My thinking behind preserving the dimmers is that (1) I don't think the budget is going to stretch to replace absolutely everything, especial with the need for supporting
system upgrades, (2) Preserving the ability in the future, if needed to utilize existing
fixture inventory, if/when the
LED stuff stops working. I know I can fix the
incandescent stuff,
LED's not so much. I also don't see the old equipment going away entirely. Last I knew, the
R40 striplights that were retired in the early 2000's were still kicking around somewhere, (3) We're often employing non-theatre lighting for practicals/effects/ect. This varies from christmas lights, to
LED strips, jobsite worklghts, to old overhead projectors. To preserve the ability to preform these tricks with
incandescent's, dimmers are useful.
Specifically in my email, I mentioned
RGB(A/W). Didn't realize lime was a color option.
I'm fairly certain students won't be hanging lights. The
current standard is
stagepin for dimmable and
edison for
relay. I see no reason to change that.
I would prefer to stay away from
Altman fixtures as well, I only gave that light as an example of the
fixture type. Problem being, the prefered supplier(Syracuse
Stage), is an
Altman dealer, so that's what we tend to end up with. My biggest gripe with the
Altman is the lack of parts availability for the Shakepeares. I learned on
360Q's and to me a Shakespeare is new tech, yet I can't get more than basic, universal parts for them(i.e. I can only get TP-22 sockets(yes, I know that number off the top of my head from replacing so many) but I can't get speed caps for them. There are a number of fixtures prematurely retired, because the steel
socket mount screw/standoff siezed/snapped off in the aluminum
base. The entire
fixture is fine, other than the cap.
I'm with you preserving the old-school dimming capabilities and keeping the relic
stage lights as a backup but, with 120 channels now, do you really need more? I went to 3 High Schools (NLong story) HS1 had 48 6000
watt dimmers, #2 had 24 6000
watt dimmers, and HS had 48 6000
watt dimmers. All had patchboards and HS1 had adequate numbers of
stage pin pigtails all along 3 battens above
stage, and 12 individual
proscenium pockets with 1000 - 1200
watt ellipsodials that I think if you were to take one down and stand it up it would have been taller than me. There were a dozen scoops, about 2 dozen 6" and a few scattered 8" fresnels, maybe 6-10 Lekos 6"... and 3 rows of 3
circuit par strip lights
RGB. Not a bad compliment for a building from the 60's but... never any improvements. That
auditorium burned down in an act of arson and was completely gutted and refitted with a 24
channel non-patchable
system with no option for storing programs or scenes at all. Just a crossfader. I think it was a 0-10v type
system same as the former. Althouth there was room, and the design/architecture elements were there, no fly
gallery was installed. But the shows and music still happened.
HS#2 was designed for but never built a fly
gallery either, and they lighting
system was literally duplicated in every building (3 other Jr. Highs) built roughly the same era. 3 rows of
par strips don't remmeber 3 or 4
circuit but with 250
watt par lamps. Barely any above
stage fixtures, and no more than a dozen 6" ellipsodials (Can I just
call them Lekos from now on?) which I realize now sucked due to improper lamp choice/ the way they were fitted, or being out of
filament position/adjustment. Literally during some performances, people around the back of the
house (Which doubled vig moveable gymnasium type motorized walls) as large group instruction rooms/ lecture halls) would scream "BRIGHTER! I CAN'T SEE crap!" (hey... this is Long F'kn Island, NY) But the show went on...
HS#3 had 48 6000
watt dimmers and a
manual patchpanel and all of 16 pigtails from 4 junction boxes placed on each of 3 above
stage batons. There were 24 pigtails above the
house in 6 seperate equally distanced spots along the entirety of the
catwalk slot. So, you're atalking literally 72 possible circuits for 48 6000
watt dimmers. IIRC the
dimmer rack/patchpanel had 4 rows of 20 amp
stage circuits and only the top row of 72 breakers was utilized, with 3 more rows of 72 breakers "spare." No side pockets, no
stage pockets, no
balcony rail batten, no footlight pockets and no receptacles along the back
stage wall. On one show they needed to light a
scrim at the far rear of the
stage and literally borrowed a 6-channel
portable dimmerr board and
dimmer rack (4800
watt x 6 I believe) from the little
theatre called "The Scrimmer" and 6 strip lights from the middle school to uplight it and
power the strips because it never dawned on them to run 4 or 8 of the spare circuits that already existed from the existing equipment to real wall mounted receptacles. (District used twistlocks)
That school budgeted for and got a new
system which the voters had to approve, and everything was ripped out (not the fixtures) and replaced with 24
circuit 2400
watt system (Kleigl Entertainer) with a "computerized"
desk with memory and show
cue storage functions. So... better control yes but, far less toal
system capacity. Maybe a computerized patch, hope so because otherwise they'd have had to choose channels for each
pigtail permanently. I believe overall it was a step down, but the budget had to include a lot of money to separate the
house light controls and dimmers from the
stage as the 2 systems were both incorporated within the original custom board.
So I'm thinking since your district at least is willing to invest in some upgrades periodically, instead of "improving" a cenrtral
dimmer rack by tossing away 24 dimmers to provide for 2x as many 1/2 powered ones, and the want is there to continue to utilize exising incandescents because hey, they're free and they work, and a
dmx system is already incorporated and being augmented, that instead of throwing money into an expanded
dimmer rack to consider dimmer-per-light onto your existing
stock of fixtures getting select ones off the
ETC racks for that added
channel capability? That would require added pigtails that are always powered in any location where you'd intend to use dimmer-per-light features.
