What are these items?

[scottc]

Hello,

 

I am shortly going to be doing the lighting for a school play at the local village hall. The hall is medium sized with no current lighting or sound rig. Before you ask, I am in Scotland :P.

 

OK. As there is no lighting rig, the school has a membership with an arts hire company. They are allowed to hire equipment for free so I checked out the site to see what we should use.

 

However, could somebody tell me what these items are?

 

I'm not sure what these are :

 

650w Starlight Stage Lamps

 

Beta Pack Lighting Controllers

 

Stage Talkback System

 

Touring Lighting Rig

 

If somebody could please tell me, I would be incredibly grateful.

[david.elsbury]

Hi Scott

Take a look at the Blue Room Wiki for some information on gear. I would suggest that if you are asking what the gear is, then it would be beneficial for you to arrange someone from either the school or the hire company to assist you with this project, since it appears you are unclear and possibly inexperienced.

 

Regards

David

[paulears]

Moderation: Hello, welcome to the Blue Room. We've moved your topic here to the Next Generation area because it is more suitable for discussion here, where simpler and new subjects can be talked about with people closer to your age, who may be able to pass on tips, and from the older and more experienced people who also 'drop in'

continued

[scottc]

Hi, sorry.

 

I am not inexperienced (well I don't consider myself to be), I'm just a little unsure of what these products definitely were.

 

We refer to things differently at my school.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

I can't find anything in that wiki.

 

Could someone just tell me? :P

[paulears]

Moderation: continued

 

 

 

Scott - I was composing a nice little explanation to you when I noticed your second post come in.

 

The snag is that your question does show you are a real beginner, so we have to consider what is best. To be honest, the snag is that to answer the question we have to be sure you will understand the answer. What we ususally do is ask people who are starting out to have a good read of maybe our Wiki, plus try our search function and this brings back lots of results - the snag is that you don't yet know quite what to search for? So Maybe a trip to the local library will allow you to read some excellent real books on the subject, then you will have a solid base to build on.

I'll explain why your search fails.

650w Starlight Stage lamps - we tend to call the glass bubbles inside lamps, so in this case you need to be searching for Fresnels, profiles, PARs, Floods, wash lights - these kind of words, and in this case, CCT the manufacturer of the starlette - note the spelling?

Beta Pack Lighting Controllers - try betapack - one word

 

Stage Talkback System - again, we don't quite understand, you probably mean intercom kit - so look at tecpro or clearcom as a starting point.

 

Touring Lighting Rig - well this could be half a dozen lanterns (or luminaires, or fixtures) on stands plugged into a single socket, or a touring rig Wembley sized - see the problem?

 

 

What usually happens here is that we can answer specific questions, once you have the knowledge to understand the answer - we really can't just give you the answers you need, because we don't know what it is you don't know - if that makes sense.

 

First step is to understand that compared even to the many students who live here, your question does show you need a bit more basic level info before you start this job, or you'll fail misreably.

 

 

If you want to ask some specific question, please do - but your post kind of says "Hi, I'm doing some neurosurgery next week, could you tell me what a paracetemol is?" That's obviously a bit daft, but that's how we kind of see it?

 

You need some basic level info, and although Googling some of these words will kick you off on the right route - I really think a book or two would be great. Your library will have plenty of decent ones, and your school should have some (although some school libraries are pretty grim in the lighting dept)

 

So, I fear we can't really help you..... yet. Let us know if this makes sense.

 

Paul

mods

[gareth]

Sorry, Scott, but if you have to ask what Betapacks and talkback systems are, then you definitely fall into the category of 'inexperienced'.

 

Anyway ... a talkback system will be a system of headsets and beltpacks, connected to a power supply, to allow technical staff to communicate verbally during a show.

 

Betapacks are 6-channel portable dimmer racks made by Zero88 - to describe them as 'lighting controllers' is misleading as they need an external control desk to operate.

