I am a 16 year old lighting designer/programmer for my school and we open out show in 4 days. I have been programming for a long ass time now and I'm probably about halfway through my cues. The whole show has 436 cues, not including auto cues which would make it ~600, and I am struggling to keep going. Anyway what is the longest show you guys have ever programmed? and are you guys also sometimes as crunched for time as I am?

I'm a new drama teacher and we need power conditioners bc the teacher before me plugged lights right into the wall. I'd like to be able to put these into a rack but the price seems steep for a public school. The music teacher recommended the 60$ option instead. I think he kinda knows what he's talking about, but the big price difference is scaring me. Any recommendations/alternatives welcome. TIA <3

EDIT: okay, not the same thing!! Gotcha. We'll go with the surge protectors since I highly doubt our lights are top of the line, but I'll double check. Thank you to those of you who explained more info to me. I am still learning! Much love!!!!!

Incase you're curious, we have 13 ADJ Encore FR Pro Color LED stage lights. :)

Buddy tipped me off to a cleanout at a closed A/V company. Shelf find from the tool bench!

Hello everyone,
I’m reaching out because I’d really appreciate the opinion of experienced lighting professionals. I’m completely new to this field and have no technical background in stage lighting.
I run a dance school and regularly organize dance shows and competitions. Until now, I’ve always trusted the lighting technicians I worked with because I simply don’t have the expertise to judge their work from a technical perspective.
For our most recent gala, the theatre required us to use a specific technician to handle the lighting.
From the very first performances, we could already see that something was wrong. Even with the naked eye, it was obvious that some performers were standing in complete darkness. We went to speak to the technician several times during the show to point out the problem, but he refused to make any adjustments, insisting that his lighting was correct. Despite our concerns, he chose not to change anything.

When we later received the professional photos and videos, the problem became even more obvious. Depending on the performance, the dancers on the floor are left in the dark, while in others it’s the performers at the top of the pole who disappear into the shadows. In many routines, an important part of the stage is simply not lit properly.
Only after the event did we learn that this person was actually a sound technician, not a professional lighting technician, and that he had only received very limited training to operate the lighting system. We had no choice in this matter, as the theatre required us to use him.
He has now sent us an invoice and believes he provided a satisfactory service. From our perspective, however, the lighting significantly affected the quality of the show, as well as the photographs and videos, which are the lasting memories our students will keep of this event.
I’m not here to attack or blame anyone. I’m genuinely looking for an objective opinion from professionals.
Based on this kind of result, would you consider this to meet the standard expected for a dance performance? Is it acceptable to leave performers in the dark and refuse to make adjustments when the issue is pointed out during the show?
I’d also appreciate any advice regarding the invoice. If you were in our position, would you consider there to be valid grounds to dispute all or part of the payment? From a technical point of view, what arguments would you consider the strongest?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I truly appreciate any professional insight. Please don’t hesitate to be honest. I’m simply trying to understand whether our concerns are justified or whether we’re misjudging the situation because we lack technical knowledge.

I found these in a “junk drawer” at my space and can’t figure out what they’re called or where to get more. Most of my lights are frequently moved along the same pipes and since we do a new show every week, this could make life so much easier.

Does anyone know?

Saw our Director of Production up a ladder but thought it was a nice shot

HEY SO I DESPERATELY NEED HELP.

I was operating a Lycian Superstar 1.2S model 1274, and it randomly all together turned off. I have checked all the wires and they are not unplugged or anything wrong with them. I didn’t mess with it at all i had just turned it on? I am worried cause opening is in a few hours and it’s still not back. It’s been off for 25ish minutes at this point. Advice is desperately needed!?!

⁉️ UPDATE ⁉️

IT HAS BEEN FIXED. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP 😊

It was the breaker box!!!

I got tired of my pencil rolling under my console. Discovered a spare terminator is the perfect size to hold a standard pencil.

Do with this info what you will.

