Open Forum

For sound: Q-Lab. 

It's a Mac program, and the free version powerful enough to run most shows. The paid version adds a ton of features. I have no experience with it as a light controller, but I understand it does that as well.

Scott

Before spec’ing the latest state-of-the-art light boards for your school theatre you have to be clear on what bells and whistles do you want on your light board and why. The answer/decision depends on the functional use of your theatre. Will your theatre be primarily used by students who come and go each year? Do different students end up running your shows all year? How much time is there for a student to learn how to operate the light board? Will there be vocational training for students? How many students a year will want to learn to be board operators? Will the theatre be staffed by professional technicians? Will a teacher and students staff the theatre – how much does an acting teacher know about programming light boards? Will the technicians mentor the students? Will the theatre be rented to outside users? Who will staff outside events, professional staff or students? Will outside users be expected to be able to run the light board on their own, or are they not allowed to touch the equipment? Will outside users be permitted to use the theatre equipment unsupervised? Who will restore the equipment and light board settings each time in preparation for the next user (school or outside)? Do you have moving lights? Do you have LEDs? The answers to all of these questions and more will determine what type of light board you need. “All computerized” may not be better if you don’t provide the program to support the learning curve each year.

I’ve seen too many extravagant high school theatre stage lighting systems go to complete waste and not be used to their full potential because the design was not suitable to the users’ abilities or budget. For instance, one school I was asked to work at had a (mega overkill, ultra expensive) state-of-the-art light board installed with a complete system of programmable LED lights in their 100-seat theatre. I suspect the architect was concerned about energy and environmental design, and rightly so, but there are exemptions for performance spaces regarding energy consumption. The system was so complicated that no one had used the theatre’s lighting system for the first year and a half of the school’s operation. For a start, all of the lights had been left programmed to come on when the board was turned on and no one knew how to turn off the stage lights. They didn’t know that the lights had been programmed into a cue. They didn’t even know what a cue was. So my techs and I re-hung, re-focused and re-patched the lights (some which had even been left aimed at the wall outside of the proscenium arch, others right on the drapes). We then programmed the whole system for them in a rep plot format. That system will never be used to its full potential in such a preliminary learning environment and cost the school district hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is a classic example of where simpler technology (a “two scene preset” manual board with standard manually focused instruments) trumps state-of-the-art technology when it comes to building performance affecting academic performance, as well as assists with staff ability and retention of knowledge.

Some light boards 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 theatre 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 operator to keep up. I have to 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 and in one movement and 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 the people who will be using the equipment who are their users and what are the uses of the board. 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.

Another thing to avoid is a small light board that has a multitude of functions. While a smaller less expensive light board with a lot of functions sounds like a good idea on the surface, some of these compact boards have so many functions that they’ve had to get very creative in how to access each function. There are so many steps, with functions hidden within functions that it makes it too difficult for students, who come and go, to learn and retain how the board works. Be careful that the light board that you spec or 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. With these boards 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.

There is a school of thought that high school 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, in a high school setting, usually the need to have an easy to learn and operate light board trumps the need to have the best technology (unless there is a professional vocational training program at the high school).

Most high school theatre departments have students who 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 either, that students come in expressing an interest and soon discover it’s not for them, or a student who is vocationally passionate has always thought the Drama program was only for actors, and only discovers tech in his/her junior or senior year.

In addition, most typical Drama teachers really don’t know much tech. They take one look at the light board and leave it up to a student to figure out, which results in loss of control by the teacher. Regardless of what light board you have it’s best to hire professional technicians who will be there to mentor the students, which allows the Drama teacher to get on and do what they do best which is teaching acting, and directing students.

If you don’t foresee your school purchasing $2000.00 moving lights for their theatre, and having a professional career training program for a student lighting crew who will be learning light board programming for moving lights, then there is no need to have a light board sophisticated enough to control moving lights. Leave that for when the vocational student gets to university or starts an apprenticeship. Don’t waste money on a state of the art light board when it could be better used elsewhere.

In addition, faders physically teach student what light “does”. Punching a bunch of buttons leads to no visceral understanding of light. I once had a student who was a great light board op and showed design sense and capabilities. The high school had a state-of-the-art board. She then went to a little community college, which had a small theatre and a small two-scene preset board. She designed the lights for a show there and also acted as board op. When I asked her how she liked running the basic board, her eyes lit up and she said ‘now I know what I’ve been pushing all those buttons for’. She finally understood light. All this goes for the digital-vs-analog debate about sound boards in high schools too.

To reiterate (in case I haven’t said it enough…), state-of-the-art is not always the best choice for a high school theatre. There are going to be people who completely disagree with me, but before you make up your own mind, when deciding on a light board remember to ask these questions:

Will the theatre be primarily used by students who come and go every few years?

Will there be vocational training for students?

How many students a year will want to learn to be lighting technicians?

