Lighting Basics

Lighting Basics

To work a lighting call, you should have a basic set of tools: a crescent-wrench, a flashlight, and a pair of gloves. The Performance Hall has extras of all of these, but it is worth investing in your own to guarantee that there are enough tools for everyone and that yours fit you well.

Always remember to note any changes you make and to put those notes in a place where others can see (eg: on the lighting board or on the scene control). Follow the plot as best as you can. If the architecture of the hall or work lights get in your way, talk to your supervisor and the lighting designer to come up with a compromise. Keep track of the dimmers you plug each unit into so the Patch on the board can be updated. Confirm that it is okay to modify the rep plot if any changes are being made to it, and make sure the rep plot is restored after the show.

There are four permanent hanging positions in the Performance Hall: Catwalk 1, Catwalk 2, U5, and U7. If a designer requests lights in another location, consult your supervisor before moving on it.

Basic Definitions

Unit: refers to the entire lighting instrument.
Yoke: the squared piece of metal, open on one side, which connects the unit to its mounting hardware.
Tee-handle: Located on the side of the yolk, the tee-handle controls the tilt of the light.
Lamp: In theater lighting, light bulbs are called lamps. The units in the Performance Hall can take either 575 or 750 watt lamps. We currently only stock 575w. Lamps of all kinds are kept in the backstage cabinet. NEVER touch the glass on a new theatrical lamp with your bare skin. The oil from your fingers will cause the lamp to explode when it heats up. Use gloves, the foam it was packaged in, or the corner of your shirt to cover the lamp while you work with it. Always turn off and unplug (excluding the orchestra lights, which are hardwired) a unit before your change a lamp. Place dead lamps in the assigned box in the cabinet backstage and recycle the boxes.
Gel: Called gels because they were originally made of gelatin, modern gels are made of acetate (same material as transparencies). Gels are used to change the color of the light or fuzz the hard edges of a beam (called frost or diffusion gels). They come in a variety of colors. The Performance Hall stocks primarily gel made by Rosco (identified with an R before the number). We also might have a few miscellaneous sheets of Lee, Apollo, and GAM gels, identified with L, A, or G before the number). If possible, always use Rosco colors for consistency. When cutting gel, always label cuts and extra pieces with the appropriate letter and number using the China marker on the gel table. Always cut to the inside of the tape lines on the gel cutter. Do not use this cutter for anything but gel. The numbers on gels are assigned according to their place in the color spectrum. Remember that Rosco gels with numbers in the 300s, such as R343, were added in after the official spectrum was set out and are slightly modified versions of existing colors. Therefore, R343 comes between R43 and R44, and is a modified version of R43. Darker gels tend to burn through faster as they block more of the light spectrum from transmission, converting more energy into heat, though you can combat this with heat shield(R1991 or L269), installed before the gel.
Gel Frame: Gel frames are used to hold cuts of gel in place in front of a unit. They come in a variety of sizes, 6 ¼” (for Leko’s), 7 ½” (for pars), and 12” (for 10 degree Lekos). Open the gel clip on the front of the unit by sliding it to the side to unlock and then flipping it up. Then, drop the gel frame into the slot closer to the unit (to minimize light leak) and make sure it is secure on all 4 sides. If using heat shield, it should be on the inside of the gel. When hung correctly, the gel clip should sit on the top of the unit. Make sure the gel clip is down once the gel frame is in and everything is secure.
Safety: A safety is a specialized piece of aircraft cable with a carabiner on one end and a loop on the other. A safety is used to ensure that if any piece of hardware on the unit should fail, the unit will not fall from the pipe and hurt anyone/anything below. Always remember to secure the safety on the unit to the pipe. Additionally, secure the safety underneath any cable running on the pipe. Should the safety be necessary, you do not want it to cut through any live cable and electrify the unit and pipe.
Tail: refers to the male plug coming out of the unit. When hung correctly, the tail should come out of the bottom of the unit. Never tie up the tail, always tie the extension to the pipe instead. Give yourself enough room for focus when running cable to a light. Tie the circuit as close to the unit as possible. When done focusing, tuck the tail into the yoke of the unit to make your work as clean as possible.
