Newbie questions

[Simonkbike]

Hi All,

I know I can go to Zero88 support, but I thought posting here might help other newbies like me. Just to be clear, I'm newbie lighting tech for a village hall theatre group running 28 fixed lights (through Chilli dimmers) and a couple of LED par 64s controlled by a Solution desk. We do hire in Fixtures when there's a need.

I've done the day course at Cwmbran (highly recommended) but there's quite a lot it, and the manual, doesn't cover. I'm finding it difficult to understand why & when (not just how) you'd use a feature and particularly how to best program our fixed lights. So here goes ...

 

1) Patching my LEDs, after I've done the first one, is there a quick way to copy a second fixture of the same type to another MFK or do I have to patch each fixture individually?

 

2) How can I create a Group of dimmers (I get an "All Dimmers" group from the Auto Menu but I want to group some of my dimmers - say the Cyc Floods - to control them as a unit)

 

3) My Panto (Jack & the Beanstalk) needs a lighting effect whenever the Giant is about to speak, all the stage lights (i.e the Cyc floods & some of the lights illuminating the stage, but not the profiles on the main characters) should "shudder" & then dim to, say 70%.

What's the easiest way to create this shudder effect? (I'm thinking a chase, but I suspect I should be using palettes to apply a quick series of intensity changes to a group of dimmers? How do I do this, and how can I apply the same effect in another scene when my stage lights are at different intensities?

 

Probably enough for now; I expect there will be more to come!. Not sure if this would be better split into separate posts.

 

Simon

[ziglight]

for question 1:

when patching your fixture, you than affect them to MFK buttons (just hit the button and its patched)

just hit the number of buttons you wish... each button patches one more fixture

 

for question 2

just select the fixtures you want to group together (for dimmers select is : shift+ flash-button) than hit un Group-Button (MFG) and press it for about 2 or 3 seconds... and that's it

 

question 3

I would do this with two or more memory pages and than configure the different fade times... (and just leave fixtures and dimmers who should not change values, "untagged" on the "next memories" - after the first one)

you can do it with Submasters too (for manual fading)

 

hope that helps...

[kgallen]

I'm a Fat Frog user not a Solution user, but for 3) I'd probably:

 

- Use a chase for the shudder, and I'd put the channels you want to dim on one submaster (or a preset), put the "profiles" on another sub (or the other preset). Create the memory as a chase, record the first step with both subs at full, record the second step with your "others" sub pulled down to 70% (leaving your "profiles" at 100%). Set the memory as a chase of say 5 loops of this, with the speed you want (remembering tungsten sources won't dim instantaneously which may limit how fast your shudder can be).

 

- Create the next memory as a scene, with your "others" sub at 70% and the "profiles" at 100% and make this memory an auto trigger

 

Maybe there is a more elegant way on the Solution, but that's how I'd put it together on a Frog!

 

After programming the chase/memories you can bin the submasters and reuse them for something else, as this is just using subs as a way to get easy control over a group of channels to assemble a memory.

 

If you're happy with tagging and tracking functionality then you could do similar, but track the "profiles" through the chase and follow-on memory instead, so if at a later rehearsal you decide that the profiles are at the wrong level then you can rebalance in an earlier cue and these levels will track through without having to reprogramme the chase and follow-on memory.

[Simonkbike]

Thanks for swift replies. I can see now that :

1) is actually in the manual but I didn't read it well enough

2) isn't; so thanks to @ziglight for that

3) I get the gist of your suggestions but I'll need to play around with the desk to get the hang of it. I like @kgallen idea of grouping the "other" lights I'm going to dim for the "shudder" to a sub, which I can use to quickly create the chase.

 

I'm the first lighting tech to program a show for our productions, my predecessor was doing it for 30 years and only ever used Subs and flew the board by the seat of his pants (with variable results). I'm still trying to work out these sort of shortcuts to programming a show so we can make that the new "normal" way of running the lights. If anyone has suggestions for resources/tutorials on I'd be happy to hear them.

 

 

Many thanks,

S.

[ziglight]

2) isn't; so thanks to @ziglight for that

...with pleasure..

but look at page 121 of the manual... you get :

Recording a Group

Naming a Group

Copying a Group

Deleting a Group

and you can also edit a group py "merging" or by "overwriting"