Design Lighting a Cyc in a small space

[candyfreak]

So this would be my first post, somewhat informal, I know =P.

Anyhow, my school theatre was renovated about 6 months ago, and within the last month and a half we just received our new drapes (Legs, Traveler & Cyc), and I finally have the opportunity to get fixtures in the air. Now over the years it was common practice to just get as many floods as one could on the pipe and gel them RGB to try and get a nice even wash.

I want to try and maximize fixture usage, seeing as we have a pretty small inventory (16 s4's 26 degree, 21 6"fresnels 500W, & 19 Floods [asymmetrical reflector], 3 altman lekolites) so I was wondering how many (or few) fixtures I could use to evenly light the cyc from I'd say about 3 feet and how far spaced.

I would preferably like to have clusters of 4 floods (RGBA) but Clusters of 3 (RGB) are just fine.

The cyc measures about 20 feet high by 28 feet wide. The pipe is about 3 feet away from the cyc. We do have some space limitations (our stage is only 27'5" wide and 20 feet deep) just to keep in mind. As well as circuit limitations, we have 48 sockets, however each circuit has 2 sockets per box, and the circuit boxes are paralleled, meaning we only have 12 seperate circuits.

Any Help would be appreciated!

(PS the fixtures used are pictured here: Lighting - Types of Lantern - www.theatrecrafts.com first section, and the diagram to the far right. We use 500 watt linear osram lamps.)

 

[kicknargel]

Hm, with just a few seconds of looking I couldn't find much info on those old floods you have, (i.e. photometric that would indicate beam spread, etc.). I'd say your best bet is just to test. You could set up the test "upside down" (with the light on the floor shining up at the cyc) to determine what kind of spacing you can get away with.

 

[shiben]

At any rate, i would try grouping them in 3s. How big are your dimmers? if they are 2400W dimmers, you can have 4 units per circuit, and keep just 3 circuits. spacing them out at the right distance might be a problem, and you might need to go with a full 6 clusters across. If you put them every 4 and change feet apart, you should have a decently even wash at the bottom, if not at the top.

 

[icewolf08]

If you only have 3 feet between your cyc and your hanging position you will need to hang your units relatively close together to get an even wash. The rule of thumb is that for every foot between cyc and lighting position you should hav ethe same spacing between cyc fixtures. So, if you are hanging your cyc fixtures in groups of three then you should hang the center unit of each group on three foot centers (or whatever your horizontal throw distance is). Odds are this will make for a tightly packed batten. You may be able to get away with wider spacing, but the only way to know is to test.