Open Forum

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------

According to the manual which can be found online at http://www.strandlighting.com/clientuploads/directory/downloads/DigitalEnviron_Manual.pdf

The dimmers support DMX512 and on page 23 the manual shows the pin diagram for the connectors used, which looks pretty standard to me. So you'll have to look for that connector.  I would assume that if you can not find a DMX input, the dimmers are not set up for it and the cabinet you've got is analogue, which is not a game ender, you'll just need to get an analogue board.  It also appears that Johnson systems makes an upgrade for your cabinet.  I've had good experiences with them on other projects in the past.

So-- here's what I would do.  Find the Lightronics rep (for that matter, you could go with any of the different control companies) in your area and see if they will come out and visit with you and look at the set up.  You might ask if they have a tech available or if they're just a sales office.  Because you will need a technician to come and look at your set up.  But, I like Lightronics products and I believe they still make an analogue board as it is possible to build a wire harness to adapt the board to the dimmer's control interface.  If you call they're national office and ask to talk with a tech, they'll help you out as well.  Secondly, I would get a local electrician to come and look at the the cabinet and talk to you about what he finds.  That is very useful information.  Lastly, try calling Johnson Systems, they're really nice folks, and they will help you out.

It might also be better to upgrade your system, try pricing that out and see what your district will support.  They might be interested in replacing the gear.

Hope that helps,

Let us know how the project turns out, would be nice to know

------------------------------
Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-09-2015 18:26
From: Edward Mielke
Subject: Lighting Tech Issue

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------

Hi,

  Sorry that you face such issues.  Strand control boards have never been my friend and I highly recommend ETC boards.  We just switched our high schools to the ETC Element, however that sounds like it is more than you need for your space.  I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but I always like to check out:   Lighting and Electrics

This is another forum that has many threads directly related to technical theatre.  I think the key thing is to make sure that you have DMX ports on both the board you are getting and the dimmer rack.  There could also be DMX ports that already run to your dimmers somewhere in your space.  In the picture I see a 6 pin port, but not a 5 pin.     

A few things about the board you are looking at on Amazon.  It is a far cry from what the Strand 300 would have allowed you to do.  I see these type of control systems more in DJ settings.  If you are creating a program where you want to teach students about lighting systems, I would recommend looking into one of the more industry standard boards (ETC/strand are good starting places).  They are going to cost more, however you could try to see if anyone has a second hand board because they are upgrading their systems.  ETC has some older boards in the Express and Expression series.  Check on usedlighting.com.  These are going to be more money than what you were looking at.  Does your school system have a contract with a lighting company that could do a walk through and make recommendations?  It might be good to bring in a local professional in the theatre lighting field to look at things.    

------------------------------
Steven Fleming
Howard County Public School System
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-09-2015 18:26
From: Edward Mielke
Subject: Lighting Tech Issue

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------

I won’t recommend any specific board (I actually like both Strand and ETC), but here’s some food for thought when looking for a light board:

If you are considering purchasing a new light board you don’t want to be in a situation where the light board is too high tech to be of any practical use. For instance, if you don’t foresee purchasing $2000.00 moving lights then there is no need to have a light board sophisticated enough to control moving lights.

Another thing to avoid is a small light board that has a multitude of functions. Some of these compact boards have so many functions that they’ve had to get very creative in how to access each function that it makes it too difficult for students to learn and retain how a basic board works. Be careful that the light board that you purchase doesn’t have too many steps/modes to go through just to perform simple functions such as patching, recording, play back, etc.

In addition, also watch out for light boards that don’t use standard industry nomenclature, such as “Cues” and “Subs”, for instance. Students don’t learn the common terms that are used in the rest of the live theatre industry, and those who already know the common terms will have to re-learn a set of new terms.

Some light board these days don’t have faders for channels and rely only on key pad entry. The choice of whether to go with one of these boards depends on the uses of your space and who the users will be. I personally find key pad entry too slow. When I’m designing lights I talk pretty fast and I want my light board op to keep up. I grit my teeth when I say “Bring channel 46 to 80 percent” and I have to wait to hear tap (Channel), tap (4), tap (6), tap (@), tap (8), tap (0), tap (Enter/*), when the light board op could have just reached over an in one movement moved a fader to 80. Of course, these days kids are so used to completing tasks electronically instead of physically, and there can be reasons why you would want a key pad entry in a more sophisticated situation. Again, it boils down to planning ahead and questioning who are your users and what are the uses of your board. It’s not always obvious to a casual user what the procedure is with a key pad board, while with a board with faders it’s pretty obvious that if you move a fader something will happen (and faders can be labeled). At least with a board with faders the operator has the option to use faders or the key pad, but with a board with only a key pad the operator does not have that option.

An expensive state-of-the-art board is not always the best choice. There is a school of thought that students should have the best technology available because they will soon go to a college or get a job where this technology is used and they will have a head start. However, usually the need to have an easy to learn light board trumps the need to have the best technology. This is primarily because students come and go. If you’re lucky you will have a freshman come in with a keen interest in lighting and stay for four years. But what usually happens is that either students come in expressing an interest and soon discover it’s not for them, or a student who is passionate has always thought the Drama program was only for actors, and only discovers tech in his/her junior or senior year.

So,for high school students I actually prefer a two-scene preset board (or a board with that option). I know people think I’m crazy, but then the students actually get a feel for what light does. I had a student at one high school who was our board programmer on an Element, she was also interested in learning design. She later got a gig designing and running lights for a small show at her community college. They just had a two scene preset board in their little theatre, so she was active the whole time during tech and the run of the show. She said to me, when I went to see her show, that now she “got” what the lights were doing, and could “feel” each cue she took. To me that’s the way to learn, not by punching on a key pad and a Go button. On the other hand, many people feel that high school students should have all of today’s technology (although you’d be surprised in the real world how few state-of-the-art boards there actually are).

So again it all depends on how intense a stage lighting program you will be setting up and what your goals are, but “purchase backwards” – decide the involvement of your students, what features you will need to achieve that, and then find a board that has those features.

The bottom line is that it’s awesome that you are doing this at all! Best of luck!

Beth
------------------------------
Elizabeth Rand
High School Theatre Consultant
Rand Consulting and Design
Woodinville WA
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-09-2015 18:26
From: Edward Mielke
Subject: Lighting Tech Issue

Heeeelp!
I am in the process of establishing educational theatre in our school district. The stage I have to work with is located in a multi-use cafeteria they call "The Commons" I call it "Theatre in the Commons"  We do have some lights on 12 channels (3 Parkans, 2 Lekos, 6 Fresnels and growing...), but they were designed to be controlled with a Strand 300 dimmer board, which is plugged into a Digital Environ electrical box (see pics). The Strand 300 dimmer board is shot--according to the fine folks at Strand Lighting.

This school was built in 2001 and the Strand 300 was never hooked up until I tried last year. In the past, teachers around here just used the breaker switches to turn the lights on and off for dances and the occasional choir concert. I have found some success programming each light channel to a button panel located outside of the light booth on the wall in the wings stage right. But I don't get any control on dimming up or down, it's time consuming, and there's a delay so I don't know if my programming "sticks" for sometimes hours. It's extremely frustrating.

My question is this: can I use another type of dimmer board, perhaps a Chauvet OBEY70 Universal DMX-512 Controller (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E9X7X8/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_it_P3059_100?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=20dc5f8343aa89ea39fd76ba42057732_S_0_ti)?

Would this work? Do I have any other options other than trying to acquire a working Strand 300 or getting ours repaired, both of which have been fruitless thus far?

------------------------------
Edward Mielke
Florence OR
------------------------------