xllx

Very useful, thanks!

Thanks all. I think I need to get a few and do a side by side comparison. Will certainly try the Chauvet EVE range.

Thanks all for your thoughts Looks like covering black multicore with a sleeve of some sort willl be the best solution. I was originally planning to go with the lycra sock plan for the multi, and might make up some custom spiders with white PVC cable and paint the 16A ceeforms white! I'll look at the split flexi trunking too, as I hadn't thought of that already.

This is my current plan!

I've been asked if white socapex multicore exists. This is for a corporate event in a white room, with white bars and white lights! I can find grey YY cable, but can't find anything 18 core, 1.5mm2 or 2.5mm2. Anyone know where I could buy cable to make up or even hire?

Would love Coloursouce, seem to be a pretty much straight replacement, but as I said probably out of budget. Ideally looking for real world experience at the Chauvet, Eurolite etc end of the market.

We use quite a lot of source 4 jr zooms for lighting basic corporate stages. Usually 8 or 12 at a time, with a 3m to 6m throw. I need to look at LED alternatives. Something with similar brightness, 20-50 degree zoom or thereabouts, colour would be nice but not essential. I'm not looking at Lustr or probably even ETC Coloursouce for budget reasons, but the cheaper end of the market. What would people suggest as a suitable replacement?

Yes, thanks for the prompt reply, and yes, did occasionally pop into CTS, for colour, lamps and other bits and pieces and the odd hire now and then!

I have a venerable Zero 88 Elara which has a flickery preset master fader. Anyone have a schematic, or know what the fader spec is so I can order one in a hurry? Alternatively, are the other faders identical so I can "borrow" one from another part of the desk? Or can anyone fix this for me, in or near Birmingham by end of play Friday? 🙂

Two 2m and two 1m would enable you to make any length from 1m to 6m and will probably fit in your van!

Yes, could someone please straighten up those dimmer packs? It won't help get everything up and running, but it would make me feel better!

I would agree with getting someone on site to sort this out, it shouldn't take long. I started to write out instructions for trying to sort this out, but there are just too many variables and unknowns which started turning it into a massively long troubleshooting document! So in the end I abandoned it! A couple of things I did notice, is that you have 20 or so cables plugged into the dimmers, yet you only have 6 dimmable lights in your rig... This suggests all the LED pars are also plugged into the dimmers which is not optimal. It can be made to work, but involves additional programming and electrically is not ideal. The other is that the DMX addresses on your dimmers make no sense. The address you set on the packs is the DMX address of the first channel on that pack, the remaining dimmers on that pack follow sequentially. So, with 4 four way packs, you would probably address them as 1, 5, 9, 13 which would mean DMX channels 1-16 each controls an individual dimmer channel. The first thing I would do is try to identify which plug is connected to which light and label them. This will give you a fighting chance of sorting the system out.

That's what the people either side of the ramp are for.

8 x 6 lamp bar lighting meatracks are 90 inches by 60 inches, so assuming your decks are 8 feet long, than about the same footprint as your trollies. They almost always have 6 castors. Yes, you do get the front set going up in the air and then the rear set as you go over the top of the ramp. The key is to accept this behaviour and control it. I have loaded literally thousands of meatracks over the years and you always try and have three or four people to load them safely. One or two pushers who follow it up the ramp, and two guiders who stand on the floor either side of the ramp. The guiders help stop any sideways movement and can give an extra push to get over the "hump" at the top of the ramp. The other important thing is to have good sides to the ramp to stop it wandering sideways. PICTURE.

"Allegedly" a certain crew I was part of in the 80's took umbrage at the new speakers installed in our local pub. One was aimed at our usual lunchtime table at ear splitting volume. The landlord wouldn't turn it down, so we tended to pop one of the wires out of the spring terminal at the back and usually reinstated when we left. Landlord was not impressed, and threatened to bar us :-) The next day a quick squirt of a water pistol through the grille made the cone disintegrate a few days later when we weren't there to be blamed.

