iDan

Thanks all. Not had a chance to get the fixture back on the bench yet, but you’ve given me some good starting points.

Hi, We were given a pair of mac 575 krypton spots a while back by a local theatre who were upgrading their stock - being an impoverished little college theatre, I gratefully took up the offer of some free movers regardless of their age. One works fine, the other has lamp issues. It will strike fine but cut out and display 'HOT'. Sometimes this will happen after ten mins, sometimes it will go a full day before playing up. After leaving it to cool for a while (usually left running so the fans can do their job) it will restrike happily but the same problem will reoccur. Occasionally it will also show the LERR (lamp error) message before cutting out and showing HOT. Here's what I've tried so far to no avail (all according to the manual) - verified that ac voltage a frequency are correctly set on the ballast for UK mains (230V @50Hz) - swapped the lamp for the one from the working unit - cleaned the head and base of the fixture with a low pressure air gun - operated the fixture in both warm and cool environments to see if ambient temperature makes a difference Its worth mentioning that when we received these fixtures, the faulty unit had a 15amp plug on it suggesting it had been plugged into a dimmer system - perhaps this did some damage? I put it back to a standard 13amp plug. Appreciate its an old unit and may just be time for retirement or kept for spares but I'm keen to explore possible solutions first. TIA

Hello Lampies, A little while ago I was given an ETC Congo desk (the original big one - not the Junior). Having had a play I've determined that I'm unlikely ever to use it so looking to move it on. I have no idea what the value of these desks might be nowadays - I can't imagine there are many folks out there still using them. This particular example was a venue desk and hasn't been toured or hired, so is in good condition and appears to work as it should (though I've not tested it fully). I don't have a flight case for it. Any insight anyone can give me as to its worth would be appreciated.

Out of curiosity... I was watching a non professional show the other day and the sound engineer experienced total loss of power at the desk - a Behringer X32. Since I knew the guy I went and offered to help, since he didn't appear to have a second tech with him. We tried the obvious - swapping the IEC, checking the fuse at the extension reel that it was plugged into and checking the RCD at the wall. Nothing else was affected so it seems it was an internal failure in the desk itself. I should point out that the desk was on hire, so I can't speak to its condition or maintenance history. Just wondering, since I'm potentially hiring one of these for a show in June, is this a known fault with the X32 or just a one off as far as we're aware?

Hi all, I work in a college theatre where we run Nomad. Currently, I've got two touch screens and a conventional qwerty keyboard and mouse. While this gets the job done, I'd like to achieve something that is A. more tactile in terms of physically interacting with the control surface and B. removes the need for me to repeatedly teach students a long list of syntax commands on a qwerty keyboard. I've previously hired in a programming wing, which ticked both those boxes. However, purchasing one is out of budget. My plan at the moment is to instead purchase a High Output command_key for the buttons and a separate unit for encoder wheels; this last bit is where I need some advice: What are the options? I've seen the space mouse - has anyone tried this out? I also vaguely recall seeing a thread on BR ages ago about a team of users who were developing their own OSC based unit for this exact purpose (maybe it was called light hack or something?), but I can't seem to find that thread. What else (if anything) is available? Many many thanks

A long shot I suspect, but would anyone here be willing to part with a working eos programming wing?

Thanks for the responses. To give a bit more context, this is a training theatre and the sound designer for the show is a student, who is using the project to explore and try out something more elaborate than the typical L/R output. The event in question is a musical so she wants to send her tracks (no live band in this instance) through the venue's existing PA, making use of the current FOH and foldback setup, then add a central speaker for vocals, and two small actives as rear fill for the audience, to which a blended soundscape will be routed. It will not be a professional or in any way 'ideal' setup, but rather a first step towards live surround mixing. Based on the trends emerging from the comments above, it seems the best option is to route audio where required via aux's, buses or directs rather than attempt to employ a true 5:1 system where it isn't really applicable.

Hi all, Looking for some advice on putting together a 5:1 in our studio theatre for an 'immersive' event. Surround isn't something I've been required to deal with before and, while I have a basic understanding of required speaker placement in relation to the performance and audience areas, as well as how to route channels to said speaker positions in the desk (in this case, an old DM3200 with surround capability), I'm not sure how we get from a physical stereo LR out from the desk, to the speakers themselves. I'm imagining there exists a piece of kit similar to a crossover, that takes the stereo out mix and splits it into a 5 way pan (according to how channels are bussed/panned in the desk), and then sends this off to the various amps associated with the speaker sets? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? TIA