Control/Dimming Tech Booth Dimming

[CanYouHearMeNow]

My theatre has a setup with 2 electrics on the catwalk with 4 edison outlets (2 circuits) and 72 stagepin (24 circuits, 12 on 1st electric, 12 on 2nd). We are looking into being able to control lights setup in the booth, such as a spot or an ellipsoidal as a spot. What would be the easiest way to have dimmed power get to the tech booth? We have an ETC system, board, dimmers, everything. The room that has the dimmer rack is a ventilated closet at the end of the booth, would there be a simple way to run it on another dimmer if we purchased one (we are not using every dimmer now but we do not know where the power actually runs to). I would love to be able to just run a cable directly out of the dimmer room if at all possible, but at the same time, the only other option would be to run a 20amp extension cord from the catwalk 50-75 feet down to the tech booth.

Any suggestions would be GREAT!

 

[CSCTech]

I'll assume that you want the dimmer rack to actually control this power source, this being board controlled.

First off I will strongley suggest that you do not attempt to open or mess with wiring rather on that dimmer rack without a proffesional on-site. (I am assuming you are a student, if not, still not a good idea)

If you have any extra dimmers in the rack then it should be a fairly simple job for someone to come in and do. And they could also install some real outlets in the booth and make it a lot cleaner.

However if you are in fact a student and don't want to deal with having to have someone come in, been there, done that lol..
Then I would suggest getting a dimmer pack. You can get DJ quality ones for cheap, or proffesional ones varying in price.

This of course is also, assuming you have an open universe on your control board, or, your dimmer rack has a DMX out. OR you have a DMX chain somewhere else in the house that is already coming out of your console where you could just add the dimmer pack as into the chain from the begining.

However if you only have one universe on you console, I suppose you could just connect the dimmer rack to the Out of the dimmer pack, never tried or heard of doing that so don't take my word. But since a dimmer rack is just a DMX device I don't see a problem with it. But that would be confusing programming as Dimmer one, wouldn't be Dimmer 1 on the rack. But I degress.

As long as you don't draw too much power from the pack at once, seeing as these run typically on a normal wall socket, you should be able to get a leko or two lit. This all depends on the lamps your using etc. (You would probably need a Edison-Stagepin cable of course)


So take it as you will, getting a dimmer pack would probably be the easy workaround. And would also enable you to use it elsewhere in the theatre if needed. I have found even the cheap ones to be very useful, especially for special set lighting (set lamps, windows etc) when you don't have any circuits on stage like us.

But if you have the resources and want a clean setup with perminent dimmed power in the booth, having someone come in to do it is your best bet.

Good luck with it!


Heres some links if you don't know what to look for for dimmer packs,

Proffesional-http://www.google.com/products/cata...i=0dR6TaFx07a2B4m1zM4F&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQ8gIwBA#

Higher end DJ-http://www.google.com/products/cata...i=0dR6TaFx07a2B4m1zM4F&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ8gIwAA# \

DJ-http://www.sixstardj.com/sieddmxdidep.html

Never used any of these but, just going by the brands. The bottom, DJ, one supports 600w per channel, so if your not using a higher wattage then that on your lights you want to control then honostly I would get that one first. Simply because I assume it will always be in the booth. Being a controlled envirornment with limited access it shouldn't have many issues. But if you want one that you know will last, go with the high end ones. Nothing worse then it failing during a show. Look for names like Leviton, ETC, etc.

 

[TheDonkey]

As CSC said, from what you have specified, your easiest solution seems to be to just get a small dimmer pack.

Best solution would be to have a console with a second DMX universe,

Otherwise:
It would be ideal for you to have access to your full dimmer rack, that was you can run a DMX cable from the OUT on the rack to the IN on your dimmer pack and stretch the cable anywhere it needs to go.

If you don't have access to the rack, then your next best option would be to unplug the DMX from the console, plug it to the IN on the pack, then run the OUT to your full rack (sorry, rhyming words, could get confusing, I can draw a quick diagram if you like). Then just be sure to set the DMX address of your small pack to start one above your full rack. (the order in which they're chained doesn't matter). The limitation here is that you're running two cables to/from the pack, so if you were to want to place it on stage somewhere, you would be running 100 feet of cable to the stage, then 100 more feet to go back into your dimmer closet and to the rest of your dimmers, which is more costly and has a higher risk of causing problems.

 

[ArthurRiot]

Am I misunderstanding? Are you asking to control a spotlight (or a converted ERS as a followspot) from the booth? Would you want this dimmable at the board? Would it be a true followspot, run by a spot op? If that's the case, then you can rather easily build a converter with a slide dimmer installed, if you know electricity rather well.

Not knowing your skill level, I'd rather not just try to explain it and risk electrocution, but it's basically a male edison to female stagepin with a slide dimmer in between controlling intensity. Then you put an iris on the ERS and even a color scroller if you wanted to get randy (I'd recommend just the gels in frames next to you).

But are you instead just asking to have dimmers in the booth with the board? A number of companies are making portable dimmers, like those previously mentioned.

 

[gcpsoundlight]

4PAK ALL THE WAY!

 

[CanYouHearMeNow]

@CSC
I don't really want to mess with the entire set of dimmers in the rack, that would be too messy for anyone in our department to handle. I'll look into the dimmer pack as an option. I am not all to informed on DMX universes but as far as I know we are only using the one. We have a (relatively) basic setup with no "I wonder what that thing is/does" equipment. I know the board has a DMX 1-512 and then a 513-1024 but only the 1-512 is connected (there is not even an output anywhere for the other even if we wanted to use it on our current system).

@Donkey

I actually have not spent much time with our rack so I am not sure of how it is really connected. I know that it is discontinued but it has a Control Module mounted in it that I believe feeds the rack (this based solely on the fact that when not messed with it says something like DMX output normal).

@Arthur

I would like the control mostly because we do not have a trained spot op. We always get someone last minute and it always hurts somewhere. I would mostly use this for cue purposes so it can be programed in with the rest of the show which is much better than saying "blackout, blackout, blackout...spot! blackout! SPOT!!! BLACKOUT!!!!!" which seems to happen too often. The spot we primarily use has a 1000w lamp so in order to build something that can actually handle that much power, the dimmer would cost upwards of $70 or $80. Something which may be relatively cheap but would be nicer if we had a more professional install.


I will talk to my TD/Director and see what she thinks. It's not a full on necessity, but it would be much better in the long run.
Thanks Everyone!

 

[Chris15]

4PAK ALL THE WAY!

a] Only the recent 4PakD can be used for a DMX input
b] The OP is in the US. I am only aware of the 4Pak being made by Jands for the Australian market...

 

[derekleffew]

...The spot we primarily use has a 1000w lamp so in order to build something that can actually handle that much power, the dimmer would cost upwards of $70 or $80. ...

If the followspot has one or more fans, it cannot be run on a dimmer without re-wiring to isolate the lamp, thus voiding the UL listing and any warranty. Just something to consider. Running the spot through the board can make for nice blackouts and fades to black, but for ugly pick-up s if the light comes on when the Op is not expecting it. I've done many concerts where the truss followspot s were actually moving lights with the pan/tilt motors disconnected. All the Ops had to do was point. They hated it, as they never knew when the light would be on or off, so they had to always follow their target the entire night. Another thing to consider.

If the followspot and lightboard are in close proximity to each other, the board operator could have a power strip or switch controlling the spot power. Makes for easy, syncronized blackouts, but the Board Op would then have to confirm that with the Spot Op that the douser was closed before restoring power.