Conventional Light: Any light where everything is manually controlled except for the brightness of the incandescent lamp, which is plugged into a dimmer circuit. Used to differentiate them from Intelligent/LED/moving lights. All stage lights in the performance hall currently are Conventional lights.
Practical: This is a standard light (not a stage light) that might be needed on stage, like a desk lamp. To control it from the board, you will need to use a stage-pin to female edison adapter to connect to the light to a dimmer.
Electric: A flown batten over the stage on which stage lights are hung (a hanging position). Usually, lighting circuits are attached to it or nearby for convenience. In the performance hall, our permanent electrics are U5 and U7.
Dead-hung: when the light is hung with the yolk directly under the pipe.
Yolked out: when the light is hung with the yolk out away from the pipe, often at a 90° angle.
RFU: Remote Focus Unit. This is essentially a remote for the lighting board and allows you to access many of its functions without taking the whole light board with you. You should take it with you if you are focusing lights, as it will make your life vastly easier.
DMX: DMX or, Digital MultipleX, is a protocol used to control lighting instruments that do more than just dim so we can have digital control over all their attributes from the lighting board. DMX cable is 5-pin XLR and various lengths are stored in the shelving next to the metal cabinet backstage.
Ethercon: Ethercon is Ethernet cable in a fancier housing. It is gradually replacing DMX as the lighting communication protocol. In the hall, we have lighting ethernet ports around the theater (labeled Lighting Network). To convert Ethercon to DMX, you will need a DMX node (stored in the shelving next to the metal cabinet). This plugs into the lighting network via ethercon and will output DMX to lights that require it. If it is not working, ask your shift leader for help configuring these nodes as they are quite complex.
Bench focus: The beam of the unit will naturally tend to have a hot-spot, where the light is the brightest in the center of the beam. To reduce the difference between the brightness hot-spot of the beam (center) and the brightness of the outer edges of the beam, you must bench focus the unit. If it is benched all the way to peak, the center will be much brighter, while if it is benched all the way to flat, the center will be darker than the rest of the circle. Peak benching is better when one is blending multiple units together to evenly wash the stage (as it reduces the brightness of overlap between fixtures), while flat is better the rest of the time. Inside a unit, the lamp sits inside a spherical reflector. Essentially, bench focusing adjusts the vertical lamps placement within the reflector, changing the beam of light. To bench focus a Strand LekoLite, twist the black knob on the back of the unit, testing each direction. To bench focus an ETC source 4, also twist the black knob on the back of the unit, not the gold one.
Dimmer: The physical power module that dims the circuit that the fixture is plugged into. Older dimmers used resistance to dim, but those were bulky and inefficient, so modern dimmers dim by chopping the sine wave of the electricity. They only work with incandescent sources, and so you should never plug in non-incandescent devices into theatrical dimmers. Our dimmers are rated for 20 Amps/2.4 KW
Non-dim/relay: A circuit that provides constant, switchable power that does not dim, used for power to devices with more capabilities than conventional lights and separate digital control signal (Intelligent/LED/moving lights)
Circuit: Where you plug the light into on the wall. If hard-patched 1:1, the circuit number corresponds to the dimmer number that the board can control to turn the light on and off. The hall is no longer patched 1:1.
Channel: An arbitrary number that you can soft-patch to any address/dimmer for your convenience on the lighting board, i.e. It would be easiest for you to have your frontlight in channels 1-10 rather than having to remember each individual dimmer number every unit is plugged into.
Submaster: A number of channels at different levels that you can control together as a group on a fader. We have recorded our most often used groups of lights on Sub Page 1 for easy access. If you need to program a special group of lights for a show, program them into another Sub Page (2 or 3 most likely).
Cue: A snapshot of the state of all lighting in the space; the building blocks of a cue list.
Cuelist/Cue Stack: A programmed list of all the different lighting looks for a show and the times to get from one to the next. You advance to the next cue in a cuelist by hitting the “go” button on the light board and to go backwards by hitting the “halt/back” button.
Live: If you are in ‘live’ mode on the light board, anything you program will appear immediately on stage and in the house.
Blind: A screen on the light board that allows you to program without modifying the live light levels in the house and on stage; a good way to make many needed changes without going dark on the performers.

