SceneMaster Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 Hi I know this may sound weird and I maybe don’t know what I am on about. Last night I saw a play (children of a lesser god) at the Salisbury playhouse. As I am a Dram student specialising in lighting I was looking at the lights. I noticed that the play was mostly being lit with 4 moving head wash/frensel light. OK so what weird about that I hear you ask. Well during the interval I look a bit closer and notices there was no base to the lights (like martin ,robe ect.). Although the base is really above the light when flown. These light were just the yoke then a bracket clap attached the yoke on a bar, no big square (or what ever shape) base. Now they defiantly moved and changes colour like a moving head but I couldn’t see the DMX/Control interface cable. (although it was dark even with the house lights on and I couldn’t even see the power cable, although there must be one!!!. :D ) Anyway does anyone have any ides what this light could be and who makes it as there was no logo AND NO BASE. Thanks for listening to my strange ramblings. :huh: Maybe someone here works at the Salisbury Playhouse who can shed some light (he,he) on this matter or is this hopeful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalmatthew Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 THey are probably Vari*lites, VL4's or 5's IIRC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I was just trying to say VL5s, when IE crashed on me :D That's the only moving head I know of with no upper enclosure. Click here for a PDF spec sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinny baby Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 yep most likly to be a Vari* fixture, they also manufacture them with a spider leg type base, and can be seen on most TV, concert enviroments http://www.rmcshowservice.fi/varilite/vl5.jpg vince Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I was just trying to say VL5s, when IE crashed on me That's the only moving head I know of with no upper enclosure.The only wash light, certainly. The rest of the Series 300 stuff (VL6, VL7 and all variations thereof) didn't have an upper electronics enclosure either, but they're spots rather than washes, so it's unlikely to have been either of these. THey are probably Vari*lites, VL4's or 5's IIRCUnlikely to be VL4's - these did have a large black 'base' housing the electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 what about them being autoyokes?they would need a cmy colourchanger as well though.just an idea as it has been a while since I've seen them used.cheers andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 The autojokes have a massive box on top of them with all the electronics in them - I very much doubt it would be these... Why not e-mail Salisbury and ask, just to double check? Because I've had a thought, did they ever move at all? If not, they might be High End's Colour Command Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalmatthew Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 THey are probably Vari*lites, VL4's or 5's IIRCUnlikely to be VL4's - these did have a large black 'base' housing the electronics. I knew they where on or the other but I couldnt rember which one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris M Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Also with VL 5's they dont have a seperate DMX and Power supply running to them. They have one special cable, which goes from a "smart repeater" to the VL 5 fixture. I think its 6 VL 5's that can be run of off 1 smart repeater (providing the Smart repeater is plugged into an appropriate power source). so this would also explain the apparent lack of cables you saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SceneMaster Posted April 3, 2004 Author Share Posted April 3, 2004 Yes I think it was a Vari* fixture of some sort. As vinny baby has shown in his picture. ;) Thanks guys!!! "The autojokes have a massive box on top of them with all the electronics in them - I very much doubt it would be these... Why not e-mail Salisbury and ask, just to double check? Because I've had a thought, did they ever move at all? If not, they might be High End's Colour Command Stu " It moved so it could not have been a High End's Colour Command. Also how do these lights (Vari* fixture) receive their power and DMX/control signal? And it can't go straight into the yoke as the light be restricted in movement or can it??? :D :huh: (hehe never seen this smilie before as I've never clicked the Show All link :D ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P. Funk Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 AFAIK: the VL5s need a 'smart repeater' to power them. this is placed somewhere out of sight and data is run to it. now, I think, that it works out all the power needed from each fixture, and distributes it with a multicore to each fixture (I assume one for the pan motor, one for the tilt motor, one each for the colour wheels). the cable out to each fixture is at least 1/2" thick if I remember anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 VL5/6/7's work in different ways depending on which model you have. VL5arc's. 6's and 7s have their power supplied from an APS rack in chassis of 6 APS modules. This is then connected to a smart repeater (or smart repeater plus depending on VL model) using VL trunk cable. The DMX line is connected to the smart repeater and up to 6 VL's can be connected to each repeater using smart lamp cable. VL5's & 5B's get their lamp power from a standard dimmer rack and pan/tilt/color/frost etc command power from the smart repeater. Oh and each smart repeater needs 13A hard power. Does that all make sense? Its sounds a whole lot more complicated than it actually is but it is in fact quite simple. hth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Buffham Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 distributes it with a multicore to each fixture (I assume one for the pan motor, one for the tilt motor, one each for the colour wheels). the cable out to each fixture is at least 1/2" thick if I remember anyway.Not quite - smart lamp cable is multicore, however it only carries lamp power, hard power to the fans & electronics and digital data to and from the luminaire. The cable is chunky and varies in size depending on whether it is carrying arc lamp power (in which case it is shielded) and how long the cable run is. The data isn't DMX, its a Vari-lite protocol that the smart repeater converts DMX into. However it is still a serial data stream at this point; not separate control lines for each motor. It is control boards within the luminaire enclosure that respond to the data and drive the motors. The luminaire is also passing feedback back to the smart repeater as it executes each command. On DMX systems the feedback obviously goes no further, but if the repeater is being driven by vari-lite protocol rather than DMX then the feedback can make it back to the console. When the smart repeater is powered on it supplies DC voltage to each port to power-up the fans and electronics in the connected luminaire. The repeater polls each port to discover what is connected to it, and each luminaire responds and tells the repeater what model of light it is. Then the repeater can download the appropriate operating system to each light, and knows how many DMX channels apply to each port. You can have a mixture of luminaire types connected to each repeater and the repeater will figure what's where (hence being smart). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Buffham Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 VL5arc's. 6's and 7s have their power supplied from an APS rack in chassis of 6 APS modules. This is then connected to a smart repeater (or smart repeater plus depending on VL model) using VL trunk cable. The DMX line is connected to the smart repeater and up to 6 VL's can be connected to each repeater using smart lamp cable. VL5's & 5B's get their lamp power from a standard dimmer rack and pan/tilt/color/frost etc command power from the smart repeater. Oh and each smart repeater needs 13A hard power. Does that all make sense? Its sounds a whole lot more complicated than it actually is but it is in fact quite simple. hthFor convenience you can also obtain VL5 and VL5B lamp power from an APS rack by using C3 dimmers in place of APS modules, which can be DMX controlled via a SPC36. This way you can mix 5s and 6s on the same smart repeater, and means you don't have to worry about external dimmers or additional distro for them. You do need 110v lamps in the 5s with C3 dimmers, but you do get additional brightness from them. The only drawback is that the C3 dimmers are not as quick to respond as they might be. Another way to keep the system self-contained is to power the repeater via its APS trunk feed. i.e. use a tech switch in place of one of the APS modules, and connect the output from that repeater port to the S200 power input of the repeater. This means you can have the repeater wherever you want to, and only have to feed it an APS trunk and DMX - you don't need to run in additional hard power for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SceneMaster Posted April 3, 2004 Author Share Posted April 3, 2004 How does (or where does) the cable from smart repeater connect on the fixture. (yoke? I think not :D) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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