number of dimmers and channel capacity of high schools
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tyler.martin
Active Member
Wanna share? Thats seems like more than most venues in the entire city!
you wouldnt be interested in picking up 2 more nodes and a few pannels for your 300 board would you?
GageStryker
Member
You're going to love the 101s. They're amazing little buggers. And not that expensive, either. Definitely a rock n' roll fixture, not theatrical though. I have a feeling many people are going to spec them and then realize you can't use them to light anything but haze. They do what they do very well, though.
As to small vs. large, it's less a matter of dimmer size as it is lighting cost/capacity per occupied seat in the venue. If you have a state of the art lighting system in a 200 seat venue that 40 people show up to for four productions a year, some consultant is laughing at you. However, if you're like me, with 3 sensor racks (including one that's pretty much entirely house lighting) in a 2200 seat venue that does 4 productions a week 52 weeks a year (plus additional rentals and outside events), you're in a position where it's a week to week making due situation. Of course, our productions generally don't require heavily cued lighting, do we do OK.
It's all about what you do with your gear. There's nothing more sad then an expensive piece of gear that hangs in one place and gets used rarely.
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jglodeklights
Well-Known Member
The high school I work with is currently constructing their new PAC over the land of what was the old auditorium. Two SR48 racks will give us 192 dimmers dedicated to stage lighting, as architectural will all be Unison. This is a major upgrade from the 96 strand dimmers previously available. Also, 8 of those were allocated to house lights.
With our Express 48/96, we will be able single channel all circuits. Between the new package of instruments, and the old units we are bringing back from the old space, we will be able to have about 120 instruments in the air without renting. With rental units and all CYC light channels in use, we could easily max out our 192 channels. Time for a console rental, at that point!
In reality, all of the old package except the 10 S4's will probably stay in the black box space that is a new feature for them in their PAC. A few sky CYC cells may become work light.
With our Express 48/96, we will be able single channel all circuits. Between the new package of instruments, and the old units we are bringing back from the old space, we will be able to have about 120 instruments in the air without renting. With rental units and all CYC light channels in use, we could easily max out our 192 channels. Time for a console rental, at that point!
In reality, all of the old package except the 10 S4's will probably stay in the black box space that is a new feature for them in their PAC. A few sky CYC cells may become work light.
Probably really late to post this, but I believe my school has 146. 1 through 24 are to locations in the catwalk, 25 through 40 are to side beams in the house, 41 through 100 are to 3 borders above the stage, 101 to 112 control wall boxes located backstage, and 113 to 124 are for the Cyc. The rest aren't programmed to the console, so I don't really look at them often, but they're probably for houselights. We have a Lehigh Millenium 48/96 console. And the middle school I went to had an ETC Express 24/48 that controlled 96 dimmers. 3.5/10 of which were house lights.
The High School I went to had 110 dimmers in Main stage, 24 in the Black Box, and the rest out of 2 Sensor 96 racks were used for House lights and Work Lights. We had 2 Express 48/96 boards for both theaters.
But a new high school school that I'm helping the director out at, has 288 dimmers in Main Stage, 80 in the Black Box, 16 dimers for house lights, and a Smart Switch for Work lights, and Sconces. Plus an Eos Board on Main stage, Element in the black box. 6 High end Studio Spot 575s in Main stage as well. And a plethora of conventionals. Most of which are not being used because theres no need for them! Needles to say that school is in the rich district in my home town. I wish we had that kinda money when I was in HS.
But a new high school school that I'm helping the director out at, has 288 dimmers in Main Stage, 80 in the Black Box, 16 dimers for house lights, and a Smart Switch for Work lights, and Sconces. Plus an Eos Board on Main stage, Element in the black box. 6 High end Studio Spot 575s in Main stage as well. And a plethora of conventionals. Most of which are not being used because theres no need for them! Needles to say that school is in the rich district in my home town. I wish we had that kinda money when I was in HS.
at my high school we have a 96x2.4kw NSI rack in our 600+ seat procenium theatre. yet only 1-60 are used for stage lighting and maybe another ten for the house, so by my math we have 26 dimmers that arn't even circuited. and there have been rumors that we will be gitting an upgrade. i hope that means routing those to FOH posistions (we only have twenty circuits and those are on one catwalk roughly 15-20 feet from the 14' procenium arch and 40+ feet up) but who knows if or what we will get. this is controlled on a Colortran Status 24/48. which i am hoping is going to be upgraded to an ETC Element.
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I realized why I was so confused about why someone was quoting me saying I would enjoy the Martin 101s! I didn't say it. Martiny said he was getting 101s and somehow we both got quoted. That makes things much more clear to me!
Another high school in my area has 150+ dimmers, but an ETC Express 24/48. Though I heard from our local dealer, they are getting an Ion!
Another high school in my area has 150+ dimmers, but an ETC Express 24/48. Though I heard from our local dealer, they are getting an Ion!
Re: hate to burst a bubble
My school currently has one 96 channel Sensor Dimmer Rack, but with new budget coming i have put in a request for an additional 96 channel rack to be installed, as well as some intelligent lights. We currently have at etc express 48/96 but will be upgrading to hold our new additional dimmers.
My school currently has one 96 channel Sensor Dimmer Rack, but with new budget coming i have put in a request for an additional 96 channel rack to be installed, as well as some intelligent lights. We currently have at etc express 48/96 but will be upgrading to hold our new additional dimmers.
Our school auditorium has 144 Leviton i-series dimmers, one rack of 48 and 1 rack of 96. The first 100 are stage lighting circuits. The rest are house lights, work lights, etc. This was installed around 2003. Previously we had 12 ETC Sensor dimmers. Funny, we put on some amazing shows with only 12 dimmers!
tyler.martin
Active Member
I'm not getting them, Im working on a new theatre contstruction that is getting them. It is still a high school though.
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