[Freddie]

I'm just interested in how we compare with other schools (I'm at a comprehensive BTW) around the country.
In our ~250 seat. Seats on three sides, small stage on other theatre we've got:

Dimming/Control

• FatFrog (Replaced Sirius)
  
• Sirius 24 running DMX
  
• Zero88 Demux 48
  
• 4x +10v 6-way CCT dimmer packs (24 ways of dimming, all dual socket)
  
• 64 sockets around venue (spread between Arena grid, Stage bars, Stage level and floor level)
  
• "Cord Patch" (The packs are touring-style - 15A sockets on front, cables from sockets in racks underneath, plug direct into packs.)

Rigging and Access

• Square of Truss prewired with 15A above arena
  
• 4 bars prewired with 15A over stage
  
• 2 4-way T-bars
  
• Scaff tower for rigging on main truss
  
• Zarges for rigging on stage

Lantern Stock

• 2x Selecon 2k Profiles
  
• 5x Selecon 1k Fresnels
  
• 3x 1k spots
  
• 5x 500w fresnels
  
• 5x 500w CCT Pebble Convexes (I think!)
  
• 5X 500w CCT Spots
  
• 4x banks of 4 500w floods
  
• 3x PAR64s
  
• 2x EVL Proscan 150

Crew

• Full time AV/Theatre tech
  
• ~10 Student Tech Crew (Yr9 - 13) Props/Set are seperate

Updated 11/6/06

[PDD]

260 seat theatre (in a public school, so possibly a little unfair in comparision!!!!), thrust/proscenium, full-time theatre tech (um, that's me... ahem...)
also...
c.500+ seat concert hall, c.100 seat temporary venue (once a year).

Anyway, this is what we have (using your categories):

Dimming/Control
2 x ETC Express 48/96 (1 for shows outside the theatre & back-up)
ETCNet/DMX (currently with Zero88 Demux)
WysiWyg (would consider Emphasis but prob not in the immediate future)
Trusty old Strand STM dimmers (40-ways) - soon to be replaced with 72-ways of ETC SmartPack & a decent hard-patch.
3 x Strand Act 6 portable 6-way racks
Also got a Strand EC90 48-way rack which we're waiting to have installed in our concert hall.

Rigging/Access
84 circuits around theatre (26 on FOH bridge, 22 over fore-stage, 16 over stage, 20 on stage). All 15A. Again, we're in planning to have a full refit (much overdue!), ideally taking us up to 100+ circuits, especially more in the air. Would be interested in opinions on the old argument of 15A/16A?
Tallescope & Zarges.
A bit of Trilite & wind-up stands for the other venues.

Lantern Stock
14 x Sil 30, 2 x Sil 15
2 x Quartet 15/25, 4 x Prelude 28/40
8 x Patt 23
14 x Quartet F, 8 x Minuette F
6 x Patt 743, 5 x Berkey fresnels
10 x Patt 123
18 x Par 64
4 x 4-way Minuette cyc floods
3 x Single Minuette flood
6 x Strand S-batten (my colleague loves them; I hate them!)
18 x Birdies
A few other bits and bobs & effects (e.g. UV, smoke, pyro, etc)

We also don't have any movers, although that's because we don't really need them to be honest. We hire the extras we need - recently we've had a S4 Revolution, and we trialed 14 x Thomas PixelPAR's on our last big show.

[nickb12345]

I cba to sype them all our here but our school has a community theatre with its arts collage stuff. The specs are all on the website: http://www.sindentheatre.biz > Information > "here" > Full Information


Nick

[TomLyall]

nickb12345, on 20 Dec 2004, 10:33 AM, said:

I cba to sype them all our here but our school has a community theatre with its arts collage stuff. The specs are all on the website: http://www.sindentheatre.biz > Information > "here" > Full Information


Nick
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Over 50 Lanterns including Par 64s, Par 52s, Profiles, Silhouettes, Fresnels, Floor Cans & Flood Battens"

Sure?

