Anyone from a School?

[justanothertechie]

I was just wondering if anyone out there, like me, is a technician at a school? Whether it be as a member of staff or student and what sort of equipment you have access to i.e. day to day!

 

Coming from a state school I have access to fairly basic equipment (Generic Lanterns like Pars, Profiles, Fresnel's and a few floods).

 

I was wondering if anyone else has had trouble getting the school to authorise the cost of a new desk (to deal with moving heads) and moving heads themselves?

[paulears]

This has come up so many times in the past ten years that, the subject is pretty fixed in response. The number of times we've heard about schools buying movers and wasting their money is etched into many of us.

 

The facts seem pretty clear from the history.

 

Some schools have skilled technicians who can repair them, and substantial budgets to keep them running. Their staff are available to do the programming and assist the kids. The other aspect is not just the buying cost, but if you buy discharge types, the lamp costs are horrific. So many schools and colleges bought them, and found them just too complicated to use. You can get lots of conventional kit, or LED colour mixing cans for the price of the movers, and to be of any use, they're in addition, not replacement of the other kit. You need lots of movers to be much use.

 

If you have one big show a year that could benefit from moving lights, then hiring is the best bet. Many schools and colleges have cut right back on technical staff and the teaching staff just don't want to faff around with complicated technical kit - they want simplicity. A fader that says RED is fine, but a complicated control that nobody can use is pointless.

 

The powers that be will want solid reasons for buying technically advanced kit.

Will grades be better?

Is it required by the course spec (and it rarely is)

Do the teachers want it?

 

When I left my college - my replacement packed them all away in their flight cases and they've never been turned on since 2004! He called me in the other day to find out what they did. Where's the controls, I asked - The Strand 300 we lost the box thing, and we swapped the AVO thing for a video camera. What have you got now? A frog - great, at least something that could work them, but not a single DMX cable. Eventually I dragged some from the van and we tried to plug them into the sockets on the bar in their new theatre - only to discover that there must be a patch somewhere - and I tracked it down to behind a locked door that also had the breakers for the hard power on the bar. No staff were allowed access to this room because it has electrical things in it.

 

Moving lights can be useful for schools and colleges who have a need for them, but in truth, the need is usually the fact somebody on staff wants to play with them. Unless they are doing the clever lighting unit in Level 3 BTEC (which few do), there really is no need for the investment in moving lights.

 

There have been over the years a few good cases, but 99% of advice is that movers for schools and colleges is still a luxury that is probably wasted finance.

[CraigG]

Yeah, I'm a student technician at our school. We don't have a tech course, but our crew runs loads of events across the year. As each year goes on, we're getting more and more gear in on hires, top end equipment like 10 or so movers and some LEDs from martin, clay paky etc. We currently own a generic board, jands event, no mover control, but our student leader has his own vista moving light board. But now he's moving on, our current desk won't be able to handle the movers we tend to hire a few times a year. In fact, it's on its last legs, randomly occasionally cutting out. But the school is reluctant to buy a new desk

However, I do agree there's not much need for most schools to own movers, we have a couple of clay paky scans which do us for the smaller events when we're not hiring

[Don Allen]

There is a battery in the Event that needs changing after about five years. A flat battery causes weird desk operations, loss of memory.

 

Battery replacement is in the manual.

[ojc123]

Times are hard and money is tight. Here's my £0.02.

 

I notice that you are a student. Presumably a 'student technician' which can mean a lot of things. Even if you're capable and competent then you'll leave soon. It may seem a long time to you but it isn't that long. Then all the kit you've obtained and looked after will fall into disrepair and/or get put in a box as Mr Ears has described.

 

I've been involved recently with the development of an upgrade path in our state school. We're looking at installing hard power and DMX to the existing bars which are currently supplied by dimmed power only.

 

I'm not expecting that we'll buy movers in my remaining 5-8 years in the job, although I might buy a couple of scanners. It just isn't a high priority for this School to have wiggly lights. It's hard to argue for a load of (effectively) toys when we have classroom windows letting water in and flooring that's so old and worn that it's a trip hazard.

 

We are looking to get a desk capable of running movers but I suspect that'll have to come from profits from shows. Meanwhile, I'll run any hired moving lights using MagicQ and the £10 dongle.

 

E2A I've visited two relatively well-funded private schools recently which have adopted the same philosophy; infrastucture to cope with movers but hire in the lights when needed.

[GridGirl]

Paul and OJC are absolutely on the money. I spent four years in a professional theatre (moved on to running an orchestra now!) and we didn't own movers - we had the infrastructure to run them and hired them in when we needed them. That way when they broke down/needed servicing/chucked a hissy fit (as movers do) we didn't have the expense or trouble of sorting it - just ring the hire company for a replacement. It also meant we could get the units we needed rather than being stuck with profiles when we needed washes, or vice versa. There's a great article here about all the things you should do before you get moving lights - have a read, it's American but still applicable.

[STCM_Tech]

I'm a technician at a secondary school, we have a lot of standard lamps as well as LED kit too. As has beens stated above we hire in movers for productions, doing this means we run them and our LED kit with MagicQ PC as our desk [Zero88 Elara] can't. This works pretty well as the students learn to use conventional fixtures and a standard desk but then can also learn how to use and program the movers and DMX fixtures with MagicQ too.

 

 

 

 

[Robin D]

It's hard to argue for a load of (effectively) toys when we have classroom windows letting water in and flooring that's so old and worn that it's a trip hazard.

