ok here is what's happening.
I have been talking to my head of drama about refitting our school hall so it is useable as a professional venue.
We currently have old beta pack dimmers so these would be the first thing to change.
Fortunately zero 88 lighting is across the road from us us so I may be able to get a sponsorship or something? how to approach them?
we have a stage but is in need of new curtains so I have no idea of where to get these from.
also we have all the rigging necessary I believe, but need to have house lights installed.
we also have a production ''box' which is never used due to the fact that it only has to square holes in it, so I want to expand the window here to make it useable and run proper cabling to it.
How should I approach the headmaster about this? I was thinking about telling him when it is done we could rent it out at night as a proper venue for hosting shows, and would want to try and get employed by the school to run it.
Any ideas about where I could get gear from (including new lights and especially the curtains!) would be very much appreciated

Many thanks,
Drumerrhys

Why?

they annoyingly don't use DMX

First of all, the fact that the school may be thinking about a refit is good.

However, there are downsides.

1. as a student you have very limited influence over what ACTUALLY needs doing, or what ultimately gets purchased etc.

2. Be prepared for a VERY big overall budget for what you're planning IF any of it goes ahead.

Although you say Z88 is across the road, whilst you MAY be able to get discount for the school, full sponsorship in any way is unlikely. Don't dismiss the Betapacks too soon though as they MAY be re-usable.
(Don't we have a BR member working for Z88..................??)

Stage curtains - there are several sources, and cost can vary greatly depending on what exactly you want/need - size/fabric/etc.

The control booth (your 'production box'?) - changes to this may have to go before a planning request, depending on whether the wall involved is structural or not. You'd also have to consider other implications, such as decor etc.

And renewing cabling to said control area, this is something that would have to be done by an acredited LEA electrical contractor, preferably one with theatre install experience.

NONE of the above will be cheap! And not something the school will take on the whim of a student, or even a single teacher. It will take a lot of planning, research and time before the first step is taken towards any physical action.

As for hiring the school hall to outside organisations, it is possible, but not that common. The problem with school halls is usually that they're just that - school halls. Often with basic school seating (read uncomfortable!) and limited facilities (eg no bar/refreshments, toilets quite a ways away etc). It may not be a useful argument to use to the head.

As for a student running the theatre aspect, whilst that's not necessarily unheard of, it's highly unusual for a good number of very valid reasons (many already discussed here ad nauseam).

And? A demux would be much cheaper than replacing them to get DMX support.

Depending on the model, these CAN be retrofitted for DMX control...
Or, as James suggests, can be fed via a demux...

I think you will find there are a number of BR members who work for Zero 88 The best person to contact in the first instance is probably Peter Kirkup.

What I remember of Llantarnam School Hall is that it would take a huge amount of work and money to make it "useable as a professional venue" for anything other than a school hall with reasonable lighting and sound.
I would prefer to use the Congres theatre in Cwmbran Town Centre which is, or was last time I was there, far from perfect.
Cheers
Gerry

Not any more I'm afraid. The DMux cards are no longer manufactured, I believe it was a RoHS issue. That said, the Botex DMux is as cheap as chips.

BUT as others have said... It really is too big a job for even the best student to take on.

thanks for all the support so far guys!
I still need a case to put forward to the big man, for investing the money though.
any ideas?

Hmmm... ™Is there actually a budget available, or is this just at the wishful thinking stage...?



True, they're not manufactured any more BUT they're still around.I was offered some last year...

If you want some serious advice I would think you need to define to us what you mean by "useable as a professional venue"
A professional venue for what purpose, theatre, gigs, conferences, jumble sales (already highly suited for that purpose ) or what?
Cheers
Gerry

OK, my 2p in the pot....

School venues are often completely unsuitable as a 'professional' venue. Three reasons for this...firstly it's nigh on impossible to leave anything set from one day to the next, the very nature of the space means that during a school day it's used for other things. Secondly, staffing. Most school venues are serviced by the caretaking staff who really really don't want to be on site past 9:30pm. The third point has been covered by Ynot (bars, dressing rooms, foyers etc etc).

There are exceptions but the ones I've been to are all purpose built performance spaces.

Firstly I'll echo the comments regarding making it a 'professional venue', why do you need to achieve this? Do the school already have interested parties? There is no point making an investment that is unlikely to be of use to a school or make a return if that's the intention.

If the school does feel it needs to better it's facilities, then it's best for them to approach some local and/or national installers to come in, discuss what the needs are and whats possible within budget (there will be one if the school is genuinely planning to do this, rather than a hypothetical exercise). They will then produce a quote detailing their recommendations with costs. This is the most cost effective way to achieve the maximum for their budget and what is most appropriate for the schools real needs. That's assuming you find a good installer, but that's the reason for getting several quotes!

As has been suggested a de-mux might be a cost effective upgrade but obviously a desk that talks DMX is then on the bill as well.

Dimmers aren`t very glamourous items, modern ones may have things like LCD displays and endless menus for setting curve laws, fall back scenes, time in Karachi etc.... but in the end you dont want to look at them a lot.

I have to say I am a student and myself and two other students completley changed the look of our theatre but we got granted the money by assisting our school get specialist performing arts status. We had our stage expanded and electric curtains fitted, bounce back dance floor fitted on stage complete with surrounding blacks, we still use our old beta packs lighting completley fitted with demux so we are able to use DMX and have recently purchased a zero 88 Jester. The theatre is currently having a re-paint from cream to dark red to match the retractable seating that seats 250 that was fitted recently.
Good Luck!

The OP asked for advice on how to pitch this work to "the big man" who I guess is the headteacher.

Back in the day (ahem) I had to do exactly the same, but our reasons for change were far more persuasive.


"Those dimmers WILL set the school on fire if we turn them on"

"The front of house lighting bars - you know, the wooden ones, have woodworm"

"The wiring to the lighting bars has no earth"

"I'd like a desk that has some fader caps left"


In other words, we were in a terrible mess! No investment for well over 15 years. and what we had was blatantly unsafe. Those were the reasons I took to them and it resulted in an awful lot of movement. Namely a £25k theatre refit - betapack 2's, Fat frog, New wiring complete, new bars, floor boxes, T bars.

You have to justify the investment for more reasons than just wanting it. Safety, an increase in courses able to be taught, being able to see the school play!

hi there. thanks for posting!
what do you mean by 'retractable seating? as in permanent? do your school rent out the hall with you running it?

Retractable seating, and we're talking tiered seating, is built on dollys which may be driven by hand or electric motors and the seating rolls back and stacks against the wall, each tier of seating slots under the previous one, if you follow. This allows for the auditorium space to have other uses.