[the kid]

Its all Brag Brag isn't it

well we had essentaly a beta-max rig

Dimming/Control
2 Tempus 6x2
Strand 24x2 analogue


Rigging and Access
4x 12 socket prewired bars 2 foh 2 on stage
1 ladder
1 take down tower


Lantern Stock
1 x P23
4 x P123
2 x P60
4 x P45
2 x P743

lots of other old floods that are 250w

[computer]

ok local school I help at, its a public one with a 300 odd seat theatre...

Dimming/Control

• Fat Frog
  
  
• Sirius Desk (24?)
  
  
• 4x Betapacks (Installed)
  
  
• 1x Betapack (Non-Installed)
  
  
• 2x Alphapacks
  
  
• Patch (62 15A plugs below the dimmers that plug into the front of the dimmers)

Rigging and Access

• 2x 4 way outlets backstage either side (1 each side)
  
  
• 1x 4 way outlet near roof above stage used for cyc floods
  
  
• 3x 12 way IWBs (1x Over stage, 2x Above seating)
  
  
• 1x 6 way IWB FOH wall
  
  
• 2x 4 way outlet with vertical bar either side of auditorium (near stage (1 each side))
  
  
• Genie Lift
  
  
• Scaff tower
  
  
• Zarge ladder

Lantern Stock

• 4x 2k Profiles
  
  
• 1x 1k Profile
  
  
• 6x 650w Strand Quartet Fresnels
  
  
• 4x Selecon 1k Fresnels
  
  
• 2x Patt 123?
  
  
• 2x Other Patts
  
  
• 4x Pebble Convex Lanterns (not sure)
  
  
• 2x Strand Coda 4way Flood Battens (500w each, used for cyc)
  
  
• 6x Strand Coda 500w Floods
  
  
• 8x 1k Par 64 (Longnose)
  
  
• 2x 575w Par 64 (Shortnose)
  
  
• 4x Par Floorcans
  
  
• 2x Pinspots
  
  
• 4x Birdies (and 2x 2way Transformers)

hmm..
comp

[themadhippy]

my school had
12 chhannels of strand dimming
strand 2 preset board, no timed x fades,no memorys
2 pat 23's
2 pat 123's
4 major floods

[Jon T]

School had:

Control/dimming/signal:

Fat Frog
6x DMX betapak 2
1x zero88 demux

Scrollers:

12x Rainbow scrollers

Moving Heads:

2x High End studio spot 250

Lantern stock:

12x Selecon Fresnels 1200
6x Selecon Pacific Profiles
8x Par64 with CP62 lamps
4x ETC Source 4 Juniors
6x Strand Quartets
4x Strand Coda Floods
Countless numbers of Par36 and birdies

Lx Bars:

4 on stage LX bars 15amp with microphone XLR outlets
5 FOH grid LX bars 15amp with 5pin DMX outlets and microphone XLR outlets

Access

1x Scaff Tower
2x zarge ladders
2x chain hoists rated at 750kg per hoist

[Freddie]

Oops! Just realised the downfall to my comparison:
If a school has staff/students sufficiently involved in tech to read/post on the forum, the chances are they'll probably have a fair bit of kit...

Not really relevant (well not relevant at all really), but we do have a recording studio and an international award winning concert band.

[benweblight]

our headteacher has suddenly that we are not allowed to use smoke (because she's worried about it going onto the audience), I don't see why, we've used it before

we hardly ever use our lights as the bulk of our rig for big shows (although we do use them for small shows/gap filling etc.)