Will the theatre be staffed by professional technicians?

Will the technicians run the theatre, and/or work with the students? Will the theatre be rented to outside users?

Who will staff outside events, professional staff or students?

Will outside users expected to be able to run their own lights?

Will outside users be permitted to use the theatre’s equipment unsupervised?

Who will restore the equipment each time in preparation for the next user?

Elizabeth, What a wonderful, detailed and thoughtful response!  You are ***sooooo**** right that more tech does not always equal better tech unless you have a trained LD/ME and/or Sound Engineer who is there to keep the kids trained.  I learned my lighting tech in the 90's, haven't had to touch a light or board in 20 something years, and find myself stymied now when I face DMX - I know what it is, but couldn't begin training students how to program moveable lights.

For lights, we have an ETC element, which is capable of more than we use it for, but simple enough that the students and I can get in and program cues, load or save a show, etc... pretty quickly. It has faders and a keypad and a somewhat intuitive interface. It seems to strike a pretty nice balance between accessibility, usability and features.

We used QLab to run sound and video projections for our last show and I LOVE it. Very easy to pick up, but offers a lot of control over your cues. It's also great because you can use the free version, then if you discover that say, for one show, you need a higher level effect, you can rent the pro level for just the length of the run. Quite cost-effective, since 90% of the time the free version is sufficient.

AB

Thank you, Elizabeth, for such a thorough answer.  

We bought an ETC Express 24/48 when we finally got rid of our Lightboard M about 10 years ago, and I love it.  We have it set up with 24 channels and we use the B panel for submasters.  We have a rep plot that stays the same, and some instruments that we change color and focus on for particular shows.  That is the only way it works in our space, where the only person guaranteed to know anything about lights from year to year is me--the overworked theatre teacher.  A group of Thespian techs operate lights for our shows, dance shows, choral concerts, strings concerts, talent shows, speaking events, etc.  Those techs have an annoying habit of graduating on time.

I don't care if my tech students know the most up-to-date equipment.  I'm going to send them out of here with a thorough understanding of the basics, and they can learn the rest in college.

Elizabeth, What a wonderful, detailed and thoughtful response!  You are ***sooooo**** right that more tech does not always equal better tech unless you have a trained LD/ME and/or Sound Engineer who is there to keep the kids trained.  I learned my lighting tech in the 90's, haven't had to touch a light or board in 20 something years, and find myself stymied now when I face DMX - I know what it is, but couldn't begin training students how to program moveable lights.

For lights, we have an ETC element, which is capable of more than we use it for, but simple enough that the students and I can get in and program cues, load or save a show, etc... pretty quickly. It has faders and a keypad and a somewhat intuitive interface. It seems to strike a pretty nice balance between accessibility, usability and features.

We used QLab to run sound and video projections for our last show and I LOVE it. Very easy to pick up, but offers a lot of control over your cues. It's also great because you can use the free version, then if you discover that say, for one show, you need a higher level effect, you can rent the pro level for just the length of the run. Quite cost-effective, since 90% of the time the free version is sufficient.

AB

Thank you, Elizabeth, for such a thorough answer.  

We bought an ETC Express 24/48 when we finally got rid of our Lightboard M about 10 years ago, and I love it.  We have it set up with 24 channels and we use the B panel for submasters.  We have a rep plot that stays the same, and some instruments that we change color and focus on for particular shows.  That is the only way it works in our space, where the only person guaranteed to know anything about lights from year to year is me--the overworked theatre teacher.  A group of Thespian techs operate lights for our shows, dance shows, choral concerts, strings concerts, talent shows, speaking events, etc.  Those techs have an annoying habit of graduating on time.

I don't care if my tech students know the most up-to-date equipment.  I'm going to send them out of here with a thorough understanding of the basics, and they can learn the rest in college.

Elizabeth, What a wonderful, detailed and thoughtful response!  You are ***sooooo**** right that more tech does not always equal better tech unless you have a trained LD/ME and/or Sound Engineer who is there to keep the kids trained.  I learned my lighting tech in the 90's, haven't had to touch a light or board in 20 something years, and find myself stymied now when I face DMX - I know what it is, but couldn't begin training students how to program moveable lights.

For lights, we have an ETC element, which is capable of more than we use it for, but simple enough that the students and I can get in and program cues, load or save a show, etc... pretty quickly. It has faders and a keypad and a somewhat intuitive interface. It seems to strike a pretty nice balance between accessibility, usability and features.

We used QLab to run sound and video projections for our last show and I LOVE it. Very easy to pick up, but offers a lot of control over your cues. It's also great because you can use the free version, then if you discover that say, for one show, you need a higher level effect, you can rent the pro level for just the length of the run. Quite cost-effective, since 90% of the time the free version is sufficient.

