Noisy UV cannons urgent help

[roryfm]

Hi guys,

I have a visiting company fitting up at the moment for shows Thursday/Friday, but we're having huge problems finding 'quiet' enough UV cannons. We've hired in 400W cannons from our local hire company, but they make way too much noise when starting up to be practical in a studio style setting. We are the 4th venue that this show has been staged in, and they've never had this trouble before.

 

The company are needing to flood the whole space at the end of the show (there's a huge UV painting being revealed over the walls) so strip lights or L181 won't cut the mustard; but none of our local companies have theatre style UV cannons (the ones shaped like a funnel) they all only stock the square disco type made by Soundlab etc. (google image search for '400W UV cannon' for what I've got, and there's a few images of what I actually need) The show is a one woman show so there isn't the possibility of boosting levels/playing noise to mask the hum for the first 10 minutes as they warm up, and we need them off for the first 40 minutes of the piece to prevent the reveal.

 

Any help in either quietening them, or sourcing some decent ones in the Oxfordshire area by tomorrow afternoon would be appreciated. I've tried Lancelyn, Henley, Startech, Origin Productions, as many other schools that I can think of that might have some but to no avail.

 

Thanks for your time

Rory F-M

[DrV]

At the risk of teaching grandmother to suck eggs, they are running off a nice clean sine wave are they? I mean direct from the mains via a relay or a switch. Even at "100%" a triac controlled supply may introduce enough distortion of the waverform to cause a ballast to buzz badly. Sorry if I'm stating the bl33ding obvious

Dave

[roryfm]

Valid point, but unfortunately yes they're running off a 13A socket. They do quiet down once they've warmed up but that's a good 10 minutes which isn't really viable. The noise wasnt a problem when weve used these same (similar) units in previous shows but that was in our main auditorium and at the start of the show so it could be warmed up in advance. This time we're in a studio setup, so it's more of an issue.

We may just have to look at running them throughout, but covering/shuttering the lamp until the reveal which may be the best option for now. An interesting learning experience to remember in future methinks.

Cheers

[Gareth A]

Hi guys,

I have a visiting company fitting up at the moment for shows Thursday/Friday, but we're having huge problems finding 'quiet' enough UV cannons. We've hired in 400W cannons from our local hire company, but they make way too much noise when starting up to be practical in a studio style setting. We are the 4th venue that this show has been staged in, and they've never had this trouble before.

 

The company are needing to flood the whole space at the end of the show (there's a huge UV painting being revealed over the walls) so strip lights or L181 won't cut the mustard; but none of our local companies have theatre style UV cannons (the ones shaped like a funnel) they all only stock the square disco type made by Soundlab etc. (google image search for '400W UV cannon' for what I've got, and there's a few images of what I actually need) The show is a one woman show so there isn't the possibility of boosting levels/playing noise to mask the hum for the first 10 minutes as they warm up, and we need them off for the first 40 minutes of the piece to prevent the reveal.

 

Any help in either quietening them, or sourcing some decent ones in the Oxfordshire area by tomorrow afternoon would be appreciated. I've tried Lancelyn, Henley, Startech, Origin Productions, as many other schools that I can think of that might have some but to no avail.

 

Thanks for your time

Rory F-M

 

 

Its probably too late, and too expensive now, but http://www.stage-electrics.co.uk/productHire.aspx?code=BL400 is probably what your after.

[Tomo]

Fit a douser to the front?

 

Then you can have them already on and hot throughout the piece and do the reveal very quickly by opening the douser.

 

To be honest, that's usually the best the way to do it anyway as none of the UV 'cannon' fixtures warm up particularly fast.

 

UV florries take a few seconds (often fast enough), and UV LED starts instantly (but costs a lot!)

[roryfm]

Thanks for all the tips - in the end we went with a classic mix of bits of string, slip knots and a dowser and it seems to work well enough. First performance in an hour's time, and the dress went very well.

 

Thanks again

roryfm