Auditorium Lighting
Introduction
The Riverside Arts Centre (RAC) provides a well-equipped venue for your performances or events. Our main auditorium consists of a 6×6 meter proscenium stage with 7 lighting bars in house.
Most of our lighting equipment was refurbished in May 2018.
Volunteers
At RAC, we have a small group of volunteers that maintain the technical facilities. They are not responsible for running any technical facilities for your booking, however they can be call on for advice or employed on a freelance bases.
For security, we do not publish the contacts of our volunteers however, please do get in contact for these details.
Rules
- All circuits must not have any load greater than 1.2KW exceptions can be made by our lighting technicians.
- We have a standard rig. This is to be restored before leaving after a show week.
- Do not leave the dimmers turned off.
- Restore dimmer and gateway configurations (if changed) before leaving.
- Do not use power cables longer than 15m.
- Do not use cables thinner than 1.2mm2
- Do use loads greater than 1KW on extension cables.
- Do not re-wire plugs or sockets without permission.
- Do not change the network switch configuration.
- If you are using haze or smoke, make sure the workshop door remains closed.
- No double plugs or grelcos on stage.
- Do not power LEDs or movers from dimmer sources. Make sure you change the circuit to relays first.
- All lighting technicians must work in coherence with BS7909.
- All lamps must have safety bonds that are rated and not chains! Including kit being hired in.
Infrastructure
The lighting system is controlled by a ETCNet3 network. We provide a 5 pin XLR port on every lighting bar (including the dips) to provide DMX512 for your intelligent lighting fixtures. These will provide DMX universe 1 by default, but can be adjusted using the net3 gateways to provide any sACN (E1.31) universe. This can be done using software called ‘Concert’ made by ETC.
The network allows for you to priorities control from multiple consoles. By default, a 3rd party console that you bring in will take control via the designated Rj45 network ports around the room. If you do not have a 3rd party desk, then our in-house lighting console will be in control. If there is no lighting desk online, then our ETC Echo system will be in control.
RDM is provided to the Net3 Gateways and can be provided to an ETC lighting console, such as EOS. Otherwise you can plug in a laptop running free software ‘ETC concert’ this will allow you to make RDM changes
Gateways
We have 4 ETC Net3 Gateways (nodes) in the space. These devices serve to output the DMX512 from the network. Each port can be configured to output any sACN (E1.31) universe.
Here is an overview of what bar is connected to each port on the gateways:
FOH Gateway 1:
- DMX Console input (Not an output)
- FOH 1
- FOH 2
- FOH 3
FOH Gateway 2:
- Echo System
- Empty
- Empty
- Echo System Input (Not an output)
Dimmers Gateway 1:
- Dimmers
- LX 1
- LX 2
- LX 3
Dimmers Gateway 2:
- LX 4
- Truss (Behind the Cyc)
- Extra DMX port above the LX grid
- DMX splitter that feeds the dips
Local Control
We have a ETC Echo system that will allow you to press a button and get the stage lights on. This is useful for rehearsals and one-night events such as a coffee concert or a music event. We have 3 button stations around the room. One in the stage managers corner; one in the gallery and one FOH. These will give different control depending where you are in the room. If you are a one-night event or a coffee concert then you will want to use the one FOH.
We provide two presets. One for a side-on event (coffee concert) and one for a floor event, such as a music performance).
NOTE: if a lighting desk is turned on, this system will not work. This is also reliant on the dimmers being powered on.
Lighting Console
We have an ETC ION lighting console. This console has a total output of two universes and these can be outputted via the DMX ports on the back of it or over the network. We very rarely use the DMX ports on the back due to our network infrastructure being in-place.
We show file on the ION that provides a very easy point and click interface to program a show. By default tracking is disabled and auto marking is enabled.
Please reload the default show file from the console’s show file archive when you are done.
Dimmers
We have 84 circuits for dimming, switched or constant current. These are provided by ETC ColorSource Thru-Power cabernets. By default; most circuits are configured as dimmers, with the exception of the circuits that drive the powercon outlets, these will be switched power to prevent incorrectly dimming LED fixtures. The circuits can be re-configured as relays or constant currents if you need them to be. This can be done via RDM or via the dimmer racks front panel. Our dimmers are to be left powered on at all times. All dimmers have a C10 MCB protecting them from overload. Every 4 circuits is protected by a RCD. Each dimmer cabernet is protected by a C32 MCB.
Our dimmers are hard wired to the bar sockets so that you will not need to patch bar circuits as previously done. Patching is done via DMX. The dimmers addresses start from 001.
Lighting Bars
We have 3 lighting bars front of house. These are labeled: FOH1 (closed to the stage); FOH2 (Mid of house) and FOH3 (rear of house).
On-stage we have 5 lighting bars that you may use for hanging lights ONLY. These are labeled: LX1 (front on stage), LX2, LX3, LX4.
The sockets FOH are a mixture of 15A sockets and Powercon B. On stage all sockets on the bars are Powercon B and we have 15A at floor level.
We are in the process of moving all our rig over to powercon B. We will provide powercon B > 15A adaptors for circuits that still require mains dimming.
Standard Rig
Our standard rig should be restored after every use. The latest version of the standard rig will be provided in the centre. But any questions should be directed to the technical contact above.
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