Not preheating par 56s...

[peternewman]

A bit OT, but have you considered 500W floods or similar for workers/cleaning, lamps cost nothing and you wouldn't need the (potentially confusing to users) changeover switches. You could even use something more eco friendly like fluorescent/discharge.

[Ike]

We have. The par 56s are above cutouts in a decent looking (fireproofed) false ceiling and all the FOH bars are located in slots for aesthetic reasons. The venue is quite small and we think that adding more fittings without destroying the aesthetics would be prohibitively expensive at the moment at least.

 

As for the switches we were planning on having three switches located at the prompt desk, at the entrance the venue but out of sight of punters and in the control booth. Each would be wired in a similar way to domestic three way switches so that if the fittings were connected to the dimmers and you switched any switch they would be connected to hard power and vice versa. I'm hoping this shouldn't be too confusing.

[Tomo]

As for the switches...

I'm not convinced by that approach.

 

The switches need to have defined "Dimmer Control/Hard Power" indicators or positions (I'm assuming you use the Dimmer position for 'off').

 

Otherwise it's far too easy for a show to start, the LX Op tries to fade the houselights and nothing happens - because the lights are running from Hard Power.

 

The LX op and/or SM needs some form of indicator they can look at and easily see which state the houselights are in.

 

I run into similar situations quite often when programming Unison or Smartlink houselight controls - every client wants a simple indicator that says "Houselights are on from Unison/Houselights are NOT on from Unison"

It's easy with Unison as the buttons are programmed in software (so LED On = Houselights On from Unison) - but I can't think of a simple way to wire an indicator using normal 'intermediate' switches.

 

I'd look at using a double-pole changeover relay, and make the switches drive the relay coil.

You can then wire suitable (neon?) indicators showing "Hot/Dim" power status to the 'spare' pole.

 

That should be fairly easy to implement using existing wiring.

[Ike]

Good thinking. We were already going to use a relay to save having to run power cabling everywhere so it's no hassle to add an auxiliary contact and a few neons.