Kinds of Lights

ERS (Ellipsoidal Reflector Spot): Also called Lekos or Profiles, these are the most flexible type of conventional (incandescent) light. The Performance Hall has two brands of ERS units: those made by E.T.C. (called a Source 4) and by Strand (called a Leko Lite). In general, the units are pretty much the same, though they differ in lamps (and how to change one), placement of barrel knobs (and extra bits), amount of heat given off (beware, Leko Lites get much hotter than Source 4s and will burn through gels with less output to the unit) and weight, but otherwise the units are pretty much the same.

• Barrel: Also known as Lens Tubes, barrels sit on the front of the units. They contain lenses, sitting at various distances from one another in order to create a specific beam size. Barrels come in a variety of “degrees”: 10°, 19°, 26°, 36°, and 50°.
  • The smaller the degree of the lens, the smaller the beam spread.
  • Barrels are interchangeable between units made by the same manufacturer (Leko Lite barrels work in all Leko Lites, Source 4 barrels in all Source 4s).
  • For both kinds of units, the barrel knobs are located on the bottom of the unit. If barrels are taken out of bodies (the entire unit minus the barrel), keep the barrel knobs with the barrel! Be wary, the Strand barrel knobs have tiny bits of extra hardware. Try not to lose these.
  • Be extremely careful when changing barrels on lights that are hung and make sure no one is under you (announce your presence so that everyone in the house can hear you).
  • To focus a unit’s beam, loosen the barrel knob just a bit while holding onto the front of the barrel to prevent if from falling and slide the barrel up and down in the body to the desired beam sharpness.
• Shutter: Shutters are used to create straight cuts on an otherwise circular beam. There are four shutters in total, located halfway down the body of a unit. Shutters affect the beam opposite to what you would expect, i.e.: push in a top shutter, get a bottom cut, push in a stage right shutter, get a stage left cut, etc. If you cannot make a cut at a necessary angle, rotate the barrel.
  • To rotate the barrel on an ETC source 4, loosen the knob on the bottom of the unit by the bottom shutter (not the barrel knob) enough to spin the body. Tighten the knob again and make your cuts.
  • To rotate the barrel on a Strand Lekolite, loosen the flat knob on the right side of the unit near the Tee-Handle enough to spin the body. Tighten the knob again and make your cuts.
• Replacing Lamps: Burnt lamps should have visibly damaged filaments and be placed in the dead lamp bin found on top of the lighting storage shelving unit.
  • To change a lamp in an ETC unit (either source 4 or PAR) you will need an HPL 575w:
    • Unscrew the golden screw on the back on the unit and remove the cap.
    • Unlatch the pins (in source 4 only) and pull the old lamp out.
    • Put in the new lamp and relatch the pins.
    • Replace the cap by aligning the ridges on the back of the unit and tighten the golden screw.
  • To change a lamp in a Strand unit, you will need a NPA Phillips FastFit 575w:
    • Flip open the back of the unit.
    • Unscrew the lamp with the help of pliers, and take it out.
    • Place the new lamp in the back of the unit and screw it into place.
    • Flip the cover back into place.
  • Leko Lites and Source 4s all take 6 1/4” gel frames.

Fresnel: (named after the inventor of the special lens made up of concentric circles in the fixture) - Note: The performance hall does not stock these, but we do rent/use them occasionally.

• Uses a fixed lens
• Lamp housing and reflector move back and forth within the housing to go from a wide beam spread (lamp moved towards the lens) to a narrow beam spread (lamp slides away from the lens). There will be a knob or crank that allows you to slide the lamp and reflector back and forth
• Soft, circular, wash beam (sharp focus impossible), but good for blending
• Slot in the front for gel frames/accessories

PAR (Parabolic Anbolized Reflector): These produce a soft, elliptical beam.

