dimming and control

Have a basic understanding of dimming and control.

1) Study the information below.

DISTRIBUTION OF POWER

Lighting Designer ----> light control board ----> DMX cable ----> dimmer ----> circuit ----> light fixture/instrument ----> actor

Channels and Circuits

        How many channels can a dimmer control ????    How many dimmers can a channel control ???

        The Power Formula ---> W = VA, Watts = Volts x Amps

Controllers

Light board (lighting control board) controls all the lighting on stage.  The lighting board is programmed so that one channel can control several dimmers. The dimmers then know how much power (electricity) to send through the circuits to the light fixtures.

Jessica running the ETC ION in UT's McCullough Theatre.

ETC Express Light Control board in UT's Hogg Auditorium.

The Master Fader to the ETC Express Light Control board.

Data cable

The lighting board is connected to the dimmers with a DMX cable to pass the DMX communication signal.

DMX 512 – “Digital Mutiplex w/ 512 pieces of information -- the standard protocol (language) for digital communication networks”. 

DMX 512 cable with the XLR male connector (5 pins!)

DMX 512 cable with the XLR female connector

Dimmers -- Dimmer Rack / Dimmer Pack / Dimmer Bay

            The lighting board sends information through the DMX cables to dimmers to tell the dimmers how much power to send to each lighting fixture.

ETC Sensor dimmers.

Three of the 8 ETC Sensor dimmer racks for the Bass Concert Hall.  Each rack has 96 dimmers, giving the Bass a total of 768 dimmers!

Cables (also known as extension cords or jumpers or stingers)

           The dimmers send power to the light fixtures through power cables. In the theatre, we usually use stage pin connectors.

           Know the differences between Edison connectors and Stage Pin connectors.

A stage pin 2-fer (or Two-Fer) can be used to connect 2 lights to one circuit.