spot dimming

the devicee you have there is not a dimmer. it does chases. I am pretty sure it doesn't dim.

here is another solution, that would have to be run by your TD. I am pretty sure youo can buya single circuit dimmer, like I think SLD had one for about $30. Now, you cut electrical wires and splice that into it, and mount it securly on the spot, so the spot operator can dim it.

wiring from outlet->single circuit dimmer->spot
 
On our spots, the diffusion knob, when at full, diffuses the beam to a point at which it is indistinguishable from the rest of the stage light. Have a look at your spots' diffusion capabilities.

That Chauvet piece of equipment is quite clearly just a chase timer. It's most likely geared towards DJs, and it just does a chase and you can forget about it.

Tools for Stagecraft has an in-line dimmer too, though it's somewhat more expensive than the one mentioned above.
 
the problem is, when you fade out the stage lights. First you have to diffuse the spot, ,then turn it off, right as you start to fade out the other lights, to a blackout. It's just a pain! :) And at my youth gruop, whwere we use a 1k spot, I don't have enough white light on the stage so that I could diffuse it and make it blend in...whenI turn it off, even with it as diffused as I can get it, it gets a good bit darker! This is a problem I've run into in the past as well...

.,..and just wondering, the 1k lamps for spots should have no troubles being dimmed, right? like, it woudln't hurt it to dim it, would it? I have thought alot about buying another single dimmer...I cannot run it to a drop. The nearest outlet is about 100 feet away and it's being used. The next closest is another floor down and easily 150 feet in cabling. Plus, I only have 16 dimmer channels and currently, I use 14. For the really big events where I MUST use the spot, Iwill use all 16. If you get a single dimmer unit, you can wire it into the spot, and mount it on the side, not like just plugged in nearby, but wiredin, and also so the fan can keep going. I have thought long and hard about trying to do that.
 
Instead of splicing a dimmer into the fixture, I would cut the spotlight cord short and plug it’s end, or coil up the extra cable and attach it to the boom. It is a follow spot we are talking about right? You than do a in-line dimmer mounted to the fixture stand.

Next question we need to know is if this is a arc source/HMI or Zenon follow spot, or halogen lamp spot light. Beyond that if assumed to be halogen, is it a 120v lamp or a 360w low voltage one?

In the past, I have used single circuit dimmers with C-Clamps mounted to the frame of them. Very simple to just clamp them to the stand and control the light in a simple way. Otherwise as said, if you have spare dimmer channels, it’s simple enough to control them with the main dimmers.

Spotlights commonly have “boomerangs” full of gel you can select by way of lever or de-select. They also commonly have dowsers, Irises and black out shutters. There is a simulated way of dimming the spotlight technique that entails using the iris and dowser at the same time to reduce the output for a fad to black.

If a 1Kw halogen 120v lamp, no dimming won’t hurt it, instead it will lengthen the life. This fade to black as opposed to the fixture dousing - not turning off is however a common stage convention to see. That snap off of the light depending upon the application, can be useful in separating the non-reality part of say a song from when the talent goes back into character.
 
Instead of splicing a dimmer into the fixture, I would cut the spotlight cord short and plug it’s end, or coil up the extra cable and attach it to the boom. It is a follow spot we are talking about right? You than do a in-line dimmer mounted to the fixture stand.

Next question we need to know is if this is a arc source/HMI or Zenon follow spot, or halogen lamp spot light. Beyond that if assumed to be halogen, is it a 120v lamp or a 360w low voltage one?

In the past, I have used single circuit dimmers with C-Clamps mounted to the frame of them. Very simple to just clamp them to the stand and control the light in a simple way. Otherwise as said, if you have spare dimmer channels, it’s simple enough to control them with the main dimmers.

Spotlights commonly have “boomerangs” full of gel you can select by way of lever or de-select. They also commonly have dowsers, Irises and black out shutters. There is a simulated way of dimming the spotlight technique that entails using the iris and dowser at the same time to reduce the output for a fad to black.

If a 1Kw halogen 120v lamp, no dimming won’t hurt it, instead it will lengthen the life. This fade to black as opposed to the fixture dousing - not turning off is however a common stage convention to see. That snap off of the light depending upon the application, can be useful in separating the non-reality part of say a song from when the talent goes back into character.
 

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