LED Seat Lights

[Edrick]

Well some of you may have seat lights in your theater since I'm pretty sure it's a code requirement now. But do any of you have LED seatlights, and if so do they stay on 24/7? Our theater has probably around 75 LED seatlights 2/3rds of which aren't working yet but when they do all of them are on 24/7 they're not controled via a switch, or a dimmer, or a preset. The only way to shut them off that we can tell is to go into a breaker room and throw the breaker. Does this sound right to you?

 

[gafftaper]

There is usually a switch somewhere... but if they are LED's the designer may have decided to skip it. After all those things will burn continuously for like 20 years before needing changing. So it sort of makes sense that they would have installed them without a switch as safety lighting.

 

[BenFranske]

One of the 1970s theaters I work in has traditional tungsten seat lights that have no switch, you need to turn them off and on with a breaker in a locked closet and they are off except on performance nights. I've been told this is by design for safety reasons. There's also a brand new theater in the building which, if I remember correctly, has LED seat lights. I haven't even found the breaker for those yet so as far as I know they were intended to be running all the time.

 

[michaelburgoyne]

I suspect that the previous post refers to a new auditorium that I worked on in Edina, Minnesota. I can say from a theatre consulting point of view, keeping the aisle lighting on 24/7 is not strictly required but reduces liability for the engineers and building owners. The code requires the aisles to be illuminated whenever the auditorium is occupied, either for rehearsals or a public performance. If a switch is provided and someone forgets to turn it on, there is a potential legal action if someone falls. Burning the aisle lights 24/7 consumes a small amount of energy, but is less expensive than an injury settlement. LEDs are a great help because their energy consumption is low and their life is long compared to incandescent options.

 

[Edrick]

I'm actually sitting in the theater now. It took us some time to find where the breaker was for these and the transformer since the fuse is in the ceiling. But sitll only 1/3rd of them are working. The building manager was in here about an hour ago but I'm not sure if he's figured out what's wrong. But we're screwed if they're not fixed by thursday. We've been doing events with no seat lights and dim houselights but that's just not possible unless we want to screw up the look of the play. Hopefully I'll have some good news by the end of the day when i leave at 6

 

[astrotechie]

well, it know makes some sense why to leave them on. So ppl like you dont fumble over when trying to make thier way to the booth door.

But anyway, the lights should live past that i leave. But then it is Woburn High and nothing last longer than 1 year.

 

[BenFranske]

Indeed I was Michael. Never would have guessed to see you here, well maybe not never but I wouldn't have expected it. Don't know if you recall but I sat in on some of the early design stage meetings and am still following up on that project though I'm more closely involved in the Fick space.

 

[taylorjacobs]

our leds are like u said only controlled by the breaker. we have turned them off for blacklight shows but thats about it

 

[avkid]

Our seat lights are on a heavy duty timer device. They go on at 6 P.M. Monday-Saturday and at 2 P.M. on Sundays to match up with house openings.

 

[pacman]

We replaced incandescent seat lights with LEDs about three years ago because the incandescents were burning out ( had been in service about six years) & expensive to replace. Ours are on switches in the booth & on stage. It's a constant job reminding people to turn them on.

 

[themuzicman]

In our county, although some schools have switches, I was told that the LED runners need to be on 24/7 to fulfill some code requirement