house lights

[computer]

hi everybody!

 

Just wondering what kind of houselight control your big and small venues use...

 

at the moment we just have 4 dimmer switches in our local mini-theatre/community hall.... 4x 1000w dimmers control the main lights and the standard spotlights.

 

I want to create a unit though that will tie into DMX, so I'll probably get a cheapish 4channel dimmer like those at CPC to give me a reasonable control from the main desk... that way I can tie it into the scences, etc... or perhaps use a simple separate desk...

[dominicgross]

we've got a lutrix system running our house and workers.

 

House lights are 12 650w acclaim and our workers are a load of 1000w floods.

 

We have control pads backstage, FOH and in the control room: enabling cleaners to turn on what they need. They can also be disabled during shows to avoid ichey fingered actors.

 

The system is also DMX conpatable: so if we want we can control from the desk. But personly I prefure to keep it all seperete.

[computer]

seperate sounds good...

 

how come I can't find lutrix on google? do they have a site?

[Stu]

We control our HL from the desk or from a seperate controller... This means we can raise/lower them in the plot/focus, but when it comes to the show they can be plotted into the touring shows show so they don't need to be called by the DSM.

 

I should of thought that many venues work in this way.

 

However in our studio the HLs are 4x 500w floods which are controlled through the dimmer packs... Florries then provide workers/backup.

 

With the little Showtec Multidim dimmer from CPC you would be able to control the HL from the desk, but also from the pack as I think you can set up a couple of little scenes on the front and store it in the memory.

 

Stu

[dominicgross]

My mistake: Lutron www.lutron.com.

 

It was a custom install by the sparxz when the building was completed: I'll have to check on how it actually communicates with the desk and what dimmers are used.

[sam.henderson]

Houselights in Theatre I use are on the last two generic channels on the desk and go through the Dimmer.

 

As for Workers they are just on a normal sort of switch box thingy with ONE, TWO, THREE and BLACKOUT. These are located in the Control Room, SL, and SR.

 

Sam

[Ike]

Most theatres I have worked in have used a couple of there normal dimmer channels or a dedicated dimmer run from the main desk, some also have a switch over FOH to put them on hard mains in case of the unexpected.

[Neil Frazer]

From A touring point of view I much prefer to have the House Lights controlled through the desk. It just makes life easier.

 

Most of the venues I tour to have a system that allows this. They also have either a changeover switch and a manual fader or a more complex system such as the strand Premier or outlook system which has programmable panels around the building.

 

A simple solution would be to have a dimmer with both DMX and 0-10V inputs you could then control them from the desk or with a manual fader. Assuming the dimmer has HTP Merging. Failing that a DMX to 0-10V demux and a changeover switch.

[Rob]

Assuming the dimmer has HTP Merging

 

Surely you'd want LTP merging rather than HTP?

[StuRobson]

Being a school - things get forgotten when kitting out venus ... therefore we use 6 strand floodlights. Hopefully in the new block they're gonna be attatched to the chilli dimmers <- I think that's possible.

[Andrew C]

Surely you'd want LTP merging rather than HTP?

Yes, perhaps... It would be much more difficult to implement if using +10v dimmers. With HTP all you need is a couple of diodes to combine the control. However you do need to check that the local control is out before the show goes up.

 

In the two venues that I work in, one has the house on dimmer & channel 1 and also uses sub 1, so they can be brought up easily. In the school theatre, I have added a dmux to a stand-alone dimmer, with an analogue fader built into the box with the dmux (htp).

[robloxley]

Being a school - things get forgotten when kitting out venus ...

You think that's exclusive to schools???

[Neil Frazer]

Assuming the dimmer has HTP Merging

 

Surely you'd want LTP merging rather than HTP?

Nope I'd rather have HTP. That way I can take control of the house lights on the manual fader and then turn the desk off. Besides it is very easy to impliment HTP compared to LTP.

[DanielArkley]

Our ultra-high-tech venue (ask Stu) features three standard light switches on a triple way panel for left, right, and back houselights. Then, next to the LX desk, there is another switch, with a lovely big dimmer. The only problem?

 

 

The houselights are all flourys. The dimmer doesn't work (causes a fantastic strobe effect from the flourys!), and the audience get plunged into darkness rather quickly at the beginning of the show. And then of course, the opposite is true at the end.

[peter]

You can dim florries, its just rather expensive and complicated compared to 'normal' florry fittings. Might be an option for an upgrade though.