agermich Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Hi There I'm in need of some advice. As part of my university course (at Trinity College Carmarthen in Wales) we are doing a small scale community tour. The tour is mainly going to schools but there are two venues which are residential care homes and this is where my problem arrises. Both of these venues have a ceiling height of only 2.5 metres so I'm having problems designing a rig that gives decent cover . The school venues are all in large halls with high celings so the rig that I have set up will work fine but when it comes to the care homes I'm stumped. In one of the venues the floorspace is adequate enough to set the stands back further to get a slightly better angle but it's still not great. I am mainly using patt 23's and 123's because the style of the lanterns fits with the time period of the piece but I have other equipment that I can use if neccessary or I can hire some extras from stage electrics. Other equipment that I have available to me includes patt 223's, patt 264's, 1k ADB fresnels, Strand SL's, minuettes, source4 pars, par 64's, par 16's, coda batterns and various other pieces of equipment. I need to be able to achieve 2 washes (a L103 and L202) and there are also a few spots. I did a search of the forums but couldn't find any other related topics. PLEASE help me! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 One trick with low height venues when you want good washes, is bounce off the ceilings. Many of these type places have white or light coloured tiles - they take light quite well, and something like 223s bounced give nice wide soft light. 2.5 metres still gives you a couple of feet above the tallest performer, so the wide angle kit you have may still be usable. If it's a proper period piece, then even light from below can be useful, despite the awful shadows and sunken features - after all, footlights were still in use when 223's and 264s were new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Minuettes have a significantly wider max beam angle than 123s which may help you get a decent, even cover at short throw. Given the short throw I'd steer clear of 1k kit and stick to 500W profiles & fresnels. Birdies make useful floorlights to fill-in or for specials. A coda or 2 is useful for 'houselights' so you can dim them nicely - better than fluoro' tubes flickering on & off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcT Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Another vote for the Minuette fresnel. With a beam angle of 18-57deg they work well for washes and soft edge specials in small venues, and those with low ceiling height. Good luck - sounds like fun! Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 I guess the only other thing you can do is use some Brushed silk frost - that should get you a bit more coverage out of each lantern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p.k.roberts Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 I need to be able to achieve 2 washes (a L103 and L202) and there are also a few spots. This may not be quite what you're after, but have you considered flourescent 'soft' lights, these are often used in low ceiling height TV studios and should give a reasonable 'wash'; a degree of beam control is still available by using egg crates and intensifier/barn doors. A disadvantage would be that they don't dim right down to 0% but advantages would be that they they have a relatively low heat output so you can use them closer to the ceiling and gain a bit more effective height. You'd save a bit on power as well and get 'built in' dimmers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Dont forget that you do not have to light from above. Side lighting can provide adequate wash if used correctly, as can lights placed in other, more obscewer locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agermich Posted October 24, 2005 Author Share Posted October 24, 2005 Theres some great ideas here. I think that bouncing light off the celing could work well so I'll give that a try. I might order a sheet of brushed silk frost too as that could help to get a better spread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 My only worry about lights and heght in a care home is that often the ceiling is a suspended type with polystyrene type tiles and doesnlt like being warmed up at all......... The other worry would be if thwy have heat detectors above the aforementioned ceiling. I know of a school where these were set at 60 C 'to catch a fire early'. 60 C is colder than my hot tap at home! Therefore any lantern on for a prolonged period could be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 My only worry about lights and height in a care home is that often the ceiling is a suspended type with polystyrene type tiles and doesn't like being warmed up at all.Ye Gods! No building, particularly a residential care home should still have polystyrene anywhere in it's fabric. The licencing officer should have had that out decades ago! I would expect that fire detectors would be optical smoke types as they are just so much faster. Still valid points though, even a traditional plaster ceiling could be damaged by something 'lantern hot' too close for too long. And do check the fire alarm situation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 I entirely agree with you however, as we know well from our own industry, not all safety rules are followed or followed correctly. as part of my Uni course I was recently in a care home taking a 'history' when a new delivery of furniture for their smoking room arrived from a house clearance company -all in fairly good nick. Being young and male, they asked me to help unload. None of the furniture had the usual CE kitemark that fire regs these days demand. I mentioned this to the manager who told me "that would screw up our business, and they are really looking forward to some new sofas". Needless to say, I contacted the local council through my tutor and guess what, the fire brigade took away those sofas the following week. As ever when margins are being squeezed, safety is a casualty, and I would always rather be safe than sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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