Control/Dimming:
18way Furze 2 Preset Board (master and preset buttons, 'dipless')
18way Furze (delta?) Dimmer
2x Botex Single Dimmers (usually for houselights or practicals)
NJD 4ch Chaser

Rigging etc:
8 way foh IWB (some sockets paired)
A few onstage IWB'S
Various spare sockets at roof and floor level
Scaff Tower
Large Ladder

Lantern stock(not many numbers sorry):
A few Furze profiles (p23 copy I think)
A few Furze fresnels
A few Minuette fresnels
Loads of rusting Furze floods (again, pattern copies)
one or two old strand profiles (like a p23 put with a bit on front)
8x Domestic Floods (house lights and bits and bobs on stage)
A few other things (par 38, shop display lights , smoke etc)

in terms of crew, at the moment, theres me and someone else on lights, and another two on sound etc., but it will be down to two in two years

[gareth]

Moderation : Following consideration by the moderation team, all the posts concerning the use of pyro in school theatres has been removed from this thread. This subject has already been covered in considerable depth in this thread and this thread, and as such there is absolutely no point in going around the same discussion for a third time. Using the Blue Room search facility with the search string "pyro in schools" brings up both of these threads within the first three results.

[AaronHorn]

I am a year 13 student at a state school. We currently don't have a lighting system which of our own. It used to consist of (now broken and defunct):

1x 24 channel Furse dimmer hard wired to a 24x(2x15A) patch board.
1x 2 resent 24 channel desk controlled by proprietary analog system.

Currently on hire we have:

2x (1x15A) Strand SD6 dimmer packs (connected to 2 installed 32A ceeforms)
1x 24 channel Zero 88 Alocora with a long piece of DMX cable.

In future the system will consist of:

1x 24 channel Zero88 Chili dimmer hardwired to the patch board.
1x Zero88 Fat Frog

We have an FOH bar with two side bars along the hall
(300seat general purpose hall with stage).
On stage there are three internally wired bars at regular intervals.

All bars come out to a band of ~50 15A plugs on the patch bar.

Currently the school employs an AV/ICT technician to officially look after it.

We have a three story scaff tower (used for other projects but mainly theatre).

Our currently lantern stock consists of:
5x 500W SPKs
4x 1Kw spots (can't remember name or angle... older Furse things iirc).
1x Prelude of some sort.
7x 1Kw P64s (cheap ones)
4x Symmetrical house light floods (500W)
4x 3x3 (9 lamp) colour batterns.
1x flood light of some description
1x 1.2kW (Strand maybe) follow spot

I don't know too much about the lighting stock as I am the noise boy. OT but the specs for that are

1x Soundcraft Spirit FX16 (16 channel)
1x Soundcraft Spirit Folio (12 channel)
2x 150W H/H amps
2x Phonic 10" monitors
2x Hung Community 15" speakers
2x Hung Community 12" speakers
7x Sennhieser mics
2x TOA UHF receivers
1x TOA Handheld UHF mic
2x TOA Lav UHF mics

Lots of cables, stands etc and 8 channels of XLR (coming out in two places).

Finally we have a large networkable Sony rear-projected system with AV and DSub connections in place.

[P. Funk]

I'm at y13 at a 950 pupil grammar school. We have a 200 seater multipurpose hall/gym type venue, with a tiny pros arch stage. We also have a small drama studio, which uses the CCT equipment mainly.

Lantern stock:

• 8 par64 cans
  
• 2 par64 floorlites
  
• 10 LDR tempo 500W fresnels
  
• 4 LDR tempo 500W PCs
  
• 2 strand quartet 15/25 zoom profiles
  
• 9 teatro 500W cyc floods
  
• 5 teatro 500W symmetrical floods
  
• 10 CCT minuette fresnels
  
• 2 CCT minuette profiles

Rigging etc

• 44 5 amp circuits on 7 fixed bars
  
• 2 doughty club stands + T bars
  
• small scaff 'grid' over drama studio

Dimming/Control

• zero88 Lightmaster XLS board
  
• 4 zero88 betapack 2s with IECs
  
• IEC patchboard
  
• 4 zero88 alphapack 1s
  
• zero88 'level 12' 2 preset analog board

So not the best kitted out in the world, but given the situation of the venue I think we're quite lucky we have this much! A £3m new building project including a multipurpose new 'arena' type area with fixed raked seating is just about to be undertaken, so its complete just after I leave

EDIT: sound (don't know much about)

• 2 mackie art 500 speakers
  
• Yamaha R3500 (?) amplifier
  
• Spirit SX desk
  
• 7 trantec lapel VHF mics
  
• CD, MD, tape player built into same rack as mixer and amp
  
• Alesis MIDIverb2
  
• Behringer FX unit
  
• Feedback destroyer

[propmonkey]

