I wish I could run my dimmers on 3-phase - but many of the venues I work don't have three-phase wiring at all. At the few that have three-phase, it isn't brought anywhere near the
stage (if there
is a
stage)... I'd have to bring my own
distro and
wire it into the mains. I'd have no problem with that, but there are usually time constraints - typically I've got an hour and a half to
load-in, set up both lights and sound, and
sound-check before they open the doors. Small,
portable dimmer packs that
plug into a standard single-phase wall-outlet, as opposed to large
dimmer racks that require 3-phase, are much more suitable to my particular operation.
I used to do sound, and occasionally lights, for a living - back when most of the sound gear had tubes and the light dimmers were autotransformers. I bummed out on the business end of the music business back in the seventies and found "honest work" as an electronics technician. The company I worked for let me
advance, on the basis of merit, to a "Senior Electronics Engineer" position (I don't have a degree). I got back into sound as a hobby, doing sound reinforcement for local-band shows, in 1993. I added lights in 1994.
The shows I do are usually organized by the bands themselves in rented space - the basement of a church in Downer's Grove, the Elmhurst VFW
hall, the Knights of Columbus
hall in Arlington Heights, the PIT skate/BMX
park in Rockford, the Elk Grove
Park District Teen Center,
etc. The shows are typically 5 bands for 5 bucks, all local high-school kids.
Load-in is at 5 PM, doors open at 6:30 and the first band goes on at 7:00.
Of the venues I named, only the VFW has any kind of
stage, and it's barely large enough for a 3-piece band. There are two 20A, 120 volt circuits to the
stage - enough for the band's instruments and little else. I have to run extension cords to the kitchen for the rest. It's hard to avoid
ground loops, so all my audio gear is
transformer coupled. My vocal mics are wireless to avoid electrocuting a musician when he touches his guitar and the mic at the same time. And the lighting gear has to be relatively low-power and pretty efficient... and single-phase.
John