dominicgross Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Hey people: We are doing a theatre festival in the round in a month and I need some advice on thr rig. We have 4 huge Stands and T's (beast like thomas things) We have 64 amps of juice, 24 ways dimming I am going to hire lights - any advice on what I should get and what format I should rig in? We usualy do it with 4/5 fresnals on each tower and a tower on each corner of the round - can I do it in a better way? I would like to do something more creative if possible. Also, Whats the best way to project computer images in the round? Is a gauze hung above the best way? (you can front project and have the image on the rear I think?) Please Help... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Dominic From what I can remember The Stage Lighting Handbook (6th edition) by Francis Reid is a good resource to use, and has quite a bit of info on lighting in the round with some nice diagrams and pictures. Your local library should have it, but if not 10outof10 stock it 10outof10 - Books Link Priced £16. Amazon may well do it too. Hope this is of some help - not too detailed I know, but I've not done Theatre in the Round, so this is the only thing I can think off... Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 re: Projection. You're going to find it hard to get the image visible to 100% of the audience, unless you can afford 4 projectors and 4 screens. If the "round" is effectively a 4 sided square, you could get away with two diagonal screens, but either way its going to be a bit of a pain. Do you really need the projection? It seems to me that a lot of smaller scale theatre are jumping on the AV band wagon "because we can" rather than "beacuase we need to" (I'm guilty of this) I'm not saying don't do it, but if you havent got the budget to do it properly, why do it half heartedly? Then again, if you could afford a DL-1 then it'd be a synch (as long as you didn't need everyone to see the AV at the same time. But then, if you could afford a DL-1, you probably wouldn't be using 24 channels of dimming. Anyway, I'm going off topic. For info on lighting in the round, as stu said, The Stage Lighting Handbook is a good resource. The basic theory is, as you suggested, to light from 4 corners. You'll probably find a copy of The Stage Lighting Handbook in your school or local library. If not, I found it in my local Waterstones - worth a try. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicgross Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 I got the book, I will consult it as soon as I can be bothered to :D The projection really is necessary and budget really isn't a problem (private school) The space seats around 500 people, the only reason we only got 24 ways is due to the power (or lack of) in the venue. If I used the gauze on the diaginal, and projected from one side, would you get an image on the other (non projector) side aswell? We are doing 9 shows, 3 each night, then a final of the 3 best - I would like to improve on the notorious red, green, blue, white light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 If I used the gauze on the diaginal, and projected from one side, would you get an image on the other (non projector) side aswell?Yes, to a cetain extent, but the image would be inverted and you'd probably be able to see the projector beam from the opposite side (as gauses are designed to let light through, rather than for projecting onto) You'd be better off projecting onto a proper surface (either a projection screen, or a white flat). If you put two flats back to back, along the diagonal of the stage, and projected from the two corners where the flat was, you could achieve a fairly good effect. This could be expanded on, if the budget exists, to a square (4 flats) and 4 projectors....which I suppose would be the ideal effect. With the lighting: unless you have a specific design brief, I wouldn't go for Red Green Blue, instead go for a selection of colour washes in fairly "light" colours - Steel Blue, Straw, Rose Pink, Lavendar.... although it depends on the style of your production. Also bear in mind when focussing the lights that you should have the projectors switched on and projecting the darkest image, so you can be sure the image is still viably bright. You'll probably need 2000 lumen projectors for this purpose, but might get away with smaller - it depends on the size of your venue, etc. Again, good luck. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicgross Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 cool, thanks for that. With the projection, the problem with 2 solids is that the screen would need to be hung above the stage (and there is no fly). How can I wire 2 projectors to run from 1 computer? The space is a huge rectangle with the stage in the middle, screen on the sides maybe a problem, I may have to entail the help of a AV geek to help me out??? cheers guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 To get two projectors to run the same image from a PC, you have several options. The simplist is to use a VGA Splitter. Ask your IT department about these - they're bound to know where you can get them, if they don't have one already. Another way would be to install two graphics cards into the PC, and set up Windows to run the screens with the same image (I believe this is done in the Display settings box)Other ideas would involve an advanced graphics card which has TV-out (as S-video), an S-video to Phono adaptor, and then a video distribution amplifier (try CCTV companies) Novel idea: What about projecting behind the opposite audience? (ie onto the existing