Lights and Sound: Light and Sound Board Suggestions

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Light and Sound Board Suggestions

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Lights and Sound
Forum Discription: Technical discussion
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4665
Printed Date: 5/03/25 at 12:36pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Light and Sound Board Suggestions

Posted By: ccoperahouse
Subject: Light and Sound Board Suggestions
Date Posted: 6/14/10 at 12:21pm

Hi,

I am the Event Director for our local community theater, the Colorado City Opera House. The theater was constructed in 1889 and has recently gone thru a full renovation.

We would like to be able to host a variety of events from theater to musical events, speaking engagements, etc. Our theater is small and seats 150 people.

We have a light and sound booth, but we desperately need a new light and sound board. I don't even know how to start--any suggestions on a basic but usable light and sound board would really be appreciated, as well as anything we should look for or be aware of, such as electrical requirements, etc, would be invaluable.

Thank you for any help!

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Elizabeth Cavitt
Event Director
Colorado City Opera House
Colorado City, TX

Replies:

Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 6/15/10 at 2:42pm

Hi Elizabeth,

For light boards, I have always trusted ETC.

The power needed for your dimmers depends on the facility requirements for lighting instruments. You need to talley up your lighting fixtures, (including those that you may add someday), plus the lighting needs of your potential travelling road shows.

However, if you are starting over from scratch, you might want to "go green" with a energy saving system of LED color-changing lighting fixtures and a few multi-purpose DMX robotic lights. The days of hot-burning fresnels and ellipsoidals are coming to an end, so you might as well join the 21st Century and invest in new LED technology.

For sound, you need to go with one of the new digital boards with soft patch. That way, your operator can place the small board anywhere in the house with only one CAT-5 cable running out to it! It can even be run remotely from a laptop. (I have one of these boards at the top of my wishlist!)

*By the way, for your musicals and concerts with lots of microphones, you NEVER want the sound board placed in a booth. It needs to be out in the house so the operator can hear what the audience hears. There is no such thing as a "sound booth" in theatre...it's a TV studio thing. (This may seem like a very obvious point, but you would be surprised how many general building contractors want to put it behind glass!)

Good luck with it! -Dana

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Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School

Posted By: ccoperahouse
Date Posted: 6/15/10 at 5:21pm

Dear Dana,

Thank you so very much for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate the direction! I now have a starting place. Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Cavitt
Event Director
Colorado City Opera House
Colorado City, TX

Posted By: bmiller025
Date Posted: 6/18/10 at 10:57pm

I second what Dana said, in every way!

Keep in mind the good stuff isn't cheap. You could get away with spending in the realm of $25,000 for everything (both lighting and sound), but that will leave you sorely lacking in several areas. I would recommend spending in the realm of $40,000 to $50,000 for a "little better than modest" approach. The 'modern/green' lighting system that Dana suggested that you consider will likely cost in that range alone, and you will still need to invest in the sound system on top of that. Keep in mind though that such a system will save you a great deal of money in electrical costs over time.

I have outfitted a few small theaters in the Denver area (thus my initial excitement over your theater being in Colorado City!) over the last several years, and spent in the realm of $20,000 for small conventional lighting systems in each place, with only minimal features. It all works, but it isn't going to change the world.

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http://www.brianmiller.biz/BrianDesign.htm

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 6/19/10 at 11:55am

A bit off topic, but what digital audio consoles are you considering?

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David M

Posted By: museav
Date Posted: 8/24/10 at 1:08am

It is difficult to say what you may need as far as specific products without knowing more about what you expect to do and the application. It makes no sense to get a great product that doesn't work well for you.

For the audio console I would focus first on defining things like how many inputs you need to support, how many outputs you need for what use, what physical space you have, what budget you have, what type of operators you have, what signal and effects processing you already have and so on.

On the light console, are you thinking an entirely new dimming system or just the console? If just the console, then what existing equipment does it have to interface with? Other than that, somewhat similar to the audio console in terms of number of control channels, operator experience, budget, physical size, etc.

Just to clarify, digital audio consoles do not necessarily operate off of one CAT5 cable, there are different form factors available including consoles that are effectively analog console replacements with the majority of the physical inputs and outputs on the console itself. Also, many digital consoles that work very well for bands and worship applications may not be as effective in theatrical applications, for example in the ease and flexibility of storing and recalling scenes.

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Brad W.