High School Recommendations

[Mitch7_26]

I am looking to get some new equipment for a high school auditorium and was hoping I might get some recommendations. We would like to get some intelligent lights with moving heads and a board to run them. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

[theatrcymraeglampy]

Hi,

 

Please use the search function, as this topic has been covered extensively, as has the fact moving lights and schools don’t work as they require a lot of maintenance and running costs.

[Russ83]

Hi Mitchell, welcome to the BR.

Could you please add you location to your profile so we know where in the world (literally) you are as this can effect advice given.

[harrybow]

Yeah moving lights and schools dont go very well together due to high maintenance costs and because they are very complicated pieces of equipment to use. You need to understand them very well to operate and I would suggest you stay clear at all costs.

[Ynot]

Hi Mitchell, welcome to the BR.

Could you please add you location to your profile so we know where in the world (literally) you are as this can effect advice given.

 

And your DoB/age would help, too.

Are you a student at this high school, or a teacher/technician employed there?

[Stee_cri1]

Hi Mitch7_26

 

I would personally go for MAC250 entours if the budget is there and most definitaly an Avolites Pearl Expert especially if kids are learning how to use the desks the interface is great and quite easy to use.

 

I have just fitted out a school with this and used

18 MAC 250entours

10 MAC 300

6 Par bars

some croma Q's

and an expert

 

within a couple of days there were a couple of kids that really wanted to learn that could use the desk and were doing things like teaching themselves how to use the visuliser and alsorts

 

Hope this help if you need any more help of info feel free to message me mate

 

Steven

[Ynot]

Steve, hi.

 

I'm quite honestly amazed at the list above!

 

What sort of school was this that took on the huge install of movers?

Did the school have any infrastructure in place for power and control, or was that all part of your install job?

Do they have any other generic/non-moving inventory?

Did you fit any extra/spare dimmer channels and associated cabling to allow for extra generics as required?

What training did you give to the school's resident theatre technician on how to use the desk and movers/LEDs?

What's the 'expert' you referred to?

Have the school budgeted for lamp replacement, or service costs or repair bills etc for the next 5 years?

Will you be training future generations of students (when the first raft either leave or lose interest)?

 

Just curious.

:)

[Stee_cri1]

Steve, hi.

 

I'm quite honestly amazed at the list above!

Your amazed I nearly fell off my chair when I got the job ** laughs out loud **.

 

What sort of school was this that took on the huge install of movers?

A high school that had just been given a grant from the national lottery so decided this was a good idea.

Did the school have any infrastructure in place for power and control, or was that all part of your install job?

Yes the power was in there, they had there own substation we used, I contracted a compnay in to then run the power into the auditorium.

Do they have any other generic/non-moving inventory?

Yes we used 22 Coda's, and 8source 4's but other than that it was all movers and LED's

Did you fit any extra/spare dimmer channels and associated cabling to allow for extra generics as required?

Of couse we put in an Avolites 72channel dimmer rack with a patch bay on

What training did you give to the school's resident theatre technician on how to use the desk and movers/LEDs?

The music teacher is an audio engineer that used to work for WIGWAM but also has extencive knowledge with lighting so just needed some extra training on the desk.

What's the 'expert' you referred to?

Sorry the Pearl Expert

Have the school budgeted for lamp replacement, or service costs or repair bills etc for the next 5 years?

They are lucky in that they know me I have agreed to service the lamps and any replacements at cost so yes they are aware of that.

Will you be training future generations of students (when the first raft either leave or lose interest)?

Yes the plan is they use me once a month to go in and have a one day session on the desk and lights and how to get the best from them. Also the music teacher has the knowledge to do this

 

I hope this helps

[David Lee]

Now that's a lucky school. We were lucky with 18 ways of tempus and 23s and 123s. How times have changed.

[Wol]

22 Codas, 8 S4s and some Par bars and 28 movers? Sounds rather unbalanced in my experience to have nearly 3 times more floods than profiles and nearly as many movers as their original generic stock (From the way your post is worded it sounds like they started out with this, but I might be reading this wrong so apologies in advance if this is the case)!

 

Are there any other generic lanterns ( PCs, Fresnels ) there? Would have thought educationally that the students would benefit more from learning lighting design using generics, rather than movers, as theres only so much a Mac250 or 300 can actually do!