• Lens: We have S4 PARs, which have interchangeable lenses to achieve different beam spreads: Very Narrow Spot (VNSP): Clear glass. Creates a 15° beam shape.
  • Narrow Spot (NSP): Slightly foggy, stippled glass. Creates a 19° beam shape.
  • Medium Flood (MFL): Checkered with seven lines. Medium lenses create a 21°x34° oblong beam.
  • Wide Flood (WFL): Checkered with more than seven lines. Wide lenses create a 30°x51° oblong beam shape.
• Just like with shutters, the lenses in S4 PARs work in opposites. If the lens’ lines run upstage-downstage, your beam will run stage left-stage right.
• To change the shape of the beam, you may rotate the lens (lamp assembly in other PARs), rotating the oblong shape. Just behind the gel frame, you will feel ridges, and if you push against the ridges, the lens will spin.
• S4 PARs take 7 ½” gel frames.

CYC Light

• The performance hall does not own any cyc lights, but we frequently rent them. They are open-faced/flood lights (usually seated on the floor because of no space on the electrics) that serve to solidly light the white scrim/cyc (frequently hung on DLight) in any color via oversized gels.
• They are large and cumbersome, and have enormous gel frames (size depending on the manufacturers and models).
• They have asymmetric reflectors which means that vertically in one direction the light will spread infinitely while in the other there is a defined cutoff to the beam.
• If the lights are mounted on the floor, the defined cutoff should be focused to the bottom of the cyc. If hung, focused to the top of the cyc.
• The only focus adjustment on these lights is pan and tilt

Intelligent/LED Lights: Occasionally there will be events in the hall that rent intelligent lights (ones with motorized pan and tilt are often referred to as Movers) that are more capable than conventional lights as they have multiple attributes (like pan and tilt, or color, or zoom) that can be controlled remotely from the lighting board.

• These will often be quite a bit heavier than lights you are used to and have different clamping mechanisms so it is often advisable to hang these with another person to help.
• They cannot be plugged into the stage pin dimmers. They must, must be connected to non-dimmed power, and the 20Amp non-dim relays that are located on all the lighting positions are the best choice for them.
• They will also need DMX cable run to them and daisy chained between them. So that the board and identify them and control them, a different DMX address will need to be set on each of them, between 1-512, and then told to the lighting designer in the hall.
• If you do not know what to do with such lights, ask for help!

Follow-spot: The Performance Hall has two followspots, both Lycian SuperArc 400. Followspots are used in shows where a performer moves around the stage and needs to be seen while moving.

• A good followspot operator can predict where the beam of the followspot will land before the light is turned on. Additionally, a followspot operator should be as steady as possible. Never jump with the followspot, as it looks ugly to the audience. If you miss your spot, move slowly and with purpose to pick up your cue. This requires practice. Before running followspot for a show, give yourself some time to warm up and get used to the unit.
• Followspots have the capability to change color, depending on what gels are dropping in the five slots.
• The Iris changes the size of the beam, the dowser dims it, and the shutter/horizontal dowser dowses the beam horizontally
• To use to the followspot:
  • Make sure it is plugged into the wall.
  • Flip the switch on the back right side of the unit to turn it on.
  • Stand (or sit on a tall stool) on the right side of the followspot. You will control the unit from the right at all times, holding the two handles labelled “control” to move the light.
  • Familiarize yourself with the various settings on the unit.
  • Check the focus of your beam. Confirm with the lighting designer how sharp the edge should be.
• Gels in followspots do not fit a square gel frame. They are circular. Use an old gel cut from a followspot as reference when cutting new color. To change color in the followspot:
  • Turn the followspot off and let it cool down.
  • Push all the gel frames into the up position.
  • Unscrew the two screws by the gel changing levers.
  • Remove the entire section.
  • Pull the old color.
  • Replace the old color with the new, securing it with brads or paperclips.
  • Replace the entire section back in the followspot.
  • Tighten the screws again.
  • Release the gel frames.
  • Test each color lever and reseat the color section if necessary.

House Lights: The house lights in the Performance Hall are located in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th catwalks. Before each show, check that all the house lights are on.

