Basic Lighting System Upgrade

[cgiuk]

I work at a small prep school where we have a small hall in which we put on a variety of concerts and productions during the year. We have a very small, basic lighting system which to be honest, we've now outgrown. It consists of a hardwired 8 channel dimmer, a ceiling mounted lighting bar with 8 profiles / pars and a zero 88 Level 12 controller.

 

Could someone please advise me on what they would do to upgrade this system and very roughly how much it would cost? We could just really do with being able to have MORE lights (8 is extremely limiting)

 

Any help is very gratefully received.

[david.elsbury]

Hi

Your best bet, if you are unsure, is to contact a consultant (note: a true consultant will not directly sell the equipment they recommend, they will offer impartial advice) who can sit down with you, discuss your plans and the school's plans for the venue and come up with some suggestions together. It's very difficult for us, over an internet forum, to offer any useful suggestions without seeing the venue, (though some will no doubt try...).

 

A couple of guidelines... depending on how much money you have, and the condition of what you already have, you probably want to set about upgrading things in the following order:

 

1) incoming power if not already enough for what you want and may want to do in the future

2) rigging positions- if there are enough rated positions, you can hire lanterns in for one-off events if need be.

3) cabling- again, if you have sockets (or waylines) between your bars and dimmer position, much easier for a one-off event

4aa) console - something with a bit of expansion

4a) dimming channels

4b) conventional lanterns

 

Edit: before a 16 year old "recommends" you purchase moving lights and the topic degenerates into yet another debate... you'd be well advised to have a flick through the search function (top right of every page) and search for "moving lights school" or something similar- we've been there before :** laughs out loud **:

 

Hope this helps somewhat ;)

[niclights]

As David says it is always difficult. Certainly the amount of power available and safe places to hang are critical in determining.

 

But, beyond these the cheapest and most obvious upgrade would be to simply add more lights within the capability of your existing dimmers. Pars are unrefined but always budget friendly. While you only have eight channels you may be able to double up on some, especially if you used 500W lamps. It would be useful if you can find out exactly what your dimmers are.

 

The next step would be to add another dimmer and connect additional lights on this.

 

As a general indication a Par Can inc. lamp, lamp holder, plug, hook clamp and safety will probably cost around £40 ex VAT. Remember you will need extension cables too.

Dimmer cost can vary hugely depending on number of channels, power and make although I would recommend paying the premium for an established brand. Examples: Pulsar 6x10A (approx 2000W per ch) or Anytronics 12x5A (approx 1000W per ch) will be around £500. If budget is very limited you could get Anytronics 4x5A for around £150.

 

For supplier I recommend AC Lighting.

[Trunker]

Where are you based?

[cgiuk]

Many thanks for your replies so far. We are based in the West Midlands. As for budget, nothing has been discussed as of yet. I"ll find out the specifics of the dimmer as soon as possible and get back to you.

[Johnno]

Hi cgiuk

 

If you're a member of staff at your school I recommend you join the School's Theatre Group part of this forum. It's only open to school staff and you can discuss matters like this more freely as everyone there is in a similar situation.