kitlane

By whom? Nursing Leaders, promoted by the NHS

Just a reminder that currently Stage Research are offering SFX (and their other software) for free.

That sounds more like Professional Indemnity Insurance than Public Liability.

Probably a ridiculously complex way to do it but I can imagine a piece of software listening out for the OSC message sent when the fader is moved and sending an OSC message to mute the monitor channel in response. *Edit. I was assuming an X32 was being used.

I still have a lot of VGA based video gear that I refuse to give up on. Even the composite video stuff comes out occasionally for shows with lots of old TVs. Maybe I should ask my wife which is her favourite/older bit of Kit. Actually, probably best not to. Kit

Which supplier are you looking at? I am not familiar with those designations. Normally, the difference between types of sharkstooth is the size of the holes, but maybe this is something else.

Can you guarantee that dom3stic net curtains are suitably flame retardant? I would go with one of the usual theatre suppliers (Joels, McDougalls, Whaleys, etc.) and maybe look at 'Voile'. I've never tried using it for the effect you describe but it might be worth an experiment. Having said that, we did a studio show last summer where we projected on to black Sharkstooth. The audience were probably around 3m at the closest point. The screen wasn't very big (maybe a couple of metres square) but the effect worked okay. However, we didn't light behind the gauze at the same time as projecting on to it so that is different to what you want to do. This picture shows projection onto the gauze.

Do you mean just the lamp (aka 'bulb') or the entire unit? What are the units you currently have (Wattage, beam angle)?

If I am working on a performance (relatively rare these days) I would always wear blacks, regardless of my location. You never know when you might be called upon to do something unexpected (emergency dash onstage with a handheld mic, evacuation, onstage announcement, clearing a stuck cloth, pushing the revolve when the motor fails, taking over from an incapacitated collegue).

It may be worth having a chat with Presentation Design Services who are based in Derby, and On Productions in Castle Donnington, although they concentrate more on Dry Hire and events production. Is is also very handy that Theatre Sound Supplies have recently moved to Derby. My BA Tech Theatre students often work with local schools to support their events. We are in the middle of 'Beauty & The Beast' at Derby Moor Academy at the moment. Feel free to PM me if you think there might be a project we can help out with. We are usually able to bring a few bits of gear with us to supplement what the school already has.

'Casement' is a lightweight cotton fabric. I don't believe it is always flame retardant but the examples given are. 'NDFR' stands for 'Non-Durably Flame Reteardent'. It is not the name of a specific type of fabric. So 'Casement' may be okay for what you need. And you should make sure it is (at least) 'NDFR'. But if you ask for 'NDFR' you are not asking for a particular type of fabric.

Maybe for moving heads (although I'm not certain) but not for automated lights in general. As others have stated, Genesis funded the development of Vari*Lites and were the first band to use them but there were others before that. The example that springs to mind is 'Grand Funk Railroad'. In 1972 Stefan Graf and Jim Fackert created the 'Cyklops' which was a moving mirror device with pan, tilt, zoom, iris, strobing shutter, and 6 colours.

Tracks Live is designed specifically to do what you want to do. Reaper is great but over the top for this. Dicking around in Linux sounds like fun but it is not the 'simpler that just works' solution you asked for. For your application Tracks Live is a no brainer.

The price list still has Student lease versions, although the list itself is dated 2015.

Definitely. I recently did a show where we were controlling distributed video playback from 9 Raspberry Pi's each of which needed its own OSC command, so sent up to 9 commands in one cue.

There are still situations where I would find MSC useful. If that is too much work at the moment then the ability to send MIDI SysEx would give the same functionality for a bit more work at the user end. The addition of OSC is probably a game-changer and will open up a lot of Show Control possibilities. I agree that keeping as much control as possible over Serial commands would be desirable. You just never know what ancient piece of gear might raise its head. I haven't used one for a while but I still have some machines with XP and I wouldn't discount using one for a show. However, if it is a lot of work to support XP then (sadly, in my opinion) it might be time to lay it to rest.

I wish to make a complaint. 'Kit' confuses people as well.

I'm surprised that the press don't seem to have mentioned the falling plasterwork at The Aldwych just a few months ago.

Probably RS232 Serial port? The original Rolacue Pearls had this on, for a riggers remote. Are we talking about a 25 pin D-Sub connector? I don't think I've come across a 25 pin DIN connector.

I was reading this article on the history of Bandit Lites and this reminded me of this thread. "Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Krokus, Ratt and many other heavy metal bands came calling on Bandit for extensive lighting services. The brief from the late Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot on their 1985 world tour was “bigger than Van Halen”, and it was! Avolites custom-built the world’s largest (and only) 120-way console. It was a staggering 10 feet from end to end."