• To change a lamp in a house light you will need a PAR 38 lamp:
  • Flip the switch on the handle to cut off the power running to the house light.
  • Unscrew the wingnuts holding the base in the fixture. Put them in your pocket or somewhere safe where they won’t fall through the grating of the catwalk.
  • Grab the handle and lift the base out of the fixture.
  • Unscrew the old lamp.
  • Screw in the new lamp. You can touch these lamps with your bare hands.
  • Place the base back in the fixture.
  • Replace the wingnuts.
  • Flip the house light switch back on.

Catwalk Work Lights:

• To change a lamp in a catwalk work light, you will need a Biax T/E Eco 32w Lamp:
  • Carefully balance yourself on the railings. If you do not have a buddy, you will need to climb down and back up while carrying things in order to finish this process.
  • Unscrew the outer cage.
  • Unscrew the glass cover.
  • Pull out the old lamp.
  • Do not worry about touching these new lamps with your bare hands. Push in the new lamp and replace the covers.

Music Stand Lights: Music stand lights are used when musicians are on stage, playing in the dark. They are stored in a bin in the new storage closet.

• Clip the music stand light onto the music stand and plug it into an Edison power strip.
• Change lamps by unscrewing the old and screwing in a new one.
• To store a music stand light, coil the cable and place it over the lamp. Then, fold the clip up over the cable. By keeping the cable inside the body of the light, it will not become tangled with other lights in the bin.

Mounting

Units can be mounted on four kinds of hardware. As with all hardware you encounter, keep all the bits and pieces together.

• C-clamp: These are what you will find most units in the Performance Hall mounted on. Like their names, they are shaped like C’s. When hanging a unit on a C-clamp, hang it so the open side faces you. Then, tighten the bolt with a wrench.
• Tee: Used in tandem with sidearms. The bolt connects to the yoke of the unit, in place of the C-Clamp Remember to tighten both bolts on the tee.
• Floor plate: These are used for placing units on the floors. They are square pieces of wood with a hole in the center, with a bolt, a nut, and washers. Always keep the hardware with the floor plate so the next stagehand does not need to go searching for it.
• Booms: 50 lb boom bases are located in the Southwest corner of backstage. Find the marked 10’, 1 ½” diameter boom pipes in the storage room across from the green room. Screw pipes tightly into bases, and then hang units either yoked out or on a side arm on either the up or downstage side of the pipe. Then, point them onstage. Be consistent.

Accessories

Most common accessories sit in the outer frame of a unit. Always tie the safety length of tie line connected to the accessory to the yoke of the unit.
Top Hats: Top hats are used to counter light spill. Named because they look like top hats, they can be used in source 4 or PAR units. We have Top Hats for S4 Pars.
Half Hats or Tipton Hats: Like top hats, only cut in half lengthwise, so they only block half of the light beam.
Barn Doors: Like top hats, only square-shaped, and, like shutters, you can move each section to cut off light from places you don’t want. Used in PARs and Fresnels.
Gobos: A gobo, also known as a template, is used to make a pattern on the stage. Gobos come in either metal (most commonly sizes A or B) or glass. The Performance Hall only has template holders for metal, size B. Gobos are only used in ERS units, but we only have holders for them for the Strand Leko Lites. Gobos are installed at the gate of the unit, where the lens and the reflector meet perfectly, where a perfectly in focus pattern is possible. Before placing a gobo in a unit, put it in a template holder. These can be found by the gels in Catwalk 4. To install a gobo on a Strand Lekolite, unscrew the gate cover, slide it open, and slide the template holder in. Close the gate as much as you can, and tighten the screws. To install a gobo on an ETC Source 4, slide the holder in just forward of the top shutter. Be careful, though, gobos get extremely hot very quickly, so be careful when removing them after the light has been on for some time.
Irises: An iris in a lights acts just like an iris in an eye. Used to make beams even smaller, irises sit in the accessory slot forward of the gobo slot. To access this slot on an ETC Source 4, you will need to use a screwdriver to slide down the accessory slot cover.

