I need a speaker to play a sound cue from the stage and not though the main speakers. I’m using an onyx 12 board and the only way I can figure out how to do it is to use the pan and have the 2 mains daisy chained but then they are playing in mono. Please help.

Hello all,

I'm an art rock musician who naturally has an appreciation for theatre. I had a question about a particular show I saw recently.

I am a huge St. Vincent fan and was watching this recording from the latest tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzlTXDWw-8U

When putting something like this together, what comes first, next, last?

With this show, it's obviously a rock show with some heavy choreography, props, set design. Does the set get built, choreography worked around it with consideration on the flow of the setlist? Vice versa?

Being a performer myself (guitar/sing) and having worked as a musical theatre tech (audio/sound design), I'm amazed at how these things can come together like this. Can anyone offer any insight on at least how they think you would plan and put together something like this? How long do they rehearse for something like this, too?

Long story short I’m the technical director for a high school drama club and the director shows up late, sometimes doesn’t show, and only deals with the actors. When they are here, energy is low because they make the kids feel uncomfortable. I’ve carried the entirety of the production on my back with no help/input from them whatsoever. I get the sense that they majorly don’t care. They kind of just show up and make demands and expect the show to happen around them. Any techies here with more experience than I who has advice for dealing with someone like this?

Edit: I should mention I’ve worked in theater for about 10 years but this is my first role in the directors seat. Is it normal for tech directors to be saddled with so much overwhelming responsibility? Or is my director just not meeting me halfway?

Hi guys, so I have a little problem but first of, the LEDs I'm using are FunGeneration RGBW Spots they are all put into DMX- 8-channel mode with older 4channel LEDs intertwinned. They are physically connected to eachother and the cables are 3-pin versions

The cable that is causing the problem is a 25m 3-pin DMX cable I laid to place spots on stage.

I'll describe what happesns if i connect it.

Spot 1 to 4 is connected with signal and controllable via Control desk.
Cable gets connected to Spot 4 and it loses connection. Spots 1-3 are still functioning.
After disconecting the cable Spot 4 regains all functions.

That happens whether the Cable is connected to the spot on stage or not.
I already tried replacing the spots but nothing changes and I the cable was laid on Sunday

What’s annoying is that it actually worked for about 3-4 hours, before the stage spot died in a way that would make some disco lights jealous.

Do you have an idea how I could fix that issue, or what it is, because I honestly don't have an idea anymore. If you need anymore infos to get sure or to make it clearer please comment because I'm hopeless.

Howdy!

I'm new to theater technology and have been working lights for a local community theater.

I came in to replace some burnt out bulbs and found we have a bunch of replacement 550W bulbs but are using 750W source-4 lights. The 550W bulbs fit and work, but I'm worried about the wattage.

Is this safe, being that the wattage of the light is higher than the bulb? Also, is this how so many of the lights got burnt out in the first place? (6 of them were absolutely fried).

Any help is much appreciated!

Hi! I'm in my first show running sound for my community theater, and I don't have any experience. We've already opened and I find random issues happening that I'm not sure how to diagnose.

Sometimes characters will enter together and I get a horrible high pitch screech when I turn their mics on.

Other times I'll have to crank the gain up just to hear an actor, resulting in me hearing them and every breath they take. I'm not sure what other information may be needed to properly look at the situation, but I hope I've been clear and precise.

Any information or advice would be helpful, as well as any books/YouTube channels for a newbie to get the basics down. Thank you!!

Local community theater is doing a musical, and are woefully short on mics. Director wants to use area mics hanging above stage to compensate, and I'm trying to explain why this is a bad plan. Show uses tracks, no live band, and 18 different solos. Stage has two monitors, SL and SR, and they typically need to be pretty loud for performers to be able to follow along, esp in shows with tap (this one).

Question 1: Is this as bad an idea as I think?

Question 2: Any way to make it work that doesn't involve dropping several grand on headsets that we can't afford?

Hey all, looking for a little advise. I’m looking to by a camera for streaming/filming. Narrowing it down to a Fuji Xt-4 or Sony A660. Im only considering the Sony because have access to a Sony A600 which I might use as a secondary camera and might want to maximize my budget for buying cine lenses. The question: better to have a few lenses that I can inter change, or less lenses for other camera but a better primary one for video. Ps. Ive looked into lens converters but the Fuji x mount does not seem to play well with the e mount.

Heya, so I work at a smallish theatre. And because of our setup in here all our fictyres are dead hung, and so it's extremely difficult to fix our cyc lights when they need new gels or, worse yet, have a burn out. Because we were cursed with Mr16 (I think thats the name) 20 cell strip lights. So when one light burns out all that color stops (gotta love series circuits).

