Les
Well-Known Member
I understand Value Engineering... the school I retired from had a 1978 install of 144 circuits in a dimmer-per-circuit configuration with Electro Controls bolt-in style dimmers.
The catch was we only had about 70 dimmers. If you needed to use a circuit without a dimmer, you had to remove a dimmer from somewhere else and install it.
A "future dimmer rack" location complete with conduit for 3-phase feed and load circuits was even provided to expand the system. Today the system is actually dimmer per circuit with ETC Sensor dimming and Ion control.
Ah yes. The community theatre which I am now the TD of used to operate in a similar way. The original installation (ca. 1995) provided 2 ENR 96 racks, but about 40% of the modules were Airflow modules. Always added extra steps to solving "light no workie" issues. If you were an LD with less-than-stellar documentation skills, figuring out which dimmer to steal was also a pain - especially since you had to think about both circuits that went with the pack.
The console was a Status 24/48 which could control all dimmers but only patched to 48 channels at a time. That was easily the biggest Achilles Heal of the system. These days, the theatre is running an Element. One ENR rack has been removed (modules saved) and was replaced by a Sensor rack. The second ENR lives on, with the eventual plan to remove it once LEDs are further established in the space. 24 channels of Echo relays were also added, but wish it was more. I don't love the fact that one entire catwalk is provided with a single 20a circuit. Especially when I want to use one of our VL1100 TSD's. Hopefully ThruPower modules will come in to play when we do our next round of expansions.
The original installation served the theatre well for two decades until any meaningful upgrades were made. The console started getting flaky sometime in the early 2000s (replaced by an Express) and the processors in the ENR racks started dying later on. I believe I have a spare on the shelf - still in its ESD bag.
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