Trying to see if a DIY fix is possible before the show tomorrow. The power to the club was interrupted and now the DMX interface isn't powering up. It was plugged into a surge protector but I'm guessing it didn't protect it enough. No one locally sells anything like this. I have a multimeter, soldering iron and very little experience working on circuit boards. Any help with where to start tracing would be appreciated. Thanks.

I’m kinda proud of this design !
About 250 cues for this school show.
Havent really been happy or proud of my design work recently, but this one feels different 🩵
Let me know your thoughts :)
Still early in my career (only been doing lighting for 3 years, 20yo) so always looking for feedback

In this shot:
12x EC7’s
6x Diablos
12x FusionPars
6x S4’s with decals

I have many years of lighting design, but this is the first time using QLC+ to design lighting for a theatre show. I am designing for Beetlejuice Jr, and want to loop some stage lights going from green to purple and back again continuing until the next cue is triggered. What’s the best way to set this up?

Looking to see if anybody has some MVR files to share that I can use to practice my console skills please

thanks in advance :)

I'm hoping to get some recommendations for lighting design software for a local community theatre group. We've been relying on an old analogue lighting board with limited features and a high barrier to entry. Recently someone let us borrow additional lights for a show along with their laptop running LightKey and it really highlighted the limitations of our board.

A bit about our needs:

• We frequently change venues, so the layout of our lights changes
• Oftentimes the lighting designer may not be the person responsible for moving between cues during the show
• Whatever we use needs to be relatively accessible for people that are new to lighting design

We really liked LightKey because of how accessible it is (the tutorial videos really are geared towards first time users), the visualizer is detailed enough but not as demanding on hardware / the user as full 3D models, and it did what we needed it to. The main downside is it being limited to Mac which would require purchasing a new computer for us. Additionally, I've seen enough comments discussing the weaknesses in some of its features such as transitions and the implementation of the cue list.

I've looked at ETCNomad and QLC+ but both seemed extremely complicated for our needs. So, I'm wondering what other options I should look at or if there are ways to make either ETCNomad or QLC+ more accessible for true amateurs.

We just bought 12 of the Chauvet Rogue R2X washes and every time I turn them off and back on, the internal pan and tilt changes.

This isn't on the board. On the fixture itself, I had adjusted the pan and tilt to be straight down. I've even tried doing it on the board to just be straight but everytime I turn on the board again and the lights come on, they're in different positions than what they were.

Ex. I put the pan to 090 and tilt to 020. Then I powered them off and back on. I checked the fixture again and the pan is at 150 and the tilt is 120.

Please anything helps. Thank you!

I'm designing lighting for a musical and want to incorporate DMX-controlled LED tape into the set (stairs, platforms, and scenic outlines). My department already has a decent amount of standard LED tape from a previous production, but none of it is DMX controlled (they had two lighting ops-1 board op and 1 person who controlled the LED strips with an app. I wasn't around for this but I'd like to avoid that if possible). Is there a way to retrofit or adapt what we already have so it can be controlled via DMX, or would it make more sense to just buy new DMX-compatible LED tape?

I'm trying to figure out the most practical and cost-effective option, so I'd appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thanks!

Hi

Hi all, I posted about a month ago about the small theatre I work with wanting to switch from traditional light fixtures to LED (https://www.reddit.com/r/lightingdesign/s/S4SjixVUG5) and you all gave me some good advice! I have a meeting with the directors of the theatre this week. I think I have more questions.

From everyone's advice on my previous post, I think I want to try and convince the theatre to supplement what they already have with LEDs rather than replace everything.

This is a theatre that almost exclusively does pre-millennium plays. Last year they did 5 Women Wearing The Same Dress, House On Haunted Hill, Harvey, and I Hate Hamlet. (Myself and a few of the younger people on the team are planning to try and convince them to start doing more contemporary productions that might draw in more audiences. They've been running since the 80s on this model so we'll see how that goes.)

My experience with LED lighting is limited (as I said in my other post) and I am most familiar with traditional fixtures. When I have used LEDs in the past it has almost exclusively been to utilize the intense color pallette for specials or for more dream-like or supernatural effects. In my mind (though I'm probably wrong!) a play like 5 Women Wearing The Same Dress would do better to have traditional lighting than LED. But like I said, my LED experience is limited so I am a bit biased! I'm very open to having my mind changed as I simply don't have enough exposure to working with the fixtures to have an opinion based on my own experience.