walls) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicgross Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 ummm... that is a novel idea, one to consider I feel. Changing the subject, was anyone in edinburgh for the fringe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 If you're really getting into lighting in the round, I'd recommend Lighting Techniques for Theatre-in-the-Round by Jackie Staines published by Entertainment Technology Press (see www.etbooks.co.uk) as a good foundation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted August 30, 2003 Share Posted August 30, 2003 To get two projectors to run the same image from a PC, you have several options. The simplist is to use a VGA Splitter. Ask your IT department about these - they're bound to know where you can get them, if they don't have one already. Another way would be to install two graphics cards into the PC, and set up Windows to run the screens with the same image (I believe this is done in the Display settings box)Other ideas would involve an advanced graphics card which has TV-out (as S-video), an S-video to Phono adaptor, and then a video distribution amplifier (try CCTV companies) Novel idea: What about projecting behind the opposite audience? (ie onto the existing walls)Many projectors have a "monitor out" so you can just daisy-chain them together, particularly with VGA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baldwin Posted August 30, 2003 Share Posted August 30, 2003 Dominic, tell us more about the show, what the projections are, and how they fit into the rest of the show. I don't think there's a single right way to do this, so if we knew more about the show, I'm sure we could come up with more answers. A couple of possibilities for the projection which occurred to me: (but they may well be completely useless, depending on the show, of course :D ) 1) put a front projection screen on each stand, facing the stage, and a projector on each stand, projecting across to one of the other screens. Needs unusually narrow lenses on the projectors; limits which areas of the stage can be used when the projectors are in use; may end up with audience looking too closely into theatrical lighting when watching the screens 2) make some scenic element/ prop the projection surface. Todays whacky idea is a large helium balloon which is carried onto stage when required, and projected onto from all 4 sides. Would need some pre-distortion on the source images, and could become a cumbersome device 3) if the audience are raised above the stage floor (rather than the stage being rostra raised above the audience), project onto the stage floor. Provides some challenges for the keystoning correction feature on the projector if you can't get them high enough, and runs a real risk of being washed out by the main lighting (unless budget really is no obstacle, in which case just make the floor out of Barco D-Lite LED panels ) Just some random thoughts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicgross Posted August 30, 2003 Author Share Posted August 30, 2003 Hi, basically, we are running a AMDRAM festival - 4 of the 9 groups have requested projection - all of which hope to project video and text, 1 want to project live image (I wont argue????) The audience are on the same level as the stage, I had considered projecting strait down. The answer at the moment seems to be using 2 projectors and firing onto the 2 long walls of the space. Im just providing the gear and set up - what they do with it is there decision!The projectors I have are 2 large 2000lumen Sony things - I will run them into a vision mixer, than have a computer and DVD/VHS into that - they can mix and use it as they like. When I say budget is no problem, I mean to say that we have a budget, but it will allow most things of <b>sensible</b> cost. Thanks for the ideas people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted August 30, 2003 Share Posted August 30, 2003 It seems like projecting onto the two walls will be your best option. As you say its Amdrams, it would be worth finding out EXACTLY what they are intending to give you to project - avi files? mpg files? powerpoint presentations? DV? VHS? DVD? S-VHS? Super8? Hi-8? the list of formats is almost endless. 2000 lumens should be fine as long as the space isnt too large. Consider where to rig the projectors to get the best sized image, and how to cable them up (VGA cable is relatively expensive to hire compared to Coaxial ( I believe)) It is definatly worth checking out the spec of the PC you intend to run the video from - lots of RAM is essential. If you have a choice, go for either a Linux based operating system, or at a push Windows 2000. Hmmm...it must be nice to have all these toys available to you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicgross Posted August 30, 2003 Author Share Posted August 30, 2003 'Availible' is a strong word, the amdrams are renting our space and they are opperating LX, SX and AV. They just pay us money and we get what they want. Supply and Demand. :D I have been told they are running off there own computer - all I need is to provide the facilities... Anyway - thanks for your help people - if theres anything you need (within reason), just look me up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted August 30, 2003 Share Posted August 30, 2003 have been told they are running off there own computer - all I need is to provide the facilities... <Small> Warning flags here - they do know that they have to go into a vision mixer do they? - not every computer has a composite output. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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