Im in the US but I figured I might as well add in

Venue:
Main - 1159 seat auditorium with a 40ft proscenium
other – 200 seat little theatre 15ft proscenium

Lighting:
Main:
96 Strand CD-80 dimmers (82 stage, 14 House)
Strand 300 with 100 channels
R-120 remote
Separate house control

18 – Parelilipspheres
12 - Strand 15.3 degree
12 – Colortran 12 degree
9 – Strand 25/50 Zoom Lekos
4 – Strand 30 degree
8 – 6” fersnel
6 – 3 cell Altman Cycs
6 – 14” focusable scoops
6 – Colortran 25/50 Mini Zooms
6 – Par 64
2 – Strand 5 degree
8-12 other broken and old fixtures

Little theatre:
12 Strand CD-80 Dimmers
Strand 300 with 50 channels

6 – 6” fersnels
6 – Altman ellipsoidal
6 – Colortran Mini Zooms
2 – 10” scoops
some other old old fixtures


Sound:
Main (I don’t know that much about our system):
Soundcraft 32 channel Delta SR
AB international amps
EAW speakers and monitors
Rane equalizers
Shure beta 58a mics, SM-57, and some others
1 - handheld wireless
7 – body mics

Little theatre:
8-channel mixer
1 – 2 channel rane eq.
2 - EAW speakers

Rigging/Access:
Well currently…
30 pipe counter weight system…its has been condemned everything is out of code and were hoping to get it replaced very very soon.
We have 3 electrics above the stage
2 trees in the house
6 coves

[SceneMaster]

My school’s light rig… Split between the Drama Studio and the Hall…

Dimming/Control:

Drama studio:

2x 6ch Furze Install Dimers analogue input (not sure what model but EDM series it think)

1x 12ch 2 preset Pulsar analogue desk

Hall:

1x Pulsar 6ch Rack dimmer
(arrr!!!, need more dimmers to run 24 sockets and fed up of hiring or using my four channel multi dim to supplement rig, talk about channel pairing!!!)

1x 18ch 2 preset Pulsar analogue desk (why for a 6ch pack I don’t know maybe someone in the past nicked the other two packs )

Rigging and Access:

Drama studio:

Proper Grid with 12 5amp sockets from dimmers no patching though!!!

Hall:

24 Secure hanging point with 5amp supply to each… (the cabling needs replacing over 30 years old as this 40 something photographer came up to me one day saying wow they still using the cables I was using when I was 11!!! At least the dimmer is only 15 year old!!!)

For access a big but decent scaff tower and a small ladder.

Lantern Stock for both hall and drama studio:

Now we come to the bit I am most proud of if you can be proud at all of our quite frankly rubbish system…

9x Sil 30’s
2x Sil Follow Spots (one needs repair)
6x Patt 60 Floods (need repair)
12x Par56
6x Furze PCs (we had 12 but 6 randomly disappeared and it wasn’t PAT testing session)
6x Patt 264s
Loads of Patt23s
And not forgetting the never used 6x T-Spots (or as I have been told here T-Pots)

(We use 5amp to 15 amp adaptor for the bigger light such as sil30s as 15 amp were fitted when they came and what is the point in down sizing!!!)

And for Sound… well lets just say it a LOT better off than the lighting which has only one real claim to fame which is to have the largest supply of filters a secondary school has ever had!!!

For crew both Lighting and Sound myself and a few trainee year 7s

Sorry to have rambled but I am fed up of this system and when ever I try to do something about it no one listens… so people wonder why I keep submitting hire orders for every medium to big event and that fact it would be cheaper to buy the equipment outright is not the point, then to be accused of taking the school equipment home when I was walking out with my own dimmer and desk and the fact that “hasn’t the lighting improved since we put £100 towards filter, gaffer tape and lamps” attitude seems to prevail when it is the use of my equipment free of charge which has improved it in the whole!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……