I suppose this could go here or in Stage Management, but I'll leave it here for now.
This project has been bugging me for a while. For all of our shows, everyone (SM, Follow Spots, Light Board, and Sound Board) is in our glass-fronted control booth at the back of the house and at the height of the lower catwalks. Normally, this works fine. The one time that it doesn't, however, is during our Dance Concerts. We do pretty intense stuff, but we do have one problem. During the blackouts between numbers, the reflections off of the glass from the SM light and both board op lights (which we can't really turn off), and just the fact that it is pitch black outside the booth. To solve this problem, I have been looking into making some sort of infrared camera hooked up to the comp monitor in the booth. I did some research on the web, and it looks like most camera have an infrared filter that can be taken out. We are ordering new high-quality video cameras this year, so I will be free to take apart our old ones. I have already gone about making an IR light source: Using a 500w fernel, put 5 layers of ~R68 (dark blue) alternating with 5 layers of whatever the dark red is in Rossco gel. This absorbs all visible light, leaving only infrared light emitted. I'm figuring that I'll put one of these just US of the proscenium arch on each side of the stage, put the camera in the booth, and the camera should be able to effectively "see in the dark".
Suggestions for improvement?
This project has been bugging me for a while. For all of our shows, everyone (SM, Follow Spots, Light Board, and Sound Board) is in our glass-fronted control booth at the back of the house and at the height of the lower catwalks. Normally, this works fine. The one time that it doesn't, however, is during our Dance Concerts. We do pretty intense stuff, but we do have one problem. During the blackouts between numbers, the reflections off of the glass from the SM light and both board op lights (which we can't really turn off), and just the fact that it is pitch black outside the booth. To solve this problem, I have been looking into making some sort of infrared camera hooked up to the comp monitor in the booth. I did some research on the web, and it looks like most camera have an infrared filter that can be taken out. We are ordering new high-quality video cameras this year, so I will be free to take apart our old ones. I have already gone about making an IR light source: Using a 500w fernel, put 5 layers of ~R68 (dark blue) alternating with 5 layers of whatever the dark red is in Rossco gel. This absorbs all visible light, leaving only infrared light emitted. I'm figuring that I'll put one of these just US of the proscenium arch on each side of the stage, put the camera in the booth, and the camera should be able to effectively "see in the dark".
Suggestions for improvement?