanders and wonders. You did start this and I've a feeling we've been done this road before.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
As long as they're in order I don't really care. I was in a venue that had them split odds SL of C, and evens SR of center. That was weird. But as long as the patch sheet is right I could care less if the numbers run one direction or the other.
 
I've seen all kinds of eccentric stuff. Venues where circuits had been added in retrofit, so there were random high number mixed in, venues with repeating circuits that ran SL > center, then started over at center and ran to SR. One must embrace the challenge of inconvenience. As one boss used to say, "If this was easy, anyone could do it."
 
I just reinstalled new raceways after an insurance claim that were numbered left to right but with groups of 4 spread across the batten for the strip lights permanently in place. so we'd get 1234, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1234, 10, 11, 12, 13, 1234, 15.

It was a direct replacement for an old system and non of us liked the circuiting but we couldn't do anything about it and was very specifically laid out for (fresnel, scoop, strip, fresnel, scoop, strip) repeat ad nauseam with various circuits tied together.
 
@icewolf08 Then the videots visit and bring "camera left" and "camera right" with them plus want my Super Trouper color corrected and dowsed down 'til I need one of their monitors beside me to see it while I'm following.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
As a long time vidiot it’s always been fun to watch newbie camera ops attempt to correctly pan the camera left or right. A pan left directive (swivel the camera and lens to the left) requires one to push the pan head to the right. Often heard from the director when the op fails to guess the correct direction: “Your other left you idiot.”

@icewolf08 Then the videots visit and bring "camera left" and "camera right" with them plus want my Super Trouper color corrected and dowsed down 'til I need one of their monitors beside me to see it while I'm following.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
I tend to like circuits/dimmers to go SL SR (electricians view) while I channel SR SL (designer view). Good updated paperwork saves the day either way.
 

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