Troubleshooting Equipment

Sniffer: These check for current in a wire or outlet
GAM Check: It is a standardized troubleshooting device for stage pin connections. It has two settings, CABLE and [lamp], which represents a lamp. When the switch is flipped to the lamp setting, plug a unit into the female end of the GAM check. The GAM check will beep if the lamp is good. If it does not beep, change the lamp in the unit. To check if a unit is receiving power, flip to the CABLE setting and plug the male end of the GAM check into the female dimmer you are using. Turn the dimmer on at the board. If the dimmer is working, you will get three green LEDS on the GAM check. If you get another combination of lights, refer to the key on the GAM check itself.

Types of Cable

The cable in the Performance Hall is labeled with electrical tape according to length. All lighting power cable is rated for at least 20 Amps and is SOOW (Extra hard usage, oil resistant, water resistant).

Beige = 5’	Red = 10'	Green = 25’	Blue = 50’	White =100’

With any piece of cable, there is a male and female end. They mean just what you would think: the male end is the one with pins sticking out, the female the end with holes. The male end will never be the live end (only female ends will be live so you can’t get electrocuted). Remember that, sadly, there is no homosexuality in electricity. The male always goes toward your power source (male is the input end, female the output). Be consistent when running cable by running it on one side of the pipe. Cable should be regularly tied off to pipe (using tie line) to prevent any slack from dangling. Excess cable should be neatly coiled and then tie lined to the pipe.

• Edison cable is the technical term for the standard A/C cable used in the United States, named for the almighty Thomas Edison (nah, Tesla was cooler). Therefore, the regular extension cords you are used to (if you grew up in the U.S.) are Edison.
• Stage Pin is used with theatrical lighting and is at least rated up to 20 Amps. Stage pin has three pins just like Edison cable, but is shaped like a flat square.
• Twistlock Similar pin layout to Edison, but the pins are curved. Twistlock cables are inserted, and then the connection is twisted until it locks (as you might expect from the name). The non-dim relay circuits (labeled with an S-) use twistlock
• Twofer is used to plug two lights into the same circuit. They look like a Y, with one male end and two female ends. Be careful to not overload the lighting circuit with too many lights (no more than four per circuit, preferably three).
• Adapters: The Performance Hall has a few kinds of adapters, Edison ➝ Stage Pin, Stage Pin ➝ Edison, and Twistlock ➝ Edison. If the male end is Edison, the unit plugged in will be non-dimmable. If the male end is Stage Pin, it will be able to dim. The Twistlock ➝ Edison adapters are used for connecting to the non-dim/relay circuits and running power towards intelligent/moving fixtures.
• Multicable, or Socopex, is essentially six stage pin circuits in one. The Performance Hall only has female soco above stage, over U5 and U7. To change from mult to stage pin, or from stage pin to mult, you will need one of the following.
  • Break-out: A male mult end with six female stage pins.
  • Break-in: A female mult end with six male stage pins.
  • Break-outs and break-ins can either be straight or staggered.
    • Straight: All the stage pins lengths are the same.
    • Staggered: The stage pin lengths vary with 1 being the shortest and 6 being the longest.
  • When circuiting a pipe with a break-out, the six circuit numbers align one-to-one with the circuits you plugged the mult into. For example, if you plug the break-out into circuits 119-124, the stage pin labelled 1 will be dimmer 119, 2 will be 120, and so on.

Things to remember when hanging and focusing lights

• Lights should (if possible) be spaced with at least 1’6” between each clamp so as to allow space for it to rotate and point differently during focus. The distance between your elbow and fingertips is approximately 1’6”, and so you can use your arm to measure as well.
• Lock everything down with your wrench. Only tighten bolts a quarter or half turn past finger tight, otherwise you begin to bend the bolt, weakening it, and making it more likely to break and fall.
• Make sure the safety cable is looped over the pipe and attached back to itself.
• Remember to pull all shutters. Otherwise, you will think the unit does not work even when turned on.
• Tie a clove hitch when tying up cable.
• Never tie up the tail of the cable coming from the light.
• Tie the female end of the circuit you are plugging into close to the unit, so you always have enough slack in the cable for the light to pointed in all manner of different directions (called a focus loop).
• If you are running a long cable, label the female end of the cable with the circuit number it is plugged into using white gaff and a sharpy (stored on Catwalk 4). It will make you life vastly easier.
• Any cable running in traveled walkways must be taped down in a clean manner and marked in white spike tape to ensure that people don’t trip. When needed, use a cable mat to cover the cable, and mark it in diagonal stripes of white spike tape.
• Use gloves when focusing will prevent burns (especially with the Strand Leko Lites).

