Hello from MI

Jason Pratt

Member
Hello,

I am a Tech Director/Facility Manager/Director at Waterford Kettering High School in Waterford, MI. I run a 750 seat performing arts center designed to run theatrical productions, band/choir/orchestra concerts, dance recitals and competitions, and presentations. My stage is roughly 104' wide with a 50' proscenium opening and 44' deep. There is also have a 13' apron DS of the proscenium wall.

The district has recently upgraded our sound capabilities from the original 2003 equipment. We are now using 16 Shure ULXD wireless receivers (4 quads), 16 Shure WL-93 lavs, 4 Shure BETA87A handhelds, and a PreSonus StudioLive 32 series 3 board. Unfortunately our Shure wireless system runs a Dante network, but our PreSonus board does not so I am still XLR connected rather than networked.

My lighting system is conventional incandescent lighting. I have 102 Altman Shakespeare S6-series ellipsoidals, 12 Colortran 8" Fresnels, 32 Altman Die Cast PARS, 8 Colortran 4-cell far cycs, and 8 Colortran 3-cell cyc strips. I also have 12 Apollo Smart Color scrollers, but not enough power supply to run more than 10. There are 3 Colortran i96 dimer racks containing 288 Colortran i-series 2.4kW dimmers. We have recently upgraded to an ETC ion lighting console that we are unfortunately not using to its potential due to our lack of intelligent/LED lighting (hopefully I can begin working on that problem...)

I do not have a tech theatre degree, and I am essentially self-taught. I am constantly attempting to learn new things to make my facility "state-of-the-art", my designs more intriguing, and my students better at everything they do. I am really looking forward to learning many things from the people on this forum.

 
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Welcome Jason! Nice looking space you have there. I think the guy in the last picture is feeling pretty silly he didn't bring a date to the show... ;-)
 
Welcome Jason! Nice looking space you have there. I think the guy in the last picture is feeling pretty silly he didn't bring a date to the show... ;-)

HAHA, too true... The least he could have done is brought a date, preferably about 749 of them to fill my seats :)
 
Welcome Jason, I am sure you are busy reading up on many things. There are some people here who are in the same boat as you are.
Might I suggest a few things.
A recent thread by @MohaveScott is also about upgrading in small(ish) bites.
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/strategy-for-upgrading-theater-lighting.43807/
Then there is @sdauditorium who has several posts concerning a major overhaul.
Then since you are currently an all incandescent house take a look at this thread:
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/danger-new-proposed-eu-lighting-regulations.43800/
That goes into a look at the future, check out the ALD response for a long article which includes one take on incandescent lighting.
Then there is always the "gafftaper method" to consider (unfortunately it still has lots of broken links BTW)
https://www.controlbooth.com/wiki/Collaborative-Articles:Gafftaper-Method
 
Those are all very helpful, thank you!
 
Hello from a fellow Michigander! I'm a few hours north of you. Welcome to the Booth!

If you're interested in more training for your Ion, TLS Productions brings in ETC Trainers and hosts classes, usually around September to tie in with their open house. The direct-from-ETC training goes well beyond what you'd get from an installer or such.
 
Calc - I am on their mailing list. I went out there last year for their open house. Lots of great things to get into! Definitely lots of things I can learn about the Ion still.

What part of the state are you in?
 

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