cablemonkey
Member
Hey all, I've got a sort of interesting problem on my hands... I'm the head A/V guy on campus at an emergency response training organization. I'm actually the only guy in the department, makes things interesting... Anyway, I know next to nothing about stage lighting. The campus we got about five years ago came with a large multipurpose gym with a stage, light, and sound setup that was probably very nice about 10 years ago. We haven't really had to use the stage for anything other than large promotions and graduations (which require very basic lighting), and I've been able to "make things work." During a large homeschooling conference last year a children's drama group came and did a performance for one of the sessions. Thankfully one of the guys that came in to help with the sound and lights did the lighting for it. I realized then that I needed to pay a lot more attention to maintaining the lighting system, and I realized that I needed to do it now when I found out last week that the same drama group was doing another performance soon.
Really I've got two problems. One, I know almost nothing about stage lighting, only what I've picked up just messing around with what we have and what I've read on this forum. Two, the lamp sockets or holders are burning out (carbon buildup, arc damage), and I'm not sure whether I should look for straight-across replacements, or look into retrofitting them to take a newer, more efficient bulb. They currently use a 1000 watt FEL, but from what I gather the FEL is an old, inefficient lamp design and I could probably get better performance from a newer bulb. Most of my fixtures are old Kliegl Brothers ellipsoidals (I'm not too sure on the ellipsoidal part, they have reflectors built into the fixture itself). I also have a few Berkley Colortran 40 degree ellipsoidals that have the same type of lamp socket.
I also have another style fixture, not sure what make it is (no markings). It's a shorter throw fixture than the Kliegl Brothers units, but it has a similar bulb/reflector configuration. It uses an EGM style bulb, they go in with a "push and turn to lock" action. The spring loaded contact on the bottom of the light bulb socket on a lot of them is also corroding and showing arc damage. Can I get away with cleaning those and using a heat-resistant deoxidant, or should I look at replacing/retrofitting them as well (also, what's a good deoxidant for the application?)?
I'm sorry if I'm asking things that have been answered in previous posts... I just don't know the lingo well enough yet to take answers that were given to other questions and apply it to my own challenge. Thanks in advance for the help!
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I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
- Jack Handey
Really I've got two problems. One, I know almost nothing about stage lighting, only what I've picked up just messing around with what we have and what I've read on this forum. Two, the lamp sockets or holders are burning out (carbon buildup, arc damage), and I'm not sure whether I should look for straight-across replacements, or look into retrofitting them to take a newer, more efficient bulb. They currently use a 1000 watt FEL, but from what I gather the FEL is an old, inefficient lamp design and I could probably get better performance from a newer bulb. Most of my fixtures are old Kliegl Brothers ellipsoidals (I'm not too sure on the ellipsoidal part, they have reflectors built into the fixture itself). I also have a few Berkley Colortran 40 degree ellipsoidals that have the same type of lamp socket.
I also have another style fixture, not sure what make it is (no markings). It's a shorter throw fixture than the Kliegl Brothers units, but it has a similar bulb/reflector configuration. It uses an EGM style bulb, they go in with a "push and turn to lock" action. The spring loaded contact on the bottom of the light bulb socket on a lot of them is also corroding and showing arc damage. Can I get away with cleaning those and using a heat-resistant deoxidant, or should I look at replacing/retrofitting them as well (also, what's a good deoxidant for the application?)?
I'm sorry if I'm asking things that have been answered in previous posts... I just don't know the lingo well enough yet to take answers that were given to other questions and apply it to my own challenge. Thanks in advance for the help!
_____________________________________________________________
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
- Jack Handey