… And when striking lights

• Push in all shutters.
• Run barrels in completely.
• Wrap the tail around the unit.
• Hang units in their appropriate storage space in the catwalks, tightening the bolt with only your fingers.

Light Board Operation

Like most modern light boards, the Strand Light Palette Classic is composed of two main sections—the Playback and Programming sections. The Programming section allows you to set up and program different lighting looks and adjust settings on the board, while the Playback section allows you to recall those different looks in different manners. On the Strand Light Palette Classic, the Playback section is mostly on your left, consisting of the twelve sliders (called submasters/looks) and associated buttons and the two groups of two sliders above “Go” buttons (labeled AB and CD). The number and key pads, retractable keyboard and mouse on the right make up the Programming section. Outlined below are some basic operations of the board.

On/Off
To turn the board on, hit the power switch underneath the lip of the board, towards your left. To turn the board off, go to the File menu, at the top left corner of the screen, click on Exit, and then, after assuring it that you do want to exit and saving your show, click on the onscreen power button once the main interface has closed.

Saving/Opening Shows
If you have made significant changes to the show, you’ll want to save your show as something new. Click on Save As in the File menu and enter the show name that you want. Save frequently by just clicking Save to save the show with the same name. To open a show that you have worked on, click on Open in the File menu and select the desired show file (don’t open the archive folders).

Softkeys
You may notice that there is a line of keys numbered S1-S12. These are called softkeys and their functions change depending on what you are doing. Their functions are displayed in boxes along the bottom of the screen labeled S1-S12 so you know what they’ll do before you hit them.

Patching
To assign fixtures to different channel numbers than their dimmer/address for convenience (i.e. you might your front light to be in Channels 1-10 to make it easy to remember rather than having to remember the dimmers that they are plugged into), hit the button labeled “Patch.” This will take you to the patch screen and you’ll see a list of “fixtures” and “outputs.” “Fixtures” are what this board calls channels and “outputs” are dimmers/addresses. To assign a dimmer to a different channel, type in, on the keypad, first the number that you want that dimmer to be assigned to, followed by [@] then the number of the dimmer you are assigning, followed by [Enter]. For example, if I wanted dimmer #39 to be in channel #4, I would type in: 4 [@] 39 [Enter] The command line on the screen should read: “Patch Fixture 4 to Output 39.”

To change the order of the syntax (fixture or output first), hit S11 (it should say on the screen “Patch by Output in the S11 box), and you can then enter the output first and then dimmer. With the same goal as the previous example, the syntax would then be: 39 [@] 4 [Enter], on the keypad and “Patch Output 39 to fixture 4” on the command line.

Be careful when switching between syntaxes as you can easily make mistakes by thinking you are in one syntax when the board is set for the other. Always watch the command line to verify what you are typing.

Selecting, Turning on, and Releasing a Channel
To turn on a channel and bring the light(s) associated with it up, type in the channel number on the keypad, then hit [@] and then enter the level (between 0-100% brightness) that you wish the channel to be at, then hit [Enter]. For example, if you wanted to turn on Channel 7 at 73%, you would type in: 7 [@] 73 [Enter].

The channel that you put at 73% will be highlighted with a solid red box, showing that it is currently the selected channel. While it is selected, you can modify the level using the wheel at the right end of the light board, by using the [Up] or [Down] keys, by saying [@] and then another level, or by hitting the convenient [Full] or [Out] keys.

To release the channel from selection and turn it off (unless it was recorded into something), hit the [Undo] button. Hitting it multiple times will release channels that you had set to levels previously, restoring all the channels to their prior state.

