Looky What I Found!

[cdub260]

A couple of days ago I was cleaning out the mezanine in the 236 theatre at my facility when I came across some really cool old lighting equipment.


Does this bring back memories for anyone?


The bottom half of this photo is a smaller version of the first board I learned to operate. The top half works in conjunction with the next photo.


5 scene manual preset. I've never actually used one of these. I think the head shadow adds a nice touch. Don't you think?


5 or 6 years ago this was the lighting control set-up for our smaller theatre. The ETC Microvision, AKA The Barbie Dream Board, due largely to it's color I imagine, controlled the stage lights. The consol on the right controlled the house lights.

Now we use an ETC Express 24/48 in the small theatre and a Jands Hog 500 in the amphitheatre.

 

[Pip]

Memories... Yeah, of working in our light lab a couple of days ago lol... We just have a crappy 2 scene preset in there xDD

 

[meatpopsicle]

That's a cool TTI preset board! I'm partial to TTI as my father was one of the founders. Is it Cince Jones out?

Are you getting rid of that stuff?

 

[avkid]

My god, another one does exist.
We actually use a TTI console exactly like that that bottom desk in the first picture.
(don't worry, only as a backup)

 

[philhaney]

Does this bring back memories for anyone?

5 scene manual preset. I've never actually used one of these. I think the head shadow adds a nice touch. Don't you think?

Yes, it does bring back memories. I've used that 5-scene manual preset board in that theater (of course, Carl was alive at the time).

And yes, the head shadow adds a nice touch.

 

[zac850]

Hey, the MicroVision is one of the best consoles ever! How do you think ETC decided the form-factor of the Ion?

 

[cdub260]

Hey, the MicroVision is one of the best consoles ever! How do you think ETC decided the form-factor of the Ion?

I like the Microvision, but with only six submasters, it's not a good board for instant theatre, where you make up the lighting during the show. Some of the groups using the venue that once used that Microvision fit that description, loading in an hour or so before the show starts with no time for programming and little to instruction on how the lighting should look. The Express 24/48 that's in there now is a much better choice in this situation. I've kept the Microvision as a back-up just in case something happens to the Express.

And I wouldn't know about the Ion. I've never used one. That's one of the down sides of working at a single venue. You tend to fall behind the technology, then have to play catch-up when the time comes to upgrade.

 

[derekleffew]

In case anyone missed it the first time, here is my original ETC MicroVision Tribute Page.

meatpopsicle, ask your dad if he has anything related to the DataCue lying around--there's a board I never became friends with. And to think in the 1980s it rented for $350/week, and the MiniLightPalette was only $50 more!

 

[STEVETERRY]

In case anyone missed it the first time, here is my original ETC MicroVision Tribute Page.

meatpopsicle, ask your dad if he has anything related to the DataCue lying around--there's a board I never became friends with. And to think in the 1980s it rented for $350/week, and the MiniLightPalette was only $50 more!

Of course, there's way more history underneath this particular hood:

TTI was founded by a bunch of guys, including Jim Read (the aforementioned parental unit of Meatpopsicle), Dennis Carnine, and Fred Lindauer, who were disciples of George Izenour at the Yale Light Lab. The company was based in Hamden CT, fairly near New Haven. The Console we are looking at in these photos is part of their Modular Dimming System (MDS). It had a single-handle autotransformer crossfader that was electrically dipless, but lacked the crucial two-handle split/dipless function. So, a crossfade always appeared to dip, due to the inability to lead the incoming dimmers in the fade. If you look at the Century Edkotron controller, it used the same principle, and had very similar modularity, due to George's work with Century.

The crossfader fed two half wave rectifiers wired to the negative and positive half-cycle. So, the scene on the top half of the crossfader had half-wave rectifed positive half-cycles feeding it and the bottom scene had half-wave rectified negative half cycles feeding it. These were diode-ORed in the console and then integrated by an L/C filter on the input of the dimmer that was tuned to 60Hz.

TTI MDS dimmers and consoles enjoyed good success in the NYC rental market in the mid to late 70's. Then a little upstart company from Rochester called LMI came along with a PWM split/dipless two scene preset and a 6x1.2kW modular dimmer pack, and the rest is history.

ST

 

[derekleffew]

Wait. There were lighting controls before DMX?

Prior to its move uptown to Broadway's Shubert in 1975, A Chorus Line used a similar system (portable TTI 5-scene preset) downtown at the Public Theatre, did it not?

Interesting that Theater Techniques, Inc. did not survive, but its competitors Electronics Diversified and Teatronics did.

 

[STEVETERRY]

Wait. There were lighting controls before DMX?

Prior to its move uptown to Broadway's Shubert in 1975, A Chorus Line used a similar system (portable TTI 5-scene preset) downtown at the Public Theatre, did it not?

Interesting that Theater Techniques, Inc. did not survive, but its competitors Electronics Diversified and Teatronics did.

No, the only portable 5-scenes in rental in NYC were those built by Production Arts (24 to 96 channels in 24-channel wings). ACL at the Public used a hodge-podge combination of Public Theatre house equipment and rental 2-scenes, I think Colortran from PA.

The Colortran 2-scenes had no crossfaders, just scene masters. We eventually fitted outboard Integrator boxes to allow Colortran packs to use LMI PWM 2-scenes with crossfaders.

ST

 

[mbandgeek]

I like the Microvision, but with only six submasters, it's not a good board for instant theatre, where you make up the lighting during the show. Some of the groups using the venue that once used that Microvision fit that description, loading in an hour or so before the show starts with no time for programming and little to instruction on how the lighting should look. The Express 24/48 that's in there now is a much better choice in this situation. I've kept the Microvision as a back-up just in case something happens to the Express.

And I wouldn't know about the Ion. I've never used one. That's one of the down sides of working at a single venue. You tend to fall behind the technology, then have to play catch-up when the time comes to upgrade.

The Ion is a great little board. I have only used it a little and have been dying to get back in the light lab to play around with it again.

 

[fredthe]

Yes, that TTI board (the 2-scene one) does bring back memories... it was the 2nd board I learned to run, 33 years ago. Building cables (Cinch-Jones connectors) for the board allowed me to refine my soldering skills... and the TTI 6-packs taught me a lot about dimmer repair and adjustment