Control/Dimming Small Black Box Controller Help

[sully151]

Hi,

The theater company I run finally found a space for a small black box. With South Orange County Ca. rent, we are going to be a lot like the other houses in the area. 50 seats in a warehouse/business park.

From stage left to right our playing space is 27 feet and about 40 feet deep.

Our board voted to do a small LED rig and grow as we can.

Currently we have

10 Chauvet Quad 2 Zoom Tours
3 Chauvet E 190

Its not much, but it will give us a general wash and a couple of lights to focus while we get up and running. We plan on adding more in the not too distant future

Here is my issue, I do not know what light board to get or if I should do a PC based controller.

The company we are buying the lights from recommends we do either the Chauvet Obey 70 or the Chauvet Express 512. If I understand this right, these systems are ok for some things, but not really for a theater environment.

Finally, we have been thrown a bit of a curveball because the city building dept. is trying to make us make outrcontrol booth ADA accessible, which it physically can't be. So that means we need to have the option to have some portability in case we ever hire someone in a wheel chair.

I know there are some programs that let you run thru an iPad, but I do not know what they are. To be honest, this will probably not happen anytime soon, but we need to show the building Dept that we have the option.

We do not have a huge budget, maybe $1500 or so.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

 

[Les]

I don't think I'd go for the Chauvet consoles either. Cueing on them is usually a bit cumbersome. I don't usually pitch the Smartfade, but this sounds like a good application for it - maybe even (or especially) the ML model.

PC solutions are great (though sometimes more difficult to train on) and I'd fear that the iPad would go a-walking out the door one day - or dropped right before a show - you never know. Personally, I avoid running things from consumer devices where possible.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

An aside, its not your building department but the federal government that requires a control room to be accessible. My associate is in the final stages of preparing an article on that exact issue and we talked to the Access Board as well as the ICC. You can't discriminate based on disabilities and telling someone they can't run lights because they have a severe mobility disability is discrimination.

That said, you might look at Cognito from Pathway.

 

[TheaterEd]

An aside, its not your building department but the federal government that requires a control room to be accessible. My associate is in the final stages of preparing an article on that exact issue and we talked to the Access Board as well as the ICC. You can't discriminate based on disabilities and telling someone they can't run lights because they have a severe mobility disability is discrimination.

That said, you might look at Cognito from Pathway.

Bill,
I am in total support of ADA and making sure people are not discriminated against, so please know that the following question comes from a place of intellectual curiosity only. A person with a mobility disability would not be able to do my job since several catwalks require ladders. In my job description(and the description of almost every job I've ever had), it states that I must be able to work on my feet all day and lift up to 50 lbs. Seeing as they are a small blackbox theater, is it not a safe to presume that any lighting techs they hire would need to be able to adjust the lights as well? If needing to climb a ladder is part of the job description, why does the booth have to be ADA accessible? Also, why are my employer (and many others) able to stipulate that whomever has the job is able to lift X number of pounds and work on their feet all day?

 

[Robert]

I have been looking for an LED controller as of late and will be considering the Jands Stage CL Console. My use will be in rehearsal rooms with non-tech operators using it for scene work and small events. Good for LED and some conventional. Probably not good for movers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx74O8Monwk

 

[cbrandt]

The Pathway Cognito might be your best choice for this space. It gives your full range of control, and has some nice applications for remote focus (the ipad app has full control functionality for the console). The smartfade ML would also work pretty well, but keep in mind your upper limit, which is 24 intelligent fixtures. You're halfway there already, and depending on how fast your company is purchasing new lights, you might hit that limit very quickly.

I'd stay away from the Jands CL, as it only does static leds really well. It doesn't do conventionals, nor movers. I've always felt like they got halfway there with this console.

Normally I dislike PC solutions, simply because I lose interface, and have to deal with a computer (that isn't purposefully built for the application). You still may want to consider one, in an effort to save money towards a larger console in the future.

What kind of shows do you run? That can make a big difference, as well.

 

[sully151]

Thanks for the advice thus far. To make it clear, I have no intent to discriminate, this is the reason we are looking to have the ability to run from an iPad or dedicated laptop if need be, but I have also worked many jobs on stage and off that a person in a wheel chair would not be able to do.

Regarding the shows we run- We focus on small cast contemporary shows with minimal technical requirements. Shows that we are looking at for the first season include Moonlight and Magnolias, That Championship Season, Secrets of a Soccer Mom, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) etc. In the past we have done shows like The Odd Couple, First Night, the Frog Prince by Mamet, some Durang shows and things of that nature. I hope that helps.

I have some more questions-

I have always assumed we would go with a traditional board and not the PC route, but if we need to go the PC route, what do i need other than a dedicated computer?

It looks like the Jands Stage CL console only has 12 channels. Does this mean I can only run 12 instruments or can I combine lights to a single channel?

 

[cbrandt]

The CL has 12 faders, but there are two pages of those (so, 24 fixtures). You can always address fixtures to use the same address, and control them together that way. I think there may be some functionality in the board to group multiple addresses together, but I'm not sure about that.

If you go with a PC, you need a computer and some sort of dmx interface, which is highly dependent on what software you use. Most major manufacturers have a dedicated widget or dongle for this purpose. In general, those dongles also unlock the software to output dmx. What have you worked with in the past? That's usually the best place to start. Do some searching around the forum for PC consoles, a lot of people have talked about ups and downs of each.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Bill,
I am in total support of ADA and making sure people are not discriminated against, so please know that the following question comes from a place of intellectual curiosity only. A person with a mobility disability would not be able to do my job since several catwalks require ladders. In my job description(and the description of almost every job I've ever had), it states that I must be able to work on my feet all day and lift up to 50 lbs. Seeing as they are a small blackbox theater, is it not a safe to presume that any lighting techs they hire would need to be able to adjust the lights as well? If needing to climb a ladder is part of the job description, why does the booth have to be ADA accessible? Also, why are my employer (and many others) able to stipulate that whomever has the job is able to lift X number of pounds and work on their feet all day?

I'm not sure that all light board ops at all institutions are required to also access the lights and lift them, and I'm pretty sure that someone in a wheelchair can operate a console. Regrettably, neither your position nor mine will be vetted till there is litigation and then, unless it results in statutory changes, it won't really clarify the issue.

I'm sure in a school or other non-professional setting that control rooms must be accessible. There is possibly some room when it comes to a professional situation, where the only people in the booth are employees, but that is not unlimited and if someone applies for a board op position, even as intern or helper or volunteer, be darn sure that that you don't use their disability as an excuse.

And please, I'm just the messenger, so heed the theatrical idiom of don't shoot the messenger please.

 

[sully151]

This is the board that we currently have

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ProductDetail.jsp?partnumber=N7024&section=38196&minisite=10251

Will this board work for us for a while?