Control/Dimming Multi-room theatrical control

[shiben]

So we are conducting a feasibility study right now for a show that will be going up next spring. The study is assuming the play will be taking place in an abandoned museum, comprising 1 main room, 4 side rooms, a lobby, and 5+ connecting hallways. We are wondering how possible it would be to run the show on 1 lighting board, from a central location, with action taking place in the main room and 4 side rooms at the same time, and the hallways being used once the acts were done. Concepts so far are really cool, and I like them a lot (it helps I would get to design multiple aspects of the production, LX and projection. )

Can an ETC Ion simultaneously run multiple cue stacks, using the "bump" buttons on our submaster wing as "go" buttons for each stack, so that we can run 5 acts at the same time? The only "quick and dirty" solution I can come up with is cobb together our motley collection of boards, an ION, 2 Innovators, and an ancient Strand MX? (not sure about that one), and then borrow another board from someone else? Also, how would this type of show generally be run? Obviously, a single stage manager could not accurately call cues for all the rooms, and having 5 SMs is a bit complicated, but at this point, its all in the planning stages. Also, can said cue stacks incorporate video into them? Would I need to rent a media server for this task, or is there a cheaper and dirtier meathod of incorporating static projection (effectively PPTs) into various scenes without setting up a massive and expensive system?

Next part of our little study will be how much it will cost to get all the extraneous gear we need (more dimmers, more cable, instruments, Video, etc). Again, this is all in the "is it possible, what will it cost us" stage, so just wondering about the feasability of running that many cue stacks simultaniously, and the video issue. Computers to run software are not a problem, is a college, and if we have one thing in bulk, its computers. Thanks for your help!

 

[kiwitechgirl]

I did something very similar when I was at drama school - we had three main spaces and connecting hallways complete with sideshows. It was fantastic fun - a lot of hard work but it was brilliant. We had one person in each space, operating their own cues (sound and lighting) and one operator looking after the connecting hallways, and didn't worry about having SM's calling cues - it was easier not to. We had to resurrect a couple of old lighting desks and hunt down every CD player and sound desk in the building, but we made it work!

I can't answer the ION multi-stack question right now, but I'll check with one of the guys at work tomorrow (and have a flick through the manual!) and see what I can find out...in terms of the video, if you're running PowerPoint or similar, something which could work well for you is the Rosco Keystroke (clicky here for info) - means that you can easily control your computer via DMX from your lighting desk It's fairly quick and dirty if you're not trying to do anything too complex! For anything more complex than that, you could look at Arkaos or a similar piece of software.

If it turns out the ION isn't going to do what you need, you could also look at software-based lighting control and get a few USB-DMX dongles - might be cheaper and more effective (most of the software is free) than fixing old desks or trying to borrow desks from somewhere else!

 

[jmabray]

Yes the Ion can do what you are wanting it to do.

 

[shiben]

I did something very similar when I was at drama school - we had three main spaces and connecting hallways complete with sideshows. It was fantastic fun - a lot of hard work but it was brilliant. We had one person in each space, operating their own cues (sound and lighting) and one operator looking after the connecting hallways, and didn't worry about having SM's calling cues - it was easier not to. We had to resurrect a couple of old lighting desks and hunt down every CD player and sound desk in the building, but we made it work!

I can't answer the ION multi-stack question right now, but I'll check with one of the guys at work tomorrow (and have a flick through the manual!) and see what I can find out...in terms of the video, if you're running PowerPoint or similar, something which could work well for you is the Rosco Keystroke (clicky here for info) - means that you can easily control your computer via DMX from your lighting desk It's fairly quick and dirty if you're not trying to do anything too complex! For anything more complex than that, you could look at Arkaos or a similar piece of software.

If it turns out the ION isn't going to do what you need, you could also look at software-based lighting control and get a few USB-DMX dongles - might be cheaper and more effective (most of the software is free) than fixing old desks or trying to borrow desks from somewhere else!

I was wondering if it would be a decent idea to have a bunch of ops... However, we must have a SM and they must call the show, according to the curriculum, although I suppose we could probably figure out a way to change that... I suppose we wouldnt even need to have more than 1 op per room, as I have tripple boxed before, so im sure a week of tech could make people do what they need. Thanks for the pointer on computer based software, that might be more convinient.

Yes the Ion can do what you are wanting it to do.

Awesome. Thanks for your help!

 

[Dover]

The ION has 4 contact closure inputs on it, so as far as calling the show I would suggest that you use 5 SMs. An SM and a board op for the main room and 4 SM/button pushers for the hallways. An adapter, some Mic cable and 4 push buttons would give you individual control over all 5 cue stacks.

Dover

 

[Footer]

Separate the rooms. One console per room. I have a feeling you are not going have the time to move the console from room to room when you are in tech. Keep it simple stupid. If you can separate the rooms, do so. There is no logical reason to put it all on one console if you can avoid it.

sent from my HTC Incredible

 

[SteveB]

Separate the rooms. One console per room. I have a feeling you are not going have the time to move the console from room to room when you are in tech. Keep it simple stupid. If you can separate the rooms, do so. There is no logical reason to put it all on one console if you can avoid it.

sent from my HTC Incredible

I agree with Kyle.

Ion can certainly do what you want as you can easily have cue stacks on subs, but I wonder about potential for errors and confusion with 5 different stage managers calling cues at or near the same time. Ea SM needs to be very specific as to syntax, as ea. SM needs to remember that they are list X, another as list Y. etc... although you could do ea, room as a different range of cues - Main room as list 1/Cues 1-XX, Lobby as list 4/Cues 401-4XX, etc... to help avoid SOME of the confusion, but after all is said and done, I'd rather have a bunch of Express 125's and individual op's. Or cluster some of the consoles, with fewer op's. Much depends on budget for consoles and labor for operators.

As to video, either MIDI sync to playback devices, or use laptops/PC's and a Rosco Keystroke Rosco US : Software : Keystroke

Had a company in last month with this and it's cheap and reliable, easy to configure and does a good job.

 

[xander]

Rosco Keystroke is quick and dirty but it isn't being manufactured anymore, so good luck finding one! As of a couple months ago, Production Advantage had 1 left on the shelf, I think.

 

[cdcarter]

I have ever only done anything related to a show like this once. That one time was the only time I heard the term "timecode" and didn't shudder. The show had approximately 40 rooms, and in every room at every moment of the show there was music playing. Each room had one of 6 soundtracks, and everything was cued off of the music, the actors knew when to move on based on musical cues, and the lighting was all run from one console, getting timecode from the sound computer running all six soundtracks. The SMs were in the field as it were, in constant contact with the control booth by radio, and were overseeing key scenes to make sure they happened, helping with costume changes and re-setting things, etc...

It was a crazy show.

 

[shiben]

Thanks for your help everyone, I will let you know what I find out!

 

[kicknargel]

To emphasize a little what Footer said, make sure that whatever setup you devise works not only for performances, but for rehearsals as well.