Others have refuted "telephone operator patch" so, feeling argumentative, I may as well attempt to refute the
current validity of "piano boards."
My story:
My high school
auditorium was built in 1974. For budgetary reasons, NO lighting
system or fixtures were supplied, other than the motorized autotransformer
dimmer HouseLIghts. About 40 2pin & NO
ground stage pin outlets were distributed in the
FOH Catwalk, the ceiling at the ends of the battens (15 lines, barely 10' flyloft) and floor pockets. In the Booth, the only booth, was a panel containing 80 female 2pin
stage pin connectors. Everyone with me so far? Anyone see a problem? The English teacher/
theatre TD had "stolen" two Luxtrol SixPacks (6x1.2 + 1x 7.2 master, or ind.
dimmer). We had a number of 10' 14/2 cables with male connectors on each end. Now have we caught the problem?
Plug into the
dimmer first and you're holding a live MALE
connector with 1/4"d x 3/4" long brass pins, and no
ground!
One of the reasons I attended the college I did was that my HS TD had gone there also. In fact he had "stolen" the two Luxtrols from there when they built their new PerfArtsCenter in 1969. In 1980, he asked me to
return them, finally deciding they were a hazard and he would force the school board to buy a
dimmerboard or rent a KliegPac9 for every show. And change the panel in the booth to MALE 2P&G connectors.
At college, I was right at home in the
black box theatre. It had Ward-Leonard autotransformer dimmers. 3x 1.2 were
fed from a 3.6 master, and I think there were 4 said masters. On the other side 3x2.4 were
fed from a 7.2 master. 4 of those also. So you could have 24 electrically mastered dimmers, or 32 machanically mastered dimmers, or any combination thereof. All the "big" masters were mechanically interlocking with the Grand Master--the largest handle in the middle of the board, but one that carried no
current. Can you say
VCA anyone? Soundmen? The LD could have installed a two-scene
preset, but choose to spend possibly more money installing a mechanical
dimmer system. Why? It was a liberal arts university and a large part of the
theatre dept.'s mission statement was to train non-professional
theatre students how to cope when they become English teachers in charge of the High School
Play. The resident LD also believed that using limited wattage and an arbitrary
layout forced a student to think about design, as well as operation, when lighting a show.
On the mainstage were installed 228 circuits including a few 60a floor pockets with
stage plugs, NOT
stage pin plugs but
stage plugs, 60x6k SCRs, and a 5scene "infinite memory" platen
preset system, all by Ward-Leonard. Platens were never changed due to reliabilty. Running this
system used one main "operator," two "presetters," and one "checker." A heirachy was developed. You started as a presetter. If you were accurate you became a checker, then a main operator. Everyone taking any lighting class was forced to be at least a presetter for a few performances of a production each semester. The educational machine
fed itself.
Late in the first semester of my second year, a Strand-Century
Light Palette V4J was installed, the third in Ohio. I was the first operator, and was there for the turn-on. Lost was the ability to train students by actually doing, and watching. The LD used to say that during dry techs he could write 10 light cues per hour with the old
system. With the new fancy-smancy
Light Palette, guess what, he still wrote 10 cues/hour. They may have been more complicated cues with more intricate timing (LP allowed up to 6 part fades) but it was the exact same cues per hour. No time was saved, and the elimination of 3 positions in light booth was detrimental to the learning/apprentice process.
I am aghast when I hear of "a high school across the street from High End..." I love High End, mind you, but I'm glad I learned lighting on autotransformer systems. I content that if a student has no other knowledge than the Hog3, he would have a harder time running an
Express, than the other way around.
Today, I wouldn't intentionally buy obsolete gear, but I also would not fall for "state of the art" or "bleeding
edge" either. I would buy what's used "in the real world." Two million Source4s in 8 years. 40 years of
360Q. It's a tie! The
Light Palette of which I spoke was eventually replaced with the very last
Light Palette II, then I think with a
Light Palette 90. None of which lasted as long as the original 5-scene
preset, BTW. When the professor asked my opinion of what he should buy in 1998, I told him "the
ETC Expression/
Express line is found in more high school and college theaters and maybe even professional theatres than any other
console. I know you're loyal to
Strand, but I haven't used a
Strand desk since leaving your college." He bought a
Strand 520i. Three years ago, when he retired, the new LD bought an
ETC Express 48/96 to replace the
Strand LightboardM, which replaced the autotransformers in the
black box theatre.
YMMV. Fun thread. Got my heart rate up.