What kit do you have at your school?

[elvenprince]

At least trying to get it back on topic;

 

Kit at school?

 

Space: Studio (converted from an old gymnasium). Can be curtained off on all sides, as well as across the middle of the rectangular space by full-height curtains that run on rails. One half of the floor is carpeted, the other is hard linoleum. That's about it; the 'control box' is an office with a window that contains sound and lighting, as well as 'projection' (run from PPT on a desktop PC). There are no wings, no crossover corridors, and definitely no fly tower! It's a classroom first and foremost, that's capable of putting on GCSE and A Level productions, as well as acting as a lecture hall and exam room! There is some pretty funky staging available though; 1x1m blocks that can be moved around the stage and raised to different heights. We used those nicely when we needed to create a set for Lord of the Flies.

 

Lighting: There are four bars fixed to the ceiling that cannot be lowered. Each bar is regularly spaced apart and has eight sockets running through it. All rigging and focussing takes place with an A-Frame ladder and is conducted by the Head of Drama (a teacher, before anyone gets into the "Head of ***" argument!) only. Believe me, I've offered to go up and try focussing, but never been allowed, so stopped asking! There are no booms, and in the standard end-on staging configuration, three of the four bars are FoH. We have a few sockets at floor level dotted around the room for any specials (such as putting a fresnel on a floorstand and silhouetting a character against the cyc). Regarding lanterns; it's all Selecon; a mixture of Acclaim fresnels, Acclaim and Pacific zoomspots and Hui floods. We stock a basic selection of gel (about a dozen colours) and have a few breakup gobos / grellies / barn doors / etc in a box! The lighting desk is a Zero 88 Jester 24/48, which I'll admit, I've never used in 'go' mode. I've always stuck with keeping it all on subfaders! Easier to change a state when the director changers their idea!

 

Sound: I'm afraid I'm not very knowledgeable on sound, but we have a small Spirit Folio mixing desk, and two amps that are screwed into the ceiling. We never use radio mics (the size of the space isn't large enough to warrant them: and it helps ensure students speak up!) and so all the desk is used for is mixing between CD / DVD / iPod / etc.

 

 

So all in all; a pretty standard studio space you'd find in a state funded school! No 'Heads of Department' although the drama teacher knows the people he can rely on to muck in and crew a show.

[Bobbsy]

Moderation: I've split off the discussion of student "Department Heads" into it's own topic, also here in The Next Generation and deleted anything suggesting the split or nagging to stay on topic.

 

Let's try to leave this thread for the discussion of what gear schools have. Bob/mods

[Ashley R]

Ok Heres my schools Rig

 

Lighting:

4x Selecon Acclaim 16-36 Profiles (or something close to that)

3x Working Pro Lite 1200w Profiles (Cant Rember beam angle we have more that need new lamps and have Failed thier test and Tag)

8x PAR 56 Cans

Tonne of Rusting Strand gear. Yes Rusting and most of it has failed its Test and Tag anyway so im not touching them!

 

Control:

1x Jands 12ch wall mounted dimmer rack

1x Jands 4PAKc portable Dimmer/controller

1x Zero 88 Elara 24/48

 

Facilitys:

Procenuim arch hall with a nice 20x10m stage and a 25x15m Parquetry floor extending from the front of the stage. With a motorized Grid hanging above the Parquetry Pitty there is only 7 working circuits going up there :D on stage there are 3 Fixed bars with patching and we have a 'lighting cage' which is a fenced off corner where all the old strand gear is kept and the patch bay. Oh and we dont have a Bio Box so everytime we end up ripping out seats so we can put the consoles somewhere.

2nd Space: Converted Gym now Drama center which is next to a train line...... Horribly echoy but with the sets in place its not to bad. in there we have 3 fixed lighting bars which we have to access by using a rolling scaffold which only just clears the bars by 20cm which means we allwase have to have a 'path' down the bars so we can get the scaff out...

 

Additional lighting equipment owned by me which the school gets for free on demand. (well really im the one demanding it)

 

Conventional Fixtures:

8x CCT 600w PC's

32x PAR 56 cans

 

Wash:

20x LED PAR 64's

 

Moving:

2x PR Solo 250 Moving heads

2x I Move 8s

4x ADJ X Scan LED's Scanners

4x Martin MX-4

2x Martin RoboScan Pro 218

4x Martin RoboScan Pro 518

 

Control:

1x Zero 88 Elara 12/24

1x Jands 4PAKc Portable Dimmer/controller

1x Studio Due Control 5

 

Rigging:

10x sections of Tri Truss Various Lengths

8x T bars

4x Winch Up stands

 

Atmospherics

2x Martin Magnum 650 smoke

[Smiffy]

Tonne of Rusting Strand gear. Yes Rusting and most of it has failed its Test and Tag anyway so im not touching them!

 

A light is a light. Have you considered trying to refurb that Strand Gear? You don't have to do the electrical stuff, but surely you have an enterprising DT (Design and Technology = Woodwork & Metalwork in my day) teacher that might help you out and let it count as some form of credit towards your grades?

