I had a little help from icanhascheezburger...
I had a little help from icanhascheezburger...
At my school, we are having a bunch of problems with our Ellipsoidals. We are using the altman 1KL series of fixtures. These fixtures are of varying degree measures. Recently, about half of these instruments are no longer operational, We have tried swapping bulbs, but this doesn't work. I believe that the sockets are to blame.
Which would be more likely to happen in a public school. Buying the necessary parts to repair these fixtures, or upgrading?
they build towards in the next 5 years, base this on the need to conserve energy by using more efficient lamps, safety, no asbestos in new lamps and educational, students should learn and use current equipment[the computer people don't use commodore 64's]
Once your 5 year plan is agreed on, if some extra funds become available they can implement it earlier.Just complaining about old gear means nothing to a finance board.But they love a plan, a vision and all that stuff.
hey, if anyone has any of these that they don't want. Since the optics are SOOO horrible, I would take them off of your hands for free. Heck, I'll even pay shipping.
Well, I don't know how your funding works there, but one thing I might suggest, that worked for the schools I went to, is reducing your inventory by replacing one or two systems at a time. For instance if your stage generally divides into 15 areas, try to add about 15 back lights or 30 of your front lights (plus a few couple extras for spares/specials). You then have a good deal more spares and parts to work with until you can afford to replace more down the road.At my school, we are having a bunch of problems with our Ellipsoidals. We are using the altman 1KL series of fixtures. These fixtures are of varying degree measures. Recently, about half of these instruments are no longer operational, We have tried swapping bulbs, but this doesn't work. I believe that the sockets are to blame.
Which would be more likely to happen in a public school. Buying the necessary parts to repair these fixtures, or upgrading?
Who was this immortal person that said such a thing in a designer to study. Nope... not me (I hope) but wish it was in great point for many concepts at least. Gee, if given a bunch of zooms could I design around them - not a fan of them persay... yep on the other hand. Art made on the other had, that is more a question of art than fixture perhaps.
mbandgeek, I cry myself to sleep thinking of these lights: tears stream down my pillow. My experience with them has been nothing but negative. Now if you are "graduating" from PC box spots, maybe I can see your point, but overall it has to be one of the worst (if not the worst) ERS manufactured by a major company in recent years.
McCandless option is old school, what we need to know is how to wiggle the lights as a concept in it being a wrong arguement for a educational setting. You master a light and an angle plust look, it don't matter what you learned with it transfers. You master it with older gear, often you both apriciate what you got and what you later have. Learn it with the new gear and old school stuff is often not as good or useful - just look at the posts above to confirm this. Art is art... was it only started to be made when the s-4 came to market?
I have used such fixtures, even have a few rusted solid to play with in the future. Different, yes. Less efficient in my opinion of all zooms, yes. Compared to a radial fixture... don't know and doubt it. Nothing but negative, I kind of agree but on the other hand if that's what I have I would use them to the best of my ability and I suspect that would be a major difference in taking pride in what I have available = this plus PC box spots are also very useful - have them in my garage at the moment, nothing to say but totally cool in their low voltage MR-16 modified form.
All paint brushes and a paint brush is what you paint with not a measure of the artist painting.
I agree with you, but only up to a point. While repair skill is a valuable one, and probably should be some part of many programs, thats not what people are taking design classes for. Having to blow a huge amount of your time just trying to make shoddy equipment work when you could be spending that time improving your craft doesn't seem the best use of someone's time as a student (or a professional, for that matter).
Ship, I recall us getting into this discussion before:
Just because that paint-brush is out there doesn't necessarily mean it should be used. There is something to be said for practicality and standardization. While I can see some fixtures making a come-back for a specialized reason I think the only people who'd ever spec that in a plot would be Noah, Derek and you. There is no reason to make PRG pull their hair out trying to find Noah some sort of 60 year old obscure limited run fresnel-soidal, or something. Besides, just because that "brush" is available in an educational environment doesn't mean it will be encountered again, and would be an effective tool for training, in any form except conceptually. The OP shouldn't have to pull double duty as ME and LD. He should be painting and learning with his "brushes", not trying to keep the bristles attached!
mbandgeek, I cry myself to sleep thinking of these lights: tears stream down my pillow. My experience with them has been nothing but negative. Now if you are "graduating" from PC box spots, maybe I can see your point, but overall it has to be one of the worst (if not the worst) ERS manufactured by a major company in recent years.
Ship, I recall us getting into this discussion before:
Just because that paint-brush is out there doesn't necessarily mean it should be used. There is something to be said for practicality and standardization. While I can see some fixtures making a come-back for a specialized reason I think the only people who'd ever spec that in a plot would be Noah, Derek and you. There is no reason to make PRG pull their hair out trying to find Noah some sort of 60 year old obscure limited run fresnel-soidal, or something. Besides, just because that "brush" is available in an educational environment doesn't mean it will be encountered again, and would be an effective tool for training, in any form except conceptually. The OP shouldn't have to pull double duty as ME and LD. He should be painting and learning with his "brushes", not trying to keep the bristles attached!
Ultimately it comes down to appreciating what you have. I would rather be seen as someone that can use any Spot on the market, then someone who freaks out at the sight of older gear.
oh and by the way, my brushes are the 1Kl's and i will defend them until the day i die.
Yes, compared to a source 4 with a high definiton lens tube these light may seem like a load of crap, but please consider. Just because you do not like a particular model of light, doesn't mean that said lights should be just deemed as crap. Frankly I am quite offended. This is the equipment that i have learned on, I have put on many shows with these lights.
I try to think of it this way, if i learn on and make do with less then "perfect" equipment, That will only mean that i am that much more capable to get around obstacles. I feel that my training on these lights have made me a much better lighting tech then the average high school technician. I can walk into a space and jump right around the little obstacles and continue with the production. In my book A stage light is a stage light; hang it, focus it, and get on with the show.
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