AB

Before spec’ing the latest state-of-the-art light boards for your school theatre you have to be clear on what bells and whistles do you want on your light board and why. The answer/decision depends on the functional use of your theatre. Will your theatre be primarily used by students who come and go each year? Do different students end up running your shows all year? How much time is there for a student to learn how to operate the light board? Will there be vocational training for students? How many students a year will want to learn to be board operators? Will the theatre be staffed by professional technicians? Will a teacher and students staff the theatre – how much does an acting teacher know about programming light boards? Will the technicians mentor the students? Will the theatre be rented to outside users? Who will staff outside events, professional staff or students? Will outside users be expected to be able to run the light board on their own, or are they not allowed to touch the equipment? Will outside users be permitted to use the theatre equipment unsupervised? Who will restore the equipment and light board settings each time in preparation for the next user (school or outside)? Do you have moving lights? Do you have LEDs? The answers to all of these questions and more will determine what type of light board you need. “All computerized” may not be better if you don’t provide the program to support the learning curve each year.

I’ve seen too many extravagant high school theatre stage lighting systems go to complete waste and not be used to their full potential because the design was not suitable to the users’ abilities or budget. For instance, one school I was asked to work at had a (mega overkill, ultra expensive) state-of-the-art light board installed with a complete system of programmable LED lights in their 100-seat theatre. I suspect the architect was concerned about energy and environmental design, and rightly so, but there are exemptions for performance spaces regarding energy consumption. The system was so complicated that no one had used the theatre’s lighting system for the first year and a half of the school’s operation. For a start, all of the lights had been left programmed to come on when the board was turned on and no one knew how to turn off the stage lights. They didn’t know that the lights had been programmed into a cue. They didn’t even know what a cue was. So my techs and I re-hung, re-focused and re-patched the lights (some which had even been left aimed at the wall outside of the proscenium arch, others right on the drapes). We then programmed the whole system for them in a rep plot format. That system will never be used to its full potential in such a preliminary learning environment and cost the school district hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is a classic example of where simpler technology (a “two scene preset” manual board with standard manually focused instruments) trumps state-of-the-art technology when it comes to building performance affecting academic performance, as well as assists with staff ability and retention of knowledge.

Some light boards 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 theatre 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 operator to keep up. I have to 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 and in one movement and 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 the people who will be using the equipment who are their users and what are the uses of the board. 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.

Another thing to avoid is a small light board that has a multitude of functions. While a smaller less expensive light board with a lot of functions sounds like a good idea on the surface, some of these compact boards have so many functions that they’ve had to get very creative in how to access each function. There are so many steps, with functions hidden within functions that it makes it too difficult for students, who come and go, to learn and retain how the board works. Be careful that the light board that you spec or 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. With these boards 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.

There is a school of thought that high school 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, in a high school setting, usually the need to have an easy to learn and operate light board trumps the need to have the best technology (unless there is a professional vocational training program at the high school).

Most high school theatre departments have students who 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 either, that students come in expressing an interest and soon discover it’s not for them, or a student who is vocationally passionate has always thought the Drama program was only for actors, and only discovers tech in his/her junior or senior year.

In addition, most typical Drama teachers really don’t know much tech. They take one look at the light board and leave it up to a student to figure out, which results in loss of control by the teacher. Regardless of what light board you have it’s best to hire professional technicians who will be there to mentor the students, which allows the Drama teacher to get on and do what they do best which is teaching acting, and directing students.

If you don’t foresee your school purchasing $2000.00 moving lights for their theatre, and having a professional career training program for a student lighting crew who will be learning light board programming for moving lights, then there is no need to have a light board sophisticated enough to control moving lights. Leave that for when the vocational student gets to university or starts an apprenticeship. Don’t waste money on a state of the art light board when it could be better used elsewhere.

In addition, faders physically teach student what light “does”. Punching a bunch of buttons leads to no visceral understanding of light. I once had a student who was a great light board op and showed design sense and capabilities. The high school had a state-of-the-art board. She then went to a little community college, which had a small theatre and a small two-scene preset board. She designed the lights for a show there and also acted as board op. When I asked her how she liked running the basic board, her eyes lit up and she said ‘now I know what I’ve been pushing all those buttons for’. She finally understood light. All this goes for the digital-vs-analog debate about sound boards in high schools too.

To reiterate (in case I haven’t said it enough…), state-of-the-art is not always the best choice for a high school theatre. There are going to be people who completely disagree with me, but before you make up your own mind, when deciding on a light board remember to ask these questions:

Will the theatre be primarily used by students who come and go every few years?

Will there be vocational training for students?

How many students a year will want to learn to be lighting technicians?

Will the theatre be staffed by professional technicians?

Will the technicians run the theatre, and/or work with the students? Will the theatre be rented to outside users?

Who will staff outside events, professional staff or students?

Will outside users expected to be able to run their own lights?

Will outside users be permitted to use the theatre’s equipment unsupervised?

Who will restore the equipment each time in preparation for the next user?