Need help!

sammr917

Member
Hello,

I am currently looking around to see if it is possible for us to switch to all LED. We are currently working with a CD80SV Dimmer rack. We want to invest in LED moving heads and all LED lights. I am just checking around to see if this is a system that can we can do this on or if we have to get a completely new control system.

I am posting what we currently have:

LIGHTING SYSTEM
Controllers
1 @ ETC/Element 60/250
56 @ CD80SV 2.4K dimmers (dimmer per circuit)

Electrics
16 @ Front of House: 41-56 (8 per side)
-On stage electrics dead hung at 21′ bars 40′ in length
16 @ 1st electric: 1-16 5′-6″ from front of stage
12 @ 2nd electric: 17-28 13′-6″ from front of stage
12 @ 3rd electric: 29-40 24′-6″ from front of stage

Lighting Inventory
4 @ Source 4 Jr 26 degrees Ellipsoidal 575
8 @ Source 4 Jr 30 degrees 550
2 @ ETC Source 4 Jr 25-50 degree Zoom Ellipsoidal
4 @ ETC Source 4 Jr 50 degree Ellipsoidal
6 ETC ColorSource Spots (FOH)
4 @ Altman 1KL 810, 10 degree 1K
16 @ Par Can MFL 1K
15 @ 6″ Fresnel 500
3 @ ETC ColorSource Cyc
2 @ scoop 500
2 @ Comet Follow Spots
 
Do you have a houseplot?
Is this a traditional theatre or for bands and such?
Based on your fixture inventory I can't easily reconcile what they're used for. Especially your existing LED gear, are there non-dims in those locations? How much power?

If you don't want to replace dimmers with relays, you could go the route of Source 4WRD, but wouldn't gain any control. You'd be buying all new fixtures for the sole purpose of having LED source instead of tungsten, but they'd still be dimmed using your dimmer.

I'd get an electrician to remove the dimmers and replace with circuit breakers, using your existing wiring.
 
I’ve been converting a high school 700 seat auditorium to LED as part of the school district mandated transition. In reality it’s a huge expense for lights that when used pull a lot of power but aren’t used all that much. So financially I don’t think it’s worth it. But I’m not turning down the work...

I first transitioned the 20-ish Fresnel's hanging on the stage overhead battens with PAR 56? Size RGBAW+Uv. These are 7 LEDs @ 9watts each so they put out plenty of light. I put 30 of those. Since there power consumption is so low I just had the district add a constant power drop to each batten and daisy chain power from light to light. I had to custom build short extension cords which was the worst of the installation.
I also had to run a DMX line from the booth to the stage through the attic and drop to the first batten. Added a DMX 4 way splitter and distributed the signal to each fixture. I initially tried wireless DMX transmitting from the booth but issues with some lights turning off randomly so I switched to the physical cable distribution. Each of these lights use 7 DMX channels and each one is addressed independently. This adds a large complexity to the DMX schema so initial addressing can be a pain but I have flexibility to create special zones of multicolor light on the stage. We don’t have to mess with color gels.
we next added 2 moving heads.The school district electricians added a dedicated 20 amp power drop to each moving head. I added the 2nd universe DMX Line and they are working fine.
The original dimmer system is still there and we can use those stage lights if needed...but haven’t.. the next changeover will be the ellipsoidal projectors in the house overhead beam position.
 
Hey @taneglaus — if you ever face a problem again that would benefit from wireless DMX, let me know. I’m happy to provide something that actually works.
I also have loaner and rental stock on hand if you want to evaluate on-site.

Just as a bad cable doesn’t mean all cables are bad, one poor wireless system doesn’t mean all wireless DMX is bad. :)

Thanks,
Jim
RC4 Wireless
 
Thank you @theaterwireless, your correct with good vs bad equipment. In fact in the same venue I added trusses on the sidewalls and added 6 channel dimmer packs to dim those lights with wireless DMX them and they are running fine. Only issue I’ve had with them is I got a call stating the additional lights were not turning on. Ultimately reset the transmitter which resolved the issue. Don’t know if a student was messing around with buttons or what? They had experienced a major brown-out event which destroyed the build-in dimmer racks motherboard which obviously had to be replaced so that brown-out may have caused the issue as well. But I wonder since the wireless DMX transmitter and receivers use 5v d.c.(?) power warts. Anyway, that was several years ago and the WiFi DMX has been solid since.
 

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