Patch to board... unpatch from...

Charc

Well-Known Member
I have a quick question, and I can't seem to find the relevant information on the Strand website, with their blasted new layout.

I have, an undetermined, strand architectural lighting system. It's really limiting and a pain, and I've finally made up my mind to just patch all the house-lights into the board. I'm worried that if I patch into the board, the architectural controls will no longer work the house-lights. What do you guys think about this? Unfortunately it doesn't look like the new site as the information on these controls anywhere. The old site had them, it was one of their two architectural controls. I'm also looking to find out if I can lock the architectural controls from our master panel. Unfortunately, again, I can't find any manuals or the model.

In retrospect, this is a terrible post, oh well.
 
It shouldn't mess with the architectural controls...it should be dealing with the DMX and your board patch shouldn't affect it.
 
Grog's right. Your board patch should not affect anything done by your architectural lighting system. In Strand racks, they are two mutually exclusive ways of control. They don't talk to each other at all, really. Some of the Strand architectural systems can listen to the DMX stream to snapshot looks that you have set by the console, but they will never talk back to the console.

Do you know what your dimmer rack is? Can you describe your stations? That would go a ways toward determining what type of architectural system is.
 
Dimmer Racks: Two Strand CD80 Supervisor

Architectural Controls: Look quite like the outlook controls on the strand site. White box, with four small buttons, and long horizontal red lines next to each button. We have two master panels, they have a handful of buttons and around 8-12 faders.

I'll assume the racks set the level as most recent takes precedence. So I'll have to find out about lockout functions on the architectural controls.
 
You have outlook controls. SWC only has 8 and 16 button stations if I remember right.... Premire has to have a seperate processor box.

The beauty of Outlook is that you can wire it into the dimmer rack direct. But you do have rooms and channels to contend with. There is an outlook patch in the SV control module. If you remove a dimmer from the room,you won't be able to control it.

I believe that the rack operates on an HTP (Highest Takes precedence) signal as opposed to an LTP. Meaning that what ever is higher - the level from the console DMX or the level from the outlook station - that is what gets played back....
 
You have outlook controls. SWC only has 8 and 16 button stations if I remember right.... Premire has to have a seperate processor box.
The beauty of Outlook is that you can wire it into the dimmer rack direct. But you do have rooms and channels to contend with. There is an outlook patch in the SV control module. If you remove a dimmer from the room,you won't be able to control it.
I believe that the rack operates on an HTP (Highest Takes precedence) signal as opposed to an LTP. Meaning that what ever is higher - the level from the console DMX or the level from the outlook station - that is what gets played back....

Right, that's what I meant. I've read "highest takes precedence" all over the manual. What I meant was that, but said completely backwards, is that since the house-lights will be off during the show, if someone hits the architectural controls, they will turn on.
 
Right, that's what I meant. I've read "highest takes precedence" all over the manual. What I meant was that, but said completely backwards, is that since the house-lights will be off during the show, if someone hits the architectural controls, they will turn on.

Make sure no one hits them....If I remember correctly though and you're really worried about it...either Premier or Outlook, maybe even both have lockouts...but you'd have to hit up the manual to check.
 
If it's an Outlook system, on one of the master stations (with the sliders) simultaneously press and hold the "manual" and "enter" buttons, until the LED starts flashing... this will lock out all other stations. Use the same combination to release the lock-out.

AFAIK Outlook and Premier stations look pretty much the same... so give this a try, and see if it works.

-Fred
 
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Looking at this online, retail site, I think it is in fact the Premiere.

