Flying In and Out Hanging Light bulb

[mukkrukkis]

So, I need to fly a hanging light bulb in and out. People do it all the time, it must be easy. I understand how to fly something normally with a pulley, but not sure how to go about flying the light bulb that is dimmable. Any ideas?

 

[shiben]

With a pulley. They make a special base thats heavy for the lamp to use, it has a loop on it. Put some tie line on that, through a pulley system to wherever it gets operated from, and then take your cable, and attach it loosely to the tie line at several points. have that go to a dimmer. Now for a true overkill to the job, put the entire rig dead hung on a batten. Flying is easy then.

 

[venuetech]

concider using a shatter protected lamp
60A/FR/TS-130 [00297] - $1.75 : Light Bulbs at Bulbman.

or using a lamp guard during rehearsals

these are usually locally available at your big box home store

 

[NJLX]

With a pulley. They make a special base thats heavy for the lamp to use, it has a loop on it. Put some tie line on that, through a pulley system to wherever it gets operated from, and then take your cable, and attach it loosely to the tie line at several points. have that go to a dimmer. Now for a true overkill to the job, put the entire rig dead hung on a batten. Flying is easy then.

alternatively, if you have a fly system, ignore the pulley part and simply tie the tie line to the batten and run the cable like you would any other cable; the light then flies with the batten.

you might also want to look into something stronger than tieline, depending on the weight of the lamp and the likelihood of it hitting something else

 

[Les]

For complete overkill, you could call Foy, Hall or ZFX.

 

[Footer]

Whats your space look like? Whats your budget? It is totally possible to do this with using cable to support the light, and only cable. You would need larger sheaves then typical to keep the cable from kinking, but you should be fine. I would start with a cable real that a trouble light is on. You can disengage the locking mechanism, add a few large diameter shivs, and you should be good to go. Be sure to properly secure the lamp. I would start with a fixture that is designed to hang from cable.