Front of house rig

[medina]

Hi All,

I am just doing a quick bit of research how different venues manage their front of house rigs when it come to pre rigging for visiting companies and hires.

We used to change the rig for whatever needed it, but now we are having a work carried out on the FOH gantry it is going to be a real ball ache to de/rig. Do other venues have a fixed front rig that covers all and doesnt change regardless of the tech spec or do you change it and charge the visiting companies (if so how much). I am interested in all scenarios I.e straight hires or % cuts etc.

Thanks

[paulears]

We certainly don't charge. Our FOH truss now contains all the things usually asked for, and if this means a few come out and get replaced, I guess that's just the way it is. Ours, at the moment also has 8K of fresnels for audience light - this seems something that gets asked for quite a lot now - comedians and spiritualist shows always ask for bright auditorium light, and our house lighting is not bright in any sense of the word.

[Shez]

In my venues, it's rare for anything to need to be rigged / derigged FOH as there are sufficient profiles up there to cover almost every eventuality. They'll regularly need to be focussed / coloured according to the requirements of incoming shows but apart from a rare special, that's about as much as things change.

If you can set up a warm & cool wash across the stage (divided into however many areas you generally need individual control over) and aim to not touch those lanterns, the rest can be tweaked for specials as & when.

[Ynot]

In my own small venue, we have ample FoH profile cover to give a variety of coloured washes as well as opens and steel/straw to cool/warm a set.

 

The pro venue I often cassy at, the main FoH bridge is pretty much set as is for top set of profiles, the circle is populated with what the tour brings with them, and there's a split between the companies using a basic set of front/side zoom profiles from the audience boxes each side and others who kit those out themselves.

[jonathanhill]

In my old venue, Bridge 1 used to house 18 Source 4 15/30 profiles and Bridge 2 used to house 10 Alto 8/16 profiles. The Altos have been swapped for 12 Source 4 14 degree (sadly not available when I spec'd the Altos). There has never really been a need to move units about as they gave a good coverage and there were lots of other positions for toured units to go. As others have said the lanterns were focussed as per the shows requirements but generally nothing would move. I would definitely try to hang as many units as possible to avoid changing on show by show basis. I would also draw a FoH plan to give to the visiting company, and to publish with your technical specification and to post on your website.

[Bryson]

When I design, the first thing I do is ask what the house FOH cover is, and then just incorporate it into the design. Saves time, grief and often works better than what I was thinking of! ;)

 

As long as you have spare units for specials and a decent cover, I'm happy.

 

 

[Will Perkins]

Our FOH rig is compiled of 2 sets of 5 pairs (if that makes sense) and as standard (not officially, but it seems to have stuck this way) 1 set is 201 and the other 103. Most people leave as is as it works for most shows and those that do will only ever re-gel and re-focus as the lantern positions are just an obvious choice for anyone.

 

We then have a total of 9 profiles for specials (mixture of Source 4s and Strand SLs) which amble around the venue both FOH and occasionally on stage.

[the kid]

We run what I call FOH 1 (closer to the box) as 11 profiles, 10 in warm/cold, and one centre solid spot for comedy.

 

FOH 2 (closer to the stage) we change it about quite a bit, it invariably is a cover of 2/3 bar end pars then either 1k fres or profiles or more pars.

 

FOH 1 will stay pretty much the same for all shows, however there will be maybe 3 shows a year that require a massive grid change that involves fiddling with FOH1.

 

We did look in to putting scrollers on but for small shows the added pain of programming in scrolls etc was not worth it.

[LXbydesign]

My FOH stays as it is and is never moved. There are spare circuits up there to add anything if required. 4 Macs deal with any specials and/or a bit of gobo wash from out-front.

 

The only time things will change around a little is for panto, otherwise the most FOH gets is fresh colour and a spring clean now and then.

[Ynot]

We run what I call FOH 1 (closer to the box) ..........

 

FOH 2 (closer to the stage) ..........

Totally off topic, but this tends to go across what I've always believed to be common practice....

 

My understanding is that traditionally everything is counted from the prosc line, so on stage bar 1 is the furthest downstage, with FoH bar 1 the closest to the stage, and work out from there...

[Just Some Bloke]

Indeed, bars are usually numbered from the pros line (or the downstage edge of the stage if no pros) so FOH 1 would be nearest the stage and FOH 2 furthest away. We also have an advance bar over our apron which is often re-rigged, but the actual FOH bar never really needs to be. We have 12 Source 4s that stay put and are occasionally supplemented by the odd parcan that's easily hauled up by rope and used to replace or supple,ment the Source 4s. Luckily there's plenty of space on the bar rarely to have to derig the profiles - they just get unplugged and moved along.

 

Most shows that come in can be accomodated with our standard rig - it's only our own staff and people who know the theatre well that design speciically for it and might throw something extra in. Once you make the decision to leave the standard FOH rig in place, you'll be surprised how easily things fit into place.

[peza2010]

As a vistor to many theatres with a rock and roll type show,I don't think I have ever had to do much more than a small amount of focussing on the foh bars. the spec sheet asks for a general White wash on stage from front of house, which is always covered by the default foh setup in most theatres.

 

But as others have said generally a full stage wash, both warm and cold is a very acceptable starting point for most shows, and May rarely need to get touched at all.

[Caldair]

Stage #1: Two FOH bars containing (between them) 12 profiles, 8 fresnels, 4 source4 revolutions and 8 profiles with mirrors which saves quite a lot of seats from ladder wear... Most visiting shows tend to use the profiles and just refocus them, personally I mainly use the movers and mirrors and the other washes if they have a useful focus already... The only times I can think of much of anything else rigged there is when television people want brighter fresnels.

 

Numbered from front, not proscenium - LX01, LX02, LX03 is over the stage but in front of the proscenium, LX1-5 behind it.

 

Stage #2: One bar on a bridge, has 12 profiles and 4 fresnels. Refocused for nearly every show, but very easily accessible. Can hang other lights here if wanted, but rarely happens.

Also a bar at mix pos, named "gallery," pretty much never touched nor used for anything but pretty parcans on the audience.

 

On the other hand, in a different venue they stripped the whole rig after every show including the front light, and then for the next production the next week they hung the exact same front again...

[harrydir]

Speaking as another tourer to venues - we much prefer a prerigged FOH with a nice plan, that we can just colour up and focus as we like, patch it in and off we go.

 

As long as theres double figures of (the same) profile, ideally all single channels, there's not a lot we can't make work for us. Our plan is technically 3 colour wash, 6 zones, but it's easier to adapt to what's there rather than rig 18 lights. It also saves a hell of a lot of time on the out, which is nice.