 

The only times I've used them in a theatrical environment are to add specific effects *on top* of a generic rig ( 2 movers on top of a 50+ lantern rig, so still small scale) but the majority of the design is done using generics.

 

What sort of events does the school put on out of interest? I'd guess they don't do much theatre considering the biasing of the kit on movers and pars compared to other generics, but interested to know.

[Stee_cri1]

Hi there

 

thanks for your questions the idea is that they learn more about how to use what they have got and having that many movers means thay can be used as static "generic" lighting. This may seem an odd way of doing it but why keep re-rigging the lighting rigs wen they dont need to.

 

The type of events they are aiming at are shows and concerts as well as TV style formats such as xfactor and stars in their eyes.

 

As for the coda's they are used as house lights, when running at 10% but they also use them as bliders and yes they were already in their just not being used for that function

 

Hope this helps

[Dancetech]

There is one very good desk that can do all what you want, is easy to use, easy to learn, easy to train and puts people on the road to growing in the industry. I have fitted out 5 schools/colleges with it and never had a complaint.

 

The desk couold run (I suggest) a generic rig with a view to hiring in on the odd occasion any movers OR buy second hand re con units. (there will be some BUTs following this!)

 

The desk is a FAT FROG by Zero 88.

 

technofobia teachers can use it as a manual desk and technician greedy learners can programme it and run movers (to an extent)

 

But on the whole, Schools and movers Dont mix!

 

:

[mark_s]

...and having that many movers means thay can be used as static "generic" lighting. This may seem an odd way of doing it but why keep re-rigging the lighting rigs wen they dont need to.

 

Having an excess of movers just to ensure there's a nice general purpose 'generic' rig isn't a particularly cost-effective way of doing things though, is it not? And the idea of doing it to avoid re-rigging things often doesn't work either in reality, because if you rig them in random positions and just move them to cover new positions the angle of light changes, and may well look rubbish due to that.

 

If you want them to learn how to effectively 'use what they have got', then a small but sufficient rig of conventionals would be more suited in my opinion. Not only would it be far cheaper and sensible, but the students would learn how to cope with the real world, where most productions have just that. It isn't often that you have limitless resources to light something in the real world (in my limited experience), and therefore it seems more sensible to teach them how to use what they have to come up with creative solutions to the problem, rather than breeding a mentality of 'we just need to blast it with light, we can move that mover around'.

 

Of course if the aim is to give them some toys to play with and learn about - however that translates to the real world - then by all means go ahead and kit the school out with fancy kit. I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I'm very much against kitting schools out with fancy equipment where it most probably isn't necessary or even all that useful.

[tokm]

Shan't comment on if the ML's were necessary or not, but whoever spec'd 300's obviously made a poor choice. Surely 250wash's would have been a much better bet than a load of old and comparatively much dimmer fixtures..

 

I'm not saying all old kit is naff (we've had this discussion before), but in the case of 300's, come on.. :). IIRC, Martin don't make them anymore, so if theyre already second hand units.. who know's how long it'll be before they start falling apart.

 

Lucky students..

[Russ83]

Steven, I am absolutely shocked that a school has asked for that number of moving lights, IMHO that is way overkill but fair play to you for securing that contract. For the purpose of this thread it would be useful to know a rough ££ for that about of kit e.g. >60k just to put it into perspective? I have been technical manager for over 100 school productions and have never needed more that two moving heads! I know how to use them and the school owns them but quite often I just don't see the need.

 

We really need some more information on your location, your position within the school, available budget, current number of lighting bars/channels, current fixtures and available power.

Your best bet would be to get someone in from a local theatrical installation company, show them what you have and just have a chat with them.

 

As a few general pointers I will second the vote for a Zero88 desk. These have been used in education for many years and are very easy to learn for newcomers. The FatFrog is now discontinued but the new JesterML or LeapFrog range are good options with lots of support available. As you have said I would also agree to go for a desk that supports intelligent fixtures from the start, LED fixtures are becoming more and more popular and should you need to hire in moving lights in the future you will already have a suitable desk that you are familiar with and know how to program.

 

Sorry but I don't think we can make any more comments until we have some more information for you.