To select/turn on multiple channels, you can use the [Thru], [+], and [-] keys on the number pad, and you will have control over all of them. For example, if you wanted to turn on Channels 1-15, and 33, except for 11 all at Full, you would type in: 1 [Thru] 15 [+] 33 [-] 11 [@] [Full].

You get the idea.

Recording a Submaster/Look
A Submaster (called a “look” on this board) is a group of channels that you can bring up to set levels together for convenience. An infinite number of looks can be recorded to different submaster “pages” (you can move between pages in the upper left hand corner of the screen). Looks number 1-12 in each page correspond to the twelve sliders on the left hand side of the board as well as the bottom row of “bump buttons” below the sliders. The bump buttons allow you to flash the look while you are holding it down and kill the look when you release it. Looks 13-24 you can access via the Bump Buttons buttons above the sliders, and 25-48 are in the two rows directly below the sliders.

To record a look, set channels at their desired levels and then hit [Rec] and [Look] followed by the look’s number you want to record to and then [Enter]. You have to hit [Enter] twice to confirm that you want to overwrite an already recorded look. For example, if you wanted to record look 17, you would type in: [Rec] [Look] 17 [Enter].

You may also record a look by hitting [Rec] [Look] and then hitting the bump button of the look you want, though this will only work for looks 1-48.

You may recall a look by hitting [Look] followed by the number of the Look you want and the level of its channels, then [Enter]. Those channels are now selected and you may modify them using the wheel or [Up] or [Down] keys. For example, if you wanted to recall Look 17 to 40%, you would type: [Look] 17 [@] 40 [Enter]. You may also recall looks using the submasters/bump buttons themselves.

Recording/Modifying a Cue
A cue is similar to a submaster in that it is a snapshot of lighting levels. Strung together, though, with timings, they are much more powerful. Cues work in an ordered list called a “Cuelist” or “Cue Stack” that follows the course of the production. To advance from one cue to the next, as the production progresses, hit the “Go button” at the appropriate moments underneath the playback sliders (AB).

To Record a Cue, set the lighting to the levels that you want, then hit [Rec] followed by the number of the Cue, then [Enter]. The number of the cue will determine the order in which it is played back, as the cuelist progresses from low to high. You may assign cues with numbers such as 14.3 if you need to insert a cue between two other cues, though it is often wise to start out leaving gaps in your numbering (numbering by 5s for example) to leave space for future cue insertions as decimal point cues can be cumbersome. For example, to record cue 10, you would type in: [Rec] 10 [Enter].

To assign a time other than the default time of three (the time it takes to crossfade from one cue to the next), hit [Cue] followed by the number of the cue, then [Time] and then the cue’s crossfade time. By hitting time twice and assigning times each time, you may assign separate up fade (lights coming in) and down fade (lights going out) times for a cue for more precise control over the crossfading. For example, if you wanted the lights in Cue 7 to go out faster than the lights in Cue 8 to come on, you would type, for example: [Cue] 8 [Time] 5 [Time] 3 [Enter]. That would create a cue with an uptime of 5 seconds and a downtime of 3 seconds. You can also give the cue a time when you are recording it. For example, you could type: [Rec] 8 [Time] 6 [Enter].

You may assign a follow time to a cue as well, so that it will automatically execute the next cue after the follow time. For example: [Cue] 8 [Follow] 200.89. Cue 8 will now automatically advance into Cue 9 after 200.89 seconds. Be careful, the follow time starts counting down immediately when the cue starts, not after the fade time is executed, so if your follow time is less than your fade time, the next cue will start executing before the earlier one is finished fading in.

To update a cue, you may go to a cue, change the lighting levels as necessary, and then hit [Update]. To Delete a cue, you may hit the [Delete] button, followed by the Cue number, and then hit [Enter].

Playing Back Cues
To Go to a given cue, you may hit the [Goto] button followed by the cue number. You will then be in that cue.

To Go to the next cue, in the time assigned to it, hit the [Go] button below the AB Playback Sliders. You may use the [Halt/Back] button if you need to stop a cue from fading in or go back to a past cue.

Congratulations! You have finished the Lighting Basics Section!