Hi Everybody! So this is a blog we techies are starting to spill our guts to everyone in written word..... and to help the SEO so we end up on the first page of results in google. I'm nothing if not honest....
Whoever has the stage at the theatre will also have control of this blog, to add things, talk about deep desires, ruminate on how to take over the world....or at least all of the chairs in the booth.
Currently we're running Prelude to a Kiss and Jenny Julio (don't foolio with the Julio), Darrel Hafner (The Magic Man), and I are tickling the ivories on the light and sound systems. I'm sure in later shows I'll wax poetic about why we aimed this ellipsoidal there, or how the diffusion blue almost looks like it is UV enhanced when it hits a certain actors costume, or how THERE MUST BE SMOKE!!!!!! Today though I thought I would explain a problem we had last weekend with the wireless relays. It is a TECH blog after all.
So Jenny was watching Brittany and Mike in the Wedding scene, get closer, and closer, and closer, and there goes the kiss.... she hits #3 on the outlet remote, Darrel pounds the keyboard to get the sound effect going, Jenny hits the play button to advance the lights and activate the mover, and last of all, ever so expertly presses the #1 memory to turn on the geyser set with a rainbow light effect. Everything was going perfectly, but no FREAKIN smoke? She looks at me, I look at her, Darrel looks at both of us, then we all lean over the ledge and look at the geyser.
So for this show we stretched the limits by placing the geyser under the 2nd row of seating in the audience. We thought, hey, we'll make them jump when it goes off, really bring the crowd into the show! Apparently, the best we can tell, the wireless relay is losing connection with the transmitter. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. We think it is because the transmitter has to try and get through a bit of the brick wall, there's no straight line of sight. When the transmitter cuts connection with the relays for 5 or so minutes it also cuts power to whatever is plugged into it. This is so that when we shut the power down at night the lights in the ceiling don't stay energized. We've only got about 10,000 hours on the chip sets in the lights, if they don't get disconnected that clock continues to tick and we lose $2,000 lights after the chip sets burn up.
So long story longer, we're going to try and run an extension chord and put the relay under the first row of seats. The geyser will stay in the same place, there's pleeeeenty of cable length to get the relay in a workable spot. I'm hoping to get it done during the pickup rehearsal tomorrow, but it depends on how soon I get back from my business trip.
Any who, thanks for reading, and come see Prelude to a Kiss!
Also keep watching for more, shorter, updates to the tech blog.
XXOO
Brian
Whoever has the stage at the theatre will also have control of this blog, to add things, talk about deep desires, ruminate on how to take over the world....or at least all of the chairs in the booth.
Currently we're running Prelude to a Kiss and Jenny Julio (don't foolio with the Julio), Darrel Hafner (The Magic Man), and I are tickling the ivories on the light and sound systems. I'm sure in later shows I'll wax poetic about why we aimed this ellipsoidal there, or how the diffusion blue almost looks like it is UV enhanced when it hits a certain actors costume, or how THERE MUST BE SMOKE!!!!!! Today though I thought I would explain a problem we had last weekend with the wireless relays. It is a TECH blog after all.
So Jenny was watching Brittany and Mike in the Wedding scene, get closer, and closer, and closer, and there goes the kiss.... she hits #3 on the outlet remote, Darrel pounds the keyboard to get the sound effect going, Jenny hits the play button to advance the lights and activate the mover, and last of all, ever so expertly presses the #1 memory to turn on the geyser set with a rainbow light effect. Everything was going perfectly, but no FREAKIN smoke? She looks at me, I look at her, Darrel looks at both of us, then we all lean over the ledge and look at the geyser.
So for this show we stretched the limits by placing the geyser under the 2nd row of seating in the audience. We thought, hey, we'll make them jump when it goes off, really bring the crowd into the show! Apparently, the best we can tell, the wireless relay is losing connection with the transmitter. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. We think it is because the transmitter has to try and get through a bit of the brick wall, there's no straight line of sight. When the transmitter cuts connection with the relays for 5 or so minutes it also cuts power to whatever is plugged into it. This is so that when we shut the power down at night the lights in the ceiling don't stay energized. We've only got about 10,000 hours on the chip sets in the lights, if they don't get disconnected that clock continues to tick and we lose $2,000 lights after the chip sets burn up.
So long story longer, we're going to try and run an extension chord and put the relay under the first row of seats. The geyser will stay in the same place, there's pleeeeenty of cable length to get the relay in a workable spot. I'm hoping to get it done during the pickup rehearsal tomorrow, but it depends on how soon I get back from my business trip.
Any who, thanks for reading, and come see Prelude to a Kiss!
Also keep watching for more, shorter, updates to the tech blog.
XXOO
Brian
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