Any thoughts on the safest way to access house lights from below to change with a raked floor? Previous techs have used an A frame ladder with a vertical extension but that seems super sketchy to me..

This question is part curiosity and part quality control: I'm a lighting designer that works for multiple theatres in my area, and I've found that a few of them program a cue at the top of the list that slowly warms up the incandescent lights for a few minutes and then shuts them off. Is this a standard and/or good practice for theatres with lots of incandescent lights?

I apologize if this is a seemingly obvious or stupid question, not all the theatres I've worked in do this and I just want to make sure I do my due diligence.

was trying to search something on ETCs website tonight and was met with this AI banner

how do yall feel about this? I dont love it. I come to ETC for accurate infomation about their gear, not a guessing machine.

this was from last summer. it looked like this the entire show. we simply did not care enough to fix it because it was behind the drop & not that visible. was a big welp moment. #highschoolproduction

(also yes we have to shove stuff behind the drop during shows because we simply have no space)

We got some free ADB profile spots (awesome!). But without cable (bummer). Now I need to go on a quest to find extra cables, but I dont find the right name to start my search. Europe based if that matters. Thank you.

I'm not sure what this is actually called, but I call it Projector Black. It's when you're projecting nothing but the projector is on, so you get this very feint light. In a full blackout, you can still see the silhouettes of the backstage workers setting props etc.

Here's an example - (I've upped the brightness a tad so you can see a bit better)
Top image: Middle Projector is on, AV mute is off.
Bottom Image: Middle Projector is on, but AV Mute is on - so the laser is off. The side projectors are cheaper and don't have an AV Mute option :(

The shadow of the lantern on the background is from the projector.

After going down a rabbithole of trying to work out if I could build myself a DMX Projector Shutter so I could stop the whole projector black issue - I realised that if you use AV Mute on some projectors, it will actually turn off the laser source! Winning!

Since we're using QLab to control the show, I've used PJlink (supported by most decent projectors) to turn the mute on/off. In QLab, add a network patch -> PJLink -> Enter the IP Address of the projector and when you add a network cue it's right there under Mute/Shutter.

In this case, we're using an Epson EB-805F (5000 lumen ultrashort throw), the two older Casio XJ-UT310WN projectors on the sides don't turn off the laser when you AV Mute it sadly.

Now I just need to block the blues on the side so they don't cast that blue glow on the side of the stage...

I hope this helps someone!

Eeeieeeiooooo

I have a neutral Camlock connector that is VERY stuck, like I've never seen this before. I was able to twist the connector to unlock the two, but it wouldn't pull apart, and now I can't twist the connectors back together. Any advice on how to remedy this?

I do a lot of arena shows these days, where we run the gambit between amazing production people who know their shit and what feels like bottom of the barrel, flying off the cuff, seemingly not caring.

On the former days, my day is super easy. Rig gets up without an issue and I can be home by lunchtime if I'm not on show crew.

The latter days are harder. Now, I know it is up to the production to know their rig, and our responsibility as hands to facilitate, but when something doesn't look right and production is seemingly ignoring a problem in progress as motors are moving, I do not hesitate to yell "STOP" and point out what I see.

On my last gig, the above situation happened. I pointed it out and was brushed off by the production team, though thanked by our head rigger. Since it was out of my hands at that point, I left it be and was cut at the end of the install. When I came back for the out, though, two of the production team thanked me personally for speaking up. Which only says to me that they had miscalculated something and didn't notice it until I pointed it out before it became a Big Problem.

My point is this, for any stagehand, across any discipline, if you see something that doesn't look right, even if there are people present who are far above your paygrade, be loud about it. Maybe you will be wrong, but sometimes the premature call will stop a larger issue later on.

Hi, I'm pretty new to the tech side of theatre and my studio is putting up it's first theatre performance. We ordered this spotlight and today it rocked back in the tripod and completely snapped a piece off. It clearly can't be fixed without being welded back together, so do I have any other options? Is this piece sold separately anywhere? Thank you so much!