extreamly stupid question

zac850

Well-Known Member
Ok, heres my stupid question for the week:
What do you call all of the electrics over the stage area. I always thought that the first electric was the first one out in-front of the stage, and the second was the one behind that. But in that case, what do you call the electrics over the stage?

I really am all confused now....

thanks
zac
 
So the first electric would be the furthest one up stage that we have, second would be second one upstage (middle in my case...) and third electric would be the third one upstage (or the last one, in my case...). Then in the house would be the one closest to the stage, second AP would be the second one in the house, third would be the third AP, etc.
Is this right?

Also, for the first and second AP we are going to just have poles mounted on the sides. Vertical poles, one SL side, one SR side. Would you mark this as 1st AP SL and 1st AP SR and 2nd AP SL and 2nd AP SR?

Also, what if you have lights down the side inside the proscenium? How do you label that?

Thanks
--Zac
 
I think it would be the furthest downstage. heres how our electrics look
***back wall***

-----4th-------



-----3rd-------


------2nd------


-------1st-------

*****arch****

-------cat******





******rail****
 
generally it changes with every house you'll work in. In my area, we run it like so

Back wall
LX 3
LX 2
LX 1
Prosc/Grand Drape
FOH 1
FOH 2
FOH 3
FOH 4 / rail

in a blackbox, usually every lineset will have a number, and you'll just say

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
LX 4
Line 5
LX 5

the only difference being the LX pipes will generally have some sort of multicable / precircuited design on them.

Cheers!
 
Ok, so I can basicly name them however I wish :D

I'll talk to the guy teaching our theater lighting class (hes not really the TD, he just teaches the class...) and see what he recomends for us to call them. And if all else fails, i'll call them Jo, and Bob, and.... yea, ok its early, bad joke, I know....

Thanks everyone
 
zac850 said:
Ok, so I can basicly name them however I wish :D

I'll talk to the guy teaching our theater lighting class (hes not really the TD, he just teaches the class...) and see what he recomends for us to call them. And if all else fails, i'll call them Jo, and Bob, and.... yea, ok its early, bad joke, I know....

Thanks everyone

Don't forget the Box Booms.. :) Some places have boxes that hold lights in FOH which are on the extreme sides of the proscenium...

-wolf
 
Wow talk about some different terms....

Over here we refer to the bars on stage, from the pros back to the cyc line as LX1, LX2, LX3, LX4, CYC.

Offtsage, if they are just general bars, it would be going from the pros to the back of the auditorium, FOH1, FOH2, FOH3 etc.
Bars on the side of the stage infront of the pros are called ladders, or booms, and there is the dress circle bar in some theatres too =)
 
wolf825 said:
zac850 said:
Ok, so I can basicly name them however I wish :D

I'll talk to the guy teaching our theater lighting class (hes not really the TD, he just teaches the class...) and see what he recomends for us to call them. And if all else fails, i'll call them Jo, and Bob, and.... yea, ok its early, bad joke, I know....

Thanks everyone

Don't forget the Box Booms.. :) Some places have boxes that hold lights in FOH which are on the extreme sides of the proscenium...

-wolf

We affectionately call ours the "Sky Boxes."
 
in my theatre "The Rose" it goes as follows

******Back Wall******

DBOD --------Makeshift electric/strips--------DBOD

----------------3rd Electric-------------

----------------2nd Electric-------------

----------------1st Electric--------------

******Procenium********
TOD-----------------1st Port---------------TOD




TOD-----------------2nd Port---------------TOD







^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

DBOD=DropBox Of Doom
TOD= Tree Of Doom
^^^= Our balcony railing that we made into another lace to hang our lights (against fire code)

you know that was a really fun icture to make... i wish i could do set designs like that.



ok, here's my stuid question, and i'm shure that you will all thnk i'm daft for asking this, but: as you just read, we run extension cords w/ adaptors to them to our lights in the balcony, would it be a BAD idea to lug our sotlight into a dimmer, and therefroe run it from the light board? (Because our sots dont have dimmers, and we really need them.)


Thanx
 
Patches, you first need to make sure your dimmers can handle a load like that and if the dimmers are say 1k and you spot is 120 volts, can you adjust the max voltage so you dont blow the lamp in the spot out. Most modern day dimming systems have the option of limiting mow much of the load the dimmmer can put out. Thats how we are able to wire common household fixtures into a set. I dont know what your stuff is rated but if you find out im sure someone on here if not me can help you out. Power is the key to figuring out what you can plug in where. I have dealt with some weird power issues and there usually is always a way to fix it. Hope that helps.
 
1) Numbering conventions: As the US Institute of Theater Technology standards defines them, or at least as I was taught.

- Number SL to SR (except LD area's, etc...)
- Number DS to US when US of the P/L
- Number US to DS when DS of the P/L
- Side lights - Top DS unit is #1, Top US is #2, etc... for US of P/L, reverses when DS of P/L
- Vertically stacked positions - highest units layout on plot furthest from P/L and/or C/L

2) It's a bad idea to power any device that uses an electronic ballast and/or power supply from an SSR dimmer running in ND mode. Yes, they work, but at some point the very expensive ML power supply may see the circuit dimmed and then the very expensive power supply is toast. Also, a dimmer parked still has a distorted sine wave that the power supplies don't like.

Alway's use a relay or direct power for such devices.

Note that this month's issue of Lighting Dimensions has an article about IBGT dimmers and why SSR/SCR dimmers make bad power sources for ML's etc...

Simpler things like scrollers, gobo rotaters, etc.. work fine on dimmers parked at full.

The follow spot in question may well have an incandescent lamp, but probably also cooling fan(s), that want direct power if the unit gets dimmed.

SB
 
i'll check into voltage and the like. thanks for your hl and i'll get back to you guys...

although, i know that one our spots has a classroom overhead bulb in it... gosh are we poor!

i never even though about the fans... wow. i feel stupid.

i hate to sound even more stuid, but i hanestly dont have any idea what you mean about all of those abbreviations... *PHEW* right over my head!

please enlighten me!
 
SSR = Solid State Relay
SCR = Silicon-Controlled Rectifier

These work by essentially switching the entire circuit on and off a specific number of times per second to dim the lamp.

ND = Non-Dim

A mode for a dimmer where 0%-49% = off and 50%-100% = FL on.

As noted a parked SSR/SCR dimmer still can distort the AC waveform.

ETC Sensor offers actual mechanical relays that you can put in the rack, which are just DMX controlled switches, basically.
 
SL = Stage Left, to your left as you face the audience
SR = Stage Right
DS = Down Stage, facing the audience
US = Up Stage
P/L = Piaster Line, also known as the plaster line, the extreme upstage edge of the proscenium arch, usually the non=decorative flat part that's not seen by the audience that runs parallel to the floor boards. An important measuring point.
C/L = Center Line, of the theater
ML's = Moving Lights

SB
 

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