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[Ynot]

Tonne of Rusting Strand gear. Yes Rusting and most of it has failed its Test and Tag anyway so im not touching them!

A light is a light. Have you considered trying to refurb that Strand Gear?

 

Definitely!

Some of the older Strand kit is very much sought after even now. The patt 23 and 123 series especially. I've recently sold half a dozen or so on Ebay for over £100 each (sold for a friendly local am dram group).

 

It's not that hard to get them cleaned up from the rust, maybe strip them down and give them a coat of a decent quality heat resist paint, clean the lenses, have the physics dept (maybe) sort the wiring out...

[steve h]

especially as your profile describes you as doing lighting repairs!

[cable]

State School Gold Coast Australia

 

Large auditorium Style Hall seats 1000+

 

Lighting 4 Jands 12 channel dimmers

4 Acme Imove 250s

2 Acme Imove 575s

2 Acme Imove 575sp

6 Par 64s

16 scoop lights

Array Of PCs and Profiles

2 Follow Spots

4 sets of 3 strip lights (RGB)

1 Jands esp 24

1 computer with entecc usb pro and cham sys magic q

 

Sound Pair of 2000w FOH Speakers

Pair of 1000w monitors

2 portable All in one Mipro 500w systems

1 4000w Amp

2 2000w amp

1 100w amp

1 Rack Mount cd player

2 Rack mount EQs (FOH and Monitor)

1 24 channel yamaha MGP mixer

3 Electric Guitar Boxes

2 Seinheisser Wireless microphone dual receivers

Whole assortment ofwired mics and mic stands

Far to much Cabling

 

Other 1 Jands Rack mount Talk back systems

1 Jands Portable talk back system

4 Talkback Headsets

5 Talkback belt packs

1 4m scaff tower

1 A frame (ladder)

1 House hold ladder

1 firemans style extend 'o' ladder.

Gaffa and cable ties

4 Smoke machines

1 Bubble Machine

1 Fazer

 

the stage is all open underneath so we can install patches and run leads underneath the stage

Um tools

All student Run we have passes that get us marked at the class when we are doing aound and lighting stuff although some technicians abuse this right :D In charge of it all is the head music teacher

We have 4 sets of lighting bars above the stage and one in FOH

[Smiffy]

Blimey guys.... You don't know how good you've got it these days....

 

When I was at school, a good few years ago, we had....

 

2 x Strand Patt 49 (used them as the houselights. I think I might even still have a lamp that I *cough* acquired back at my mum and dads place.... They were huge)

6 x Strand Patt 743

6 x Strand Patt 23

6 x Strand Patt 234

 

1 x Strand Tempus 24 (2 Preset, Analogue)

 

24 x Channels of some massive old dimmer system (analogue too).

 

I'd love to find out it if that was ever improved upon or if they still have it

 

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[CharlieH]

the stage is all open underneath so we can install patches and run leads underneath the stage

Um tools

All student Run we have passes that get us marked at the class when we are doing aound and lighting stuff although some technicians abuse this right :D In charge of it all is the head music teacher

We have 4 sets of lighting bars above the stage and one in FOH

Wow! We have a reasonable rig, but that is huge for a school! Is your auditorium just for performing arts - it isn't used for assemblies or games lessons or anything else? :(

[Ashley R]

Tonne of Rusting Strand gear. Yes Rusting and most of it has failed its Test and Tag anyway so im not touching them!

 

A light is a light. Have you considered trying to refurb that Strand Gear? You don't have to do the electrical stuff, but surely you have an enterprising DT (Design and Technology = Woodwork & Metalwork in my day) teacher that might help you out and let it count as some form of credit towards your grades?

 

Our School only has a woodwork dept and nothing in the way of metalwork whatsoever. Some of the gear would require a hefty rebuild as rust has penetrated the fixtures. And the few that I did plug in that has passed the test and tag and looked in alright condition I had a fiddle with. I wasn't impressed by the output.

 

Tonne of Rusting Strand gear. Yes Rusting and most of it has failed its Test and Tag anyway so im not touching them!

A light is a light. Have you considered trying to refurb that Strand Gear?

 

Definitely!

Some of the older Strand kit is very much sought after even now. The patt 23 and 123 series especially. I've recently sold half a dozen or so on Ebay for over £100 each (sold for a friendly local am dram group).

 

It's not that hard to get them cleaned up from the rust, maybe strip them down and give them a coat of a decent quality heat resist paint, clean the lenses, have the physics dept (maybe) sort the wiring out...

 

Yep seen that. I must take note of what we have! been meaning to do this for a while. Ive actually done up partially a set of Patt 45's Originally Green but now have been sprayed with high temp black paint. but the amount of man hours required to do a small amount of fixtures is not entirely worth it in my opinion.

