Spotlight on
Stage Lighting Improvements for
Felpham Village Hall & for Touring Productions
 

	The two Regis Players Zero 88 Dimmer packs now permanently installed above the proscenium arch which  replace the old FVH Rank Strand equipment to control the stage lighting. This has been made available for all users of the stage lighting in the Hall.

The  audiences of our last six productions in Felpham Village Hall have probably not been aware that the lighting effects achieved on stage were the result of supplementing the very old in-house Felpham Village Hall lighting equipment with a  great deal of more modern additional lighting and control equipment stored and maintained by the  Regis Players. This meant that for each show the Society's eight  lanterns, wiring circuits, dimmer packs and fader controller were wheeled out to provide the additional front of stage lighting we tend to need for our productions. Incorporating all this dimmer control equipment into something a  single lighting operator could use was not without its challenges and compromises. As a result of some financial assistance and our own in-house expertise we have now been able to retire the old and problematic Village Hall control equipment and provide much improved stage lighting facilities for all the hall users that need to use the stage lighting.

The old Village Hall Rank Strand lighting dimmer packs and twin fade control unit had reached the end of their life and were  beginning to create users problems for all users of the stage lighting (not just The Regis Players). With the much appreciated financial assistance of a £750 Community Grant from Arun District Council and a £100 contribution from the Felpham Village Hall Committee, we have now been able to incorporate all our own Zero 88 control equipment and our existing eight lanterns permanently into the stage lighting system for the benefit of all stage lighting users.

	The Regis Players Zero 88 twelve channel fader controller which  replaces the old Rank Strand fader which had reached the end of its life and was giving users problems. This is available for all users of the stage lighting.

The improvements though don't stop there - often there is a need to control all the lighting from the rear of the hall rather than on the side of the stage and also we now need to take advantage of the latest ways of controlling lighting using DMX (Digital Multiplex) control techniques rather than the simple analogue fader controller (as above).

To achieve this we have installed a new control system above the suspended ceiling and new control termination equipment at the rear of the hall and above the stage.

Users will now note near the entrance to the hall a new little box (below left) - this is where users can now plug in the fader controller if control is required at the rear of the hall. Note the box also has a three core 'DMX' socket which allows The Regis Players to changeover all the lighting control to fully computerised DMX control using either a laptop or (in the future after further investment) a specialized multi-channel DMX controller.

You will note from the picture (right below) that we have also installed a new 72 channel DMX converter which, when using DMX control, controls both the analogue 6 channel Zero 88 dimmer packs instead of the simple fader control unit.

The control termination box at the rear of the hall for both simple fader and DMX control of the stage lighting	The 72 channel DMX Converter (above the dimmer pack)controlling both dimmer packs when computerized control is used rather than the analogue fader unit

We have also purchased two new 4 channel dimmer packs, 2 additional 650w Profile lanterns for front of stage lighting and two of the latest very high efficiency LED Flood lamps (which change colour via DMX control rather than the old way of attaching gels) to further improve our lighting and give us the equipment we need to tour our productions to other local venues which don't have adequate performance lighting.

None of this would have been possible without the in-house expertise of Alex Marner and our close ties with Mark and Natalie Rowlands from Pitch Black Lighting who we are very indebted to for our stage lighting, staging and special effects.

A very big thank you to Alex and Mark for all the installation work.

A very big thank you to Arun District Council for the grant that made this possible and all the support from the Felpham Village Hall Committee. This has turned out a great community project that helps not only The Regis Players to stage much more professional productions but provides other hall users with much improved facilities.

The next stage is a similar investment of another £750 on a DMX controller (rather than using a laptop) and, for our touring productions  additional high efficiency diode lighting.

Peter Green
26th April, 2009