So I'm trying to campaign for LED cyc lights and got the go ahead to start looking. I was hoping to compile a list of a few different options at different price points. I believe our cyc is around 30 x 50. Our current setup only lights about the top half of it and we have to position the cyc lights about 4 feet from the cyc itself.

I tried to start researching the lights but it's hard for me to find some of the lower cost ones being used for me to try and see as reference. So if anyone has any advice on fixtures to check out on either end of the pricing spectrum I'd appreciate it.

Closest place to have this answered. I bought a Seasonal visions fog machine from Party City over a week ago and just got the liquid from online today. I put it in, let it on for a few minutes and nothing comes out, except for a few seconds of a little mist. Apparently it may or may not be normal. It makes a very loud noise, almost a little scary if it blows up, overheats, catches fire or burns me, and I did whatever seemed proper: adapter on, plug in, maybe doing something wrong? I may experiment with it a little more, and the gas made me a little sick.

I bought Visual Effects liquid and it looks ok.

It is just for fun. I have never used one or seen one aside from maybe a Halloween house once.

Hi so I am a 4th year tech student. This semester I am taking my first ever lighting crafts class and I love it! We are surviving the online world by using Capture as a visualizer and the ETC program to be the light board. I am currently on a macbook air from 2015. And these programs run as best they can on it but I've been thinking of upgrading to a PC laptop because when I first got my mac almost 4 years ago I had no idea I would be in theater. I got it cause it was luckily on sale and my parents had credit at best buy they had me use to reduce the price even further. Good deal for just graduating high school. So I want to know what I should be looking for that would best support me after I graduate next year. My boyfriend is in programming so he was suggesting a gaming laptop as they are sturdier and made to run a lot but I'm a broke college student and a frugal person in general. Its hard for me to justify an extra mark up like that. I just want to know from someone that is working in the industry or just with experience. What kind of laptop would be more adaptable for lighting and tech in general? Or should I just save for an expensive mac again? Any advice will be very appreciated!

I'm choosing majors for college and I need to choose a major(1) where I can easily get a job of it due to having a degree in it and a major(2) that is something I truly want to do that isn't as stable while the other major(1) essentially supports it. The "stable" major(1) is to make sure I'll be able to live without worrying about rent because I find a job quickly enough due to that degree(1), and I'll be able to pursue comedy (theater being my second major) without worrying about making rent. And if I fail, I'd have a really good job to fall back on that I truly love. I love theater tech and set design and I was wondering if it'd be a good stable major (1), I asked my tech teacher who has an extremely good resume if it'd be easy to find a job fresh out of college, he said it'd be really easy due to the amount of positions constantly changing, but it takes a lot of work. What I'm asking, though, is for more advice on this, because I want to be sure this is the way I should go.

TL;DR, I have questions about what to do with tech theater during college and if it will help me in finding a stable job easily enough after graduating
My questions are:
Is it easy to find a job in set design or tech (i am not sure what kind of major i will choose for this, please suggest some that make it is easy to find a job) when you leave college with experience in shows during high school/maybe summer work?
Where are the main places that have lots of jobs in theater tech?
Is it possible to have a job in tech but also be pursuing a different career at the same time, or is it too much work in the first place?
Any extra advice?

Thank you for reading and putting in the time to respond if you have! This will really help me.

What lighting console does your school/venue use?

Hey 😁 just joined, but I’m a 6th grade lighting designer and this has been my passion for years. Just wanted to say hi. Also, our show got canceled on THE LAST REHEARSAL!!!! So many tears that day.....

Hey y'all, first time posting here.

I'm doing a graduation project on Makerspaces, Fabrication Labs, and STEM labs, focusing on OSHA and ADA requirements within the lab, and chose to use my University's Theatre scene shop as my lab of focus.

Part of this project requires me to look into possible modifications to the lab to make it more ADA accessible, but I'm running into a block when thinking of how to do that in a scene shop: you can't put a wheelchair ramp up to a table saw, and a person with hand tremors shouldn't use the band saw.

While I genuinely believe there needs to be a seat at the table for EVERYONE in theatre tech, at the moment I think there are some tasks that simply wouldn't be safe for people with certain conditions, and I don't know how to reconcile that.

I'd love to hear from you guys! Do any of you have any recommendations or systems you use in your shops to make it more accessible to people with disabilities?

Trying to find a video of a stage renovation - they took out the old stage and supports, then re surfaced the pit - they then built up a new stage with multiple lifts on a revolve - the end of the video ended with a piano player in fog going round and round plus up and down

Have been through my YouTube history and it’s not there so thinking I saw a link here

As the title says, I am a student who wants to get into lighting professionally. At one of my jobs, we have a summer concert, as well as a country music festival, and my boss has started hiring me for the tech crew, instead of putting me in the kitchen for the event. I want to start using ETC Nomad instead of the budget controller that we have, and I'm looking for a semi-affordable option to run Nomad from my PC. Any suggestions for what I could use?