A school recently hit local news when spending money on new IT kit (the old PC's were just 3 years old!), when they 'couldn't afford' to replace a cracked pane of glass in a classroom, or yet send someone on a first aid course was the previously trained person had left.

 

I'm also firmly of the belief that learning the basics of lighting, colour mixing, coverage and control is far more important than having movers of any flavour. I went to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at a nearby school where they have a 'state of the art' theatre. That's equipped with a good range of profiles, fresnels, PARS etc, and six waggly heads. 90% of the time, nothing but the movers and smoke machines were on and the whole show better represented a disco. Absolutely ruined the show, and I suspect they learned very little.

 

Sad. :(

[ojc123]

snip....

As has beens stated above we hire in movers for productions,

...snip

I think Mr Ears and I object to being called "has beens". :)

[STCM_Tech]

ojc123 sorry its been a long weekend! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif

[Ian der Laan]

One route to up-grading your kit is to investigate thepossibility of funding via a sustainability grant. If you're currently runninga good few Fresnels/PARs etc. @ 1k+ each, you can rack up some heftyelectricity costs. Over a five year period, this can add up to thousands. NowImagine the difference if you replace those lanterns with some shiny new LEDkit and obviously, you’ll need a suitable desk to run it. Do the maths, willthe money you save pay for the new gear? If so, present this argument to yourmanagers and add the artistic improvements and the impact on courses in to themix and who knows, they may just listen to you.

 

 

In education, you have to think out of the box, it's not professional theatrebut there are ways to improve your position. Just sitting back and acceptingyour lot is not the way to get job satisfaction and to develop the courses youwork with.

 

[sleah]

I've been an AV technician/egineer in a private school for the thick end of 28 years, with close to 25 of those years working with and ultimately have responsibility over the technical theatre(s), which consists of two school assembly halls and two drama studios across two sites.

Over the years when it comes to essentials, such as generics and infrastructure, there has been little resistance to spending money on it. Especially when we mention H&S, we can not risk electrical equipment in a potential dangerous state, be it old worn out wiring or broken lanterns.

We have also been able to replace the control desks when they were broken and/or not economically viable to repair.

That applies to the actual lanterns too, in addition the benefits of lighter weight and more efficient generics made buying new kit more attractive.

 

When it comes to new technology, I've just weeks ago invested in £2.5K of LED PARS, mid priced at that. The question of moving lights has never arisen.

I won't repeat what Paul Ears has said, as he has hit the nail on the noggin.

 

I love toys and would be in heaven playing with a bunch of movers, but I also think the school investing in them would be foolish, to put it mildly. IF we ever saw a need, we would hire.

 

Another thing to consider, if you were to consider investing, don't even consider anything remotely budget. Buying anything but the best top-end kit designed for theatre type use will end in tears.

A 600W Fresnel may seem a humble little light, but it takes quite a bit to beat it...

[PuppetLight]

Our school student lighting technician left last year, and as his friend, the school asked me to step in, I have now been the student lighting technician for 10 months, (and am a Year 12 student) I now want to do lighting at University.

I have had a positive attitude toward the drama dept. and have been helping out as often as I can, nearly 4 lunchtimes a week, and in that time I have done a complete inventory of what we have in the Drama Studio, discovering that all the bulbs for our Fresnels were on their last legs and that everytime a light breaks in the main hall, the site staff take them from drama, and I found that showing this to the head of drama and explaining the benefits of a new desk, LEDs and movers, and we have just placed an order for a whole new stock of lights, and are looking into a redesing/build of the drama studio.

If you put the effort/research in to explain everything, and stress how it will benefit drama and dance exams it should be allowed (just think about costs)

[paulears]

It's nice you love your role - but you do need to realise that you are (probably willingly) be taken advantage of. In the school heirachy, there really isn't such a thing as a student technician - such a post doesn't exist, apart from as just a title. We've become quite used to this over the years, but two people in a day have got the same title.

 

If somebody says they are a technician in a school, people will assume that it's a paid job, something you get when you've completed your education. However - teachers don't think like this, they simply use people's keenness and comfort with technical things to get things done that they know little about. Many drama, music and media teachers know very little about the technical aspects of their courses, so having somebody who can do all the 'technical' stuff works amazingly well. The title just means recognition. On forums inhabited by people who are in the business, or worse - school/college 'real' technicians, you just need to remember that this title causes a bit of amusement, because we all know that it's just an honorary title and doesn't count for very much in the real world, or on the forum. I'm no belittling what you do, but you are not in any sense of the word, a technician, you're just the person tasked with all things technical, because your teacher isn't!

 

I wonder how you produced the shopping list for the equipment? If the teacher is clueless have you really spent the funds wisely? In a year or so, you will leave - will the kit you selected be able to be used by those that come after or will it (like my story above) be stuck in a cupboard never to be seen again? Let's be honest, if the problem of replacing a lamp is too hard, and they just rob a working lantern from somewhere else, then the real technical support is pretty dreadful.

 

I really don't know how you work out the last one - How exactly will your new kit benefit the drama and dance exams?

[sleah]

If somebody says they are a technician in a school, people will assume that it's a paid job,

Not to mention failing to gain respect from the 'real' paid technicians in the school. Science technicians are paid members of staff and a student 'technician' is hardly on the same footing....

I doubt many student 'technicians' or 'Head of..s' visit the staffroom, sit in on briefings, sit in on staff meetings, attend staff training days, discuss future plans and budgets with Estates Managers, Bursars or Heads.

There may of course be the odd exception.

 

Sorry, went OT for a moment there.... :)