Archive for the Lighting Production Category

A continuation of ‘Know Your Gear’… Now that you have selected the best fixtures to add to inventory, how are you going to use them? It’s time to start thinking about grip, control cable, power cable and distro. There is a decent chance, on a special event, that your distro may be seen to guests – there is an absolute chance that your cable will be visible. The look of your gear is just as important as how you lay it out and run it (stay tuned for that blog post!). Grip. In the special event lighting world you may be hanging these fixtures in a variety of different type of spaces, which requires different type of grip. Consider where, and how, you are hanging the fixtures – in a ballroom on a truss, in a tent, inside a piece of scenery or decor, top mounted to truss. All different

Know the gear that you are going to purchase. Let’s look at LED lighting fixtures as an example. There are many many different choices of LEDs to add to inventory. While trade shows like LDI are an excellent opportunity to see a vast variety of gear from many different manufacturers all in one space, there isn’t too much of a chance to get some real quality time with what they are exhibiting. Vendors also typically bring their brand new, high end pieces of gear. If possible, you are going to want to get your hands on whichever piece of gear you are thinking of buying. Have the sales rep bring a demo fixture to your shop. Write down or have in mind some questions for the rep about the fixture, hook it up to a console and put it through your test. I know that it is possible to fall

No one likes the punt. Not in football, and certainly not on a gig. Sometimes, when the time crunch is on and it’s do or die time, you will have to punt. As a tech, how you handle the punt and what the end result looks like shows what you are made out of. Although no one wants to be in the position where an element of the design or a piece of gear just isn’t working, it happens. We all use a system wether it be Vectorworks, AutoCAD, old school paper & pencil drafting or making & triple checking gear lists, to ensure layout is solid and that spare fixtures can be built into the job. However, eventually you will find yourself in a situation where it’s just not going to happen on time. Sometimes it’s something small and only noticeable to the designer (which sounds like the better