I rememebr a touring musical like that many many years ago. We had a threeset 80 manual desk, and one preset was dedicated to red/amber/blue washes on the xyz faders. Most of the musical numbers were called by the DSM as something like "standby LX cues 30-127... LX30-127, GO! GO! Go! for every change on the beat for the whole number.

I've bought several popups over the years, and you really do get what you paid for. This cannot be stressed too highly. Are you committed to a hexagonal structure? Multiple square or rectangular ones might be a more flexible option. Do not skimp on tie downs, those little weights on the legs do sod all, big spikes into the ground are the way to go. After working on several festivals in proper structures, I've lost count of the number of times we've come on site in the morning to find the field scattered with broken cheap popups and gazebos usually belonging to the small traders. Boardmasters 2014 was particularly impressive :-)

This is the crux of my question really, is there a legal requirement to change the cable? I'm fine with the details of inspecting the unit for damage and polarity etc (it's a B15d small bayonet as it happens) and putting an American plug back on if I have to.

E-Z UP certainly used to do a hexagonal popup tent. No centre king pole though. I have a very old tired one, that gets wheeled out once a year for a summer party, last time was August 2019! I can't remember the exact dimensions, but it's a good 6m in diameter I should think. E-Z UP are certainly more robust than a lot of the recent Chinese copies which seem to be made out of the thinest metal known to man. Their prices reflect this! It can be put up by three people, but one on each leg and one in the middle is better. Less people means it doesn't go up cleanly, and fittings get stressed and a couple of parts on mine have been bent slightly. I suspect that any form of pop up won't be suitable, and as ever on the subject of tents, you take Imagineer Tom's advice.

I've been asked to put a plug on an American photographic/film light. The 110v lamp is being replaced with a 220v LED in the original holder. Do I need to worry that the flex is in American wiring colours? It's Black/White/Green, now I know black is live, white is neutral and green is earth, and the inline switch on the cable is rated to 250V so can I just stick a UK plug on it and call it done?

+1 for the jands CL. I have one, but only really used it with submasters for busking shows. It's very easy to set up, easy for the complete novice to get light out, and dial in colours. Don't think I've used the cuestack, but it does exist. I like it, but it's had so little use over the last couple of years, that I could be persuaded to sell it on.

Totally agree

How often do you think you will use this system? If some of your shows are in venues with infrastructure, and only some will need you to install your own lighting, would you be better off hiring in a system on those occasions? If you hire kit and crew, then a lot of issues are taken out of your hands. Any lighting company, particularly at the moment will cut you a deal for a number of repeat shows throughout the year. A hire company will be able to tweak their package to suit different venues, and as they get to know you and the venues on the circuit, it could become quite a simple solution.

I had to light the inside of a church window a couple of times. This particular church had deep internal window sills, probably about 50cm. We used Howie battens, on the edge of the sill pointing up, I think we frosted them and they washed up the window quite effectively. It looked tidy from the inside and was pretty effective from the outside. The only issue was that the bottom 50cm of the window wasn't as well lit as the rest. If I was doing it now, I would use an LED batten of some sort.

Think about how these sort of shows are done on TV... Prerecord as much as possible, especially any sketches with people contributing from multiple locations. Prerecording will allow you to correct sync issues or do retakes until you are happy. Maybe have a live host, but keep all the content prerecorded. You can then transmit it on multiple platforms, Zoom/Youtube/Facebook or whatever You need someone to produce/call the show A tech handling playback Possibly additional techs handling the host's feed/camera/audio If you can't get all these people into one (socially distances) room, then you need GOOD communication between all the parties. I've worked on a few corporate virtual conferences, most use Infinifty comms to communicate. https://www.unityintercom.com/ Basically using your own devices as intercoms just like talkback in a theatre. This can be quite an expensive full featured system, but there is a 7 day free trial.. There are rental and cloud options, which are cheaper but not as fully featured as running your own server.