Lighting Control

[SiCo]

I am quite new to all of this but have an interest in lighting. I have got a couple of scanners and a DMX controller (small one mainly aimed at discos I suppose Chauvet DMX-50).

 

I am learning the basics but have a few questions...

 

The controller has banks of scenes and chases created from scenes, with a global speed and fade timer, which you set on play back of a chase. What I can't really see with this is how you would get a show together to some music. Is this a draw back of a low end controller?

 

Do better controllers have time elements to them or is it the job and skill of changing the scenes / chases when they are meant to happen?

 

One example that springs to mind from a show I saw many years ago is at the end of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, where the stage becomes lit by lots of moving lights. Would this just be one chase looped around a lot?

 

I can see how static lights work with such a system in that each scene is lit in a particular fashion so as the show procedes each scene is selected, I am just having a hard time getting my head around 'intelligent' fixtures...

 

Thanks for any help you can give. (I realise I have probably got the wrong end of the stick somewhere along here!).

 

Simon

[andystone]

Not really sure I understand your question.

 

By the sound of it your controller allows you to program scenes and chases, so to run a show you would just record all the different scenes and chases you want to use and play them back as and when you want them during the show.

 

Obviously the more advanced controller you get the more functions you get both for recording and playback.

 

The most obvious next step up would be to have something where you can record all your scenes/chases in sequence with times for each and then play them back in sequence during the show.

 

Then you get desks where you can record different times for each parameter, have effects generators to quickly create moving light effects, libraries or preset focusses so you can store all the different colours, gobos and positions you want to use during the show and recall them easily, etc, etc - the list is endless.

 

However, a lot of the features of larger desks are mostly to do with saving time, you can do a lot of the stuff on a really basic desk, just might take a bit longer and the pub might be closed by the end of it!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Andy Stone

Stagetec