 

Touring lighting rig ... well, it's a lighting rig, that can be used for touring! Really, that one is impossible to define - it could be anything from a handful of small lanterns on t-bar stands connected to a 6-way controller, to ... well, anything, really!

 

650w Starlight stage lamps? Again, could be anything - fresnels, profiles, PCs. All we know is that they have 650w lamps in them, so they're at the smaller end of the range.

 

All in all, these descriptions were written by someone who doesn't really know how to properly describe what they're trying to describe. As someone else said, the best thing would be for you to actually go and have a look at what's on offer, ideally taking with you someone who knows what they're looking at.

 

Edit : sorry, Paul, started composing this before your "don't add any more" continuation appeared - didn't see it until after hitting the 'Post' button!

[scottc]

I reread my post saying that I wasn't inexperienced.....

 

I sounded very snobbish and rude. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude, although the post did. Haha.

 

Anyway, the titles of the equipment, I just copied and pasted straight off the website.

 

Talkbacks are referred to at my school as Comms Headsets.

 

Sorry for my lack of experience.

[LXbydesign]

Well mate - as it seems you dont have much experience but have the drive - so to speak, so long as you are working with someone who does know what they are doing then I think you will find it a very rewarding and interesting project!

 

Good luck with it and look forward to seeing the reports and maybe pictures!

 

Well, id better be getting on with my coursework now - apparently!! **looks at Gareth**

[david.elsbury]

THere's no need to apologise for lack of experience, everyone on this board had to start from somewhere... no one suddenly woke up one day with all the knowledge they need.

 

That said, it's a valuable skill to know HOW to find information out for yourself, and not expecting it to be spoon fed to you. Hence why in my first post, I suggested you take a look at the Wiki. Even if you hadn't found your specific equipment, you'd have found about various other lanterns and dimmers etc.

 

I second what Paul says about books. When I started getting into lighting, I made a few trips to the library, and looked up books by Francis Reid, Richard Pilbrow. Again, some of the terms and gear in those books is old, but its the same principles.

 

So I guess what I'm saying... don't worry about the lack of exerience, just keep the right attitude and keep your eyes open and pick up what you can, from everywhere... and be careful what you say and who you say it to, you don't want to annoy/upset people to the point where they stop helping you :P

[jonhole]

Betapacks are 6-channel portable dimmer racks made by Zero88 - to describe them as 'lighting controllers' is misleading as they need an external control desk to operate.

 

Just to clarify, some betapacks only have one 15a socket per channel, and 6 faders (+master) so it is possible for limited control over the pack without an external desk.

[gareth]

As an afterthought - you said that you 'checked out the site' of the hire company that you'll be using - give us the address of the site, and we can have a look for ourselves and see if we can expand on the explanations so far.

[scottc]

Thanks for the helpful advice guys. :P.

[oli]

HI Scott,

 

Where are you in Scotland? There are a fair few people on here including myself that are based in Scotland and maybe able to help (not saying WILL because I'll get in trouble).

There are also lots of hire companies based in Scotland that are normally willing to lend a hand or show you a few things. Are you able to send the website details, best to PM one of us so as not to get into any trouble (I never know where the line is anymore) to one of us to have a look at (if there are pictures we may be able to work out what they are).

 

Oli

 

Edit: Beaten to it by Gareth

[mr_towers]

Agreed with all of the above.

 

Let us know the venue, it's highly likely someone here has worked there or knows someone else who has.

 

Also, fill out your profile! It makes helping you a lot easier if we know where you're from.

[berry120]

Let us know the venue, it's highly likely someone here has worked there or knows someone else who has.

I wouldn't have thought it's highly likely that lots of people have run events in his local village hall! Filling out your profile, especially location, does help though.

 

I'd second going to look at the equipment if there's no better descriptions available - as pointed out previously there's not even any quantities listed there, and the touring lighting rig could be ANYTHING at all. Without a better idea of the kit you've got available it's going to be difficult to plan much at all!