If it is, in fact, a Premiere system, you will have a seperate processor unit with a 720K disk drive on it. It will only read disks formatted for 720K. Premiere processors were usually only put in places that had a lot of stations (I'm talking dozens here) and over multiple, and multiple types of dimmer racks (i.e. a CD-80SV and Environ cans all in the same system.) Not that I doubt you, but they were rather rare. I can think of one that I dealt with when I worked for a dealer out of the Hundreds of systems that I turned on. Most of the High Schools or the like were some combination of Outlook and SWC (System Wide Control)
 
If it is, in fact, a Premiere system, you will have a seperate processor unit with a 720K disk drive on it. It will only read disks formatted for 720K. Premiere processors were usually only put in places that had a lot of stations (I'm talking dozens here) and over multiple, and multiple types of dimmer racks (i.e. a CD-80SV and Environ cans all in the same system.) Not that I doubt you, but they were rather rare. I can think of one that I dealt with when I worked for a dealer out of the Hundreds of systems that I turned on. Most of the High Schools or the like were some combination of Outlook and SWC (System Wide Control)

Nope, nope, I trust you, doesn't sound like our setup! I thought the Outlook was really new though. So in that case I can try the Manual + Enter buttons.

Wow, you know a lot about your competition. I wish we had a guy from strand on here though, I'd be PMing him every night :rolleyes:. Does Strand even have a centralized tech support number? From what I got from their website, there are three contacts in NA, two of which are listed as handling technical questions. I don't know who are dealer is either, but I don't quite want to pester anyone with a million questions.
 
I know alot about the competition because, while I do work for ETC (kind of - I don't work for the factory directly - I work for the Rep for the majority of Texas.) now, I used to work for a Dealer who carried both lines. I have have mulitple levels of factory training from both manufacturers and was a Certified turn on technician for both. I will be glad to answer any questions that I can - just PM me if you want not to keep this thread going - either way - its up to you.

If you go to this link you can still find me listed as working for an authorized service center, and I haven't worked in that office since June of 2004. The three contacts that you are talking about on the website are the guys at the factory in charge of technical service. They also have authorized service centers that are scattered around the country. The ASC that is closest to you is:

Century Lighting Service, Inc
18-02 River Rd
Fair Lawn, New Jersey 07410-1201
USA Tel: 201-791-7001
Fax: 201-791-3167
Contact: Joel Eps

I am sure that those guys will also be more than happy to help you out.

Look - Has strand been as good as ETC in their support? Not by a long shot, but are they still staffed by people who do want to help and will go out of their way to try and get things done within the system that the factory has established?- Yes they will. They know that they have not been as good as the competition, but I believe that they are working towards bettering themselves.
 
There may be a code issue here. Although I am pretty good with electrical codes, building codes sometimes baffle me. I think there is something in the books that limits how the house lights are effected. There should always be a "panic" system. Something that gets the lights on fast if there is an emergency. I have seen several theaters where there is a second complete house system. (One that is run from the dimmers for normal use, and a second relay system that just brings on a set of panic lights.) As most of my experience is on the road, this is an area I am weak on. Maybe someone could add more.
 
Not likely. If there is a code issue, the emergency lighting should be designed to come on without regard to whatever level the light board has them set at -if they are even part of the system. There are multiple ways for this to happen - an Emergency Lighting Transfer switch, a battery back up to certian fixtures, fixtures that aren't part of the theatrical lighting system, etc.

These should all have been taken care of by the Electrical engineer during the construction of the building. It is definitely not something that a student would be allowed to screw up by addressing the lights from the light board instead of the architectural system.

More than likely, I am willing to guess that there are those "eyeball" style fixtures that are located around the auditorium that come on in the event of power loss.
 
Yea, I know about the emergency "loss of power" backup systems that are required, but this is something else. More to do with police / EMS people and the need to get house lighting on if there is an emergency in the audience area. Its just a memory in the back of my mind. Since I am in PA, it might be a state requirement, a township, or school related thing I ran into many years ago. I really can't remember! I remember them being 120v, and separate from the house lights that were on a dimmer. Kind of red buttons near the exits.
 
Never heard of that in any of the markets that I have worked in. Louisiana isn't known for it's well written building codes however... Neither is Texas.... so ah well... :)
 

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