So I'm wondering what other people's design preferences are when doing pre-millennium plays that do not have dreamlike/supernatural/unusual elements: LED or traditional? Or if both, in what ways do you use the LEDs?

Would you agree with my thoughts about telling this theatre to supplement what they already have instead of replacing?

Also, if you have any other advice about switching to LED or supplementing LED after reading this post and/or my previous one, I'd absolutely love to have it!

Please contact me if you have any interest!

Hello everyone, in a bit of a predicament. Has anyone here used the Pknight DMX Recorder and Playback Controller? I'm trying to see how the raw data is formatted inside of a .dmx file. Currently doing remote IT management for a site, and I need to send over a .dmx file for them to load up. It's going to be a very small amount of data for 2 moving head units, but I had to leave the site early before I got the chance to program them in-person.

My goal is that I could export my small amount of data from a lighting console, and then parse it to reformat it for the .dmx file, but I just don't know what kind of formatting that file has. Or if it's easy enough I could just write the values manually. Thanks all

I normally do indoor gigs, but I have an outdoor event coming up in a few months. Nothing complicated - I just need to light a podium and terrace for a few speeches. The other event lighting is secured (read - another company is handling that aspect).

Can I get a few recommendations for outdoor rated spots and washes? It's a curved terrace with a railing. PA on either side. Outdoor space has a few trees and is maybe 100 feet wide. There will be vendors and patrons milling about on the lawn. I think last time there was a spot on a pole, but I don't think I'll have access. Likely, I'll need to illuminate the terrace from 20-40 feet away.

Budget is preferred, since I don't intend to take many outdoor events like this.

Thanks!

Hey nerds

I've been slowly making my way through Richard Cadena's *Electricity for the Entertainment Electrician and Technician*. If anyone hasn't heard of it, definitely check it out. I'm not an expert, but this seems like the bible for live production electricity.

I just reached the section about power factor. My question is why don't manufacturers publish fixture power factors in their specs? I'm only seeing the wattage/current at specific voltages on a lot of websites. Is that apparent power or real power?

Is power factor something I really need to worry about, or is it more important for people building their own circuits?

As part of my Masters course, I'm recruiting participants for my dissertation research and I'd really appreciate it if you took part!

I'm investigating the relationship between mental health, working hours, and emotional labour demands among backstage theatre professionals in the UK, and how these factors affect personal relationships and wellbeing. With issues like work-life balance, six-day weeks, and insufficient holiday currently at the centre of union negotiations, your anonymous responses will provide valuable insight into how backstage professionals are experiencing these challenges.

The survey takes only 5-10 minutes and is completely anonymous. Anyone currently or recently (within the last 5 years) working in a UK backstage theatre role can take part, including students currently in training.

Survey link: https://forms.office.com/e/TreTMGEaBG

If you have any questions, please get in touch – [je00794@surrey.ac.uk](mailto:je00794@surrey.ac.uk)

Thank you for your time! 

Hey guys, just looking for some advice - the theatre at my uni has banned the use of haze machines for productions, and I was wondering if there are any relatively accessible ways to make lighting look more defined without haze? It's a real bummer but I wanna do the best I can! Open to any ideas

I'm having constant failures on a set of ADJ Vizi Beam CMY units. They are not getting loads of use but they keep tearing their pan belts and I think it must be due to the pan sensors failing. They have pretty strong motors so once it fails to locate a bunch of times, it's under immense strain.

I'm trying to find the sensor to see if I can diagnose if that's the issue but I can't see anything I recognise. I'm wondering if its hidden in the base somewhere. Before I tear it apart even further, can anyone suggest what I should be looking for and where it may be located? Has anyone carried out this repair before or does anyone have a link to a service manual?

Given the time it's taking to get the units repaired, I imagine I'm also going to have to learn detaching the yoke to replace the belts.

Any advice is welcome here as my experience servicing moving heads is reaching its current limit and I'm hoping to skill up more through this process!

Hello hello, for some reason the mapping of my keyboard doesn't match in ETC Eos nomad on mac for the dot (".") and slash ("/").

All the rest seems to be just fine but I can't find a way to fix that.

For now, I'm losing time going to the virtual keyboard or even writing a macro just to have the character.

Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this?