 

well at the moment anyway im a bit to busy. and im in the process of getting the school to give me all the 1.2kw Profiles for a service and a re-lamp as most of them are in working condition

 

 

especially as your profile describes you as doing lighting repairs!

 

Yep but im usually doing repairs on either my own gear just general servicing. or for paying customers. Freebies for my school in the way of repairing 20-30 strand fixtures ain't high on my list of things to do, they get alot of freebies already in the way of free gear hire on productions.

[cable]

@charlie h Our hall is used for assemblies and dances and stuff but no ball sports or anything blimey that would be scary with the movers :S

 

 

@Smiffy wow we are lucky although my school choice was kind of made on sound and lighting kit (My ideal career preferably lighting) A lot of people say you need to find the best private school if you want heaps of kit. In a way its more about finding the school that is (in a way) stupid enough to spend loads of money on kit they dont need ** laughs out loud **.

[CharlieH]

@charlie h Our hall is used for assemblies and dances and stuff but no ball sports or anything blimey that would be scary with the movers :S

Yes, our hall is used for ball sports as well as assemblies, masses and other cr@p. We hired movers in for our latest show, and then had a massive argument with the games dept as we effectively banned them from using the hall for anything other than table tennis! :D To be fair though, they have got a massive gym next door...... :)

[Jonathan Mellor]

WoW! A 250-seat theatre with 250 channels of dimmers is quite something. Having said that, having looked on YouTube at a video of a music performance there (search under "Gay Bar") it really proves the old addage - it's not what you've got it's what you do with it!

 

That video was actually taken in one of our other venues, the music venue, the tech courses dont do much in there, its the music tech courses that op. those show

 

wouldnt want to be controlling that lot of a 520 though!! ugghhh!!

 

In the music venue, we have a ZERO88 Bull Frog if we need to change for any reason, and in our studio space we have a Strand GSX.

 

 

just to note, said strand 520 died mid show earlier this year, and has been replaced with a ETC ION, the bull frog in the music venue has been replaced with an avo pearl tiger. the GSX is still kicking around somewhere(travels between the studio and the music venue, as the pearl is only brought out when the tech students are op'ing).

[photographic08]

I know its been about a year since anyone commented on this, but after reading about all these school with loads of equipment, I thought I should list my schools equipment.

 

Our drama studio/room is a grade 2 listed room with oak paneling and a low hanging chandelier. In there we have...

Lighting:

3x chrome par64s

3x black par64s

2x t-stands

2x Zero88 alpha packs, the original analogue ones

2x 5m lengths of din cable

1x Zero88 Level6, which an electrical fault in so it has to be taped to a table in a certain position to work properly, otherwise it causes the dimmers to overload.

Sound:

2x cheap dynamic vocal mics

1x cheap instrument mic

1x portable pa system (a big speaker with a build in amp on wheels with a battery)

1x karaoke machine

1x ipod dock.

 

Our music department has:

1x Mackie 24-8bus mixing console.

1x mackie SDR multitrack recorder

1x 4 channel compressor

1x effects processor

1x power amp

2x half broken monitors

1x insert snake

1x 5m 20 channel stagebox with 12 XLR sends and 12 stereo jacks

1x broken cd recorder

1x behringer xenyx x1622usb mixing console

5x dynamic vocal mics

2x condenser mics

4.5x mic stands

1x pop

various leads

2x working guitar amps

4x broken guitar amps

 

The plan is to replace most if not all of the lighting equipment, and just keep what we've got a spare equipment.

The replacement lighting equipment will be a 4m triangular truss held up on two wind up stands. On this there will be 2x source4 jr zooms on Strand dim1's, and 8 stairville led par64's. This will be controlled by a smartfade ML unless we can find the money for a congo kid, or find a second hand one.

 

In the music department we plan to get a new cd player/recorder, 4x 12inch monitors, speaker stands for them, 2x power amps in a flight case, a flight case for the rest of our outboard, a graphic eq, a longer stagebox, some more XLR cables as we're down to 2 working ones, a digital delay, and if we can find the money 4x trantec radio mics.

[rgye]

At my school in the 1960s we had a magnificent Strand 12 channel dimmer system. It was about 1.5 wide and 2m high, and had three rows of rotary rheostats. You could operate a single channel by moving a large bakelite handle, complete with a grinding, squeaking sound. But this machine had extra sophistication: the four handles on each row were connected by a common axle, and you could twist any handle to lock it down, thus operating up to four channels at once. At one end of each of the three axles there were pinions which could also be locked on, and they were linked by chains (like bicycle chains)so you could dim all twelve channels at once. To do this required considerable strength, and there was a large steering wheel device to give you sufficient leverage.

 

Rheostats are just large variable resistors, so the unused energy was dissipated as heat. If you had twelve dimmed channels operating at once the unit (which was made of perforated steel) contained the equivalent of twelve electric fires, so it could get quite hot in the wings!

 

It's interesting to read how many schools are still using the lanterns that we used then: 123s, 23s, 743s etc. They were obviously built to last.