Quickie – Just a heads up about a potentially interesting webinar on modern lighting technology.

Creative Stage Lighting is hosting a webinar at Friday, March 26, 3:30pm-5pm EST called “The ABCs of Lighting A Green Show”.  Hosted by Richard Cadena (him wot wrote the book on automated lighting) and with Rush LD Howard Ungerlieder, the blurb says:

In this webinar, we navigate the unchartered waters of lighting the stage of the future. We’ll explore the newest technologies and how they compare to conventional sources in terms of light output, color and rendering, dimming, flicker, effects, and cost. When the smoke clears you’ll have a better understanding of what you can and can’t do with the newest lighting equipment, how it will look, and what the payoff will be.

Thats sounds pretty interesting to us, and so probably does to the On Stage Lighting readers.  There is still time to register and find out more about this subject that is growing in importance in our world.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Taking common lighting complaints of our readers, On Stage Lighting looks at the really vital skills you will need to succeed as a stage lighting professional and finds a surprising place to learn them. We also bust a myth about life on the professional side of the fence. No wobbly buckets, PC console emulators or LED based duvet covers were used in the making of this article.

Through this site and my professional life I have a fair amount of contact with lighting beginners, many of whom are starting out in stage lighting and some of which hope to make it into the business as fully fledged lighting professionals. When discussing their own lighting set up, be it a small theatre, school or church, there is a common theme:  Dissatisfaction.

Opening with “we currently have crappy old lanterns” or “the rigging positions are bad because..” or “If we had some more kit and a few moving lights…”, there is a general assumption that lighting would be better or life easier if only there were access to the comforts of the modern stage lighting professional.

The Myth of Professional Lighting

Last week I was doing a show of the type that I generally call a Scrapheap Challenge. Take one lighting professional, a pile of lighting kit of questionable standard and see if you can get a show together in time for rehearsals in a few hours time. It’s a reasonably common occurence if you work in commercial event lighting and something that I assume I must display some talent for, based on the number of times a month I seemed to be booked to do such a gig

Notable negatives of this particular situation included:

• A lantern inventory that only partially resembled the one put together by the original Lighting Designer
• Equipment that has probably not heard the phrase “maintenance schedule” uttered in it’s presence
• Cracked lenses, missing focus controls, floppy barndoors.
• A mixture of Source 4 and Strand SL profile spots with a mixture of beam angles not necessarily ideal for the task – all with iffy optics.
• Socapex multicore spiders that were not all marked correctly
• A generic rig that was a bit too big for the 18 channels of dimming that turned up, meaning pairing and plugging up all channels at (and over) capacity
• 2 dimmer channels of the 18 were unusable for various reasons, making the above situation more tricky.Missing infrastructure that meant it was not possible call up more than each 6-way dimmer without repatching the control lines, making the focus a PITA.
• Not enough colour frames and other shortages that really make your day longer.
• I’m sure there was more, I just can’t remember what it was.

The marking and infrastructure issues also made fault finding longer than it needed to be but otherwise things were done, problems were solved and by rehearsal time, we had a show and the quality and suitability of the lighting was never in question.

The point of telling you this unremarkable story of yet another gig is to bust the myth that, in a professional lighting situation, life is easier because we all have better kit, newer toys and a whole host of other comforts not available in school, churches and village halls. We don’t. What professionals do have is the experience of dealing these things and a lighting experience nearly always started the aforementioned schools, pubs and village halls.

A lighting professional is paid to turn in the goods, not to complain about the kit. We also have the professional imperative to get the job done.

But I Don’t Have Enough…..

In Stage Lighting on a Budget, we found out that even the biggest shows suffer from contraints such as not enough channels, fixtures, control availablility etc. The article also runs through common solutions to the problem of not having enough of something, take a look.

My Stage Lights Are Too Old

Lately I have spend some of my time working in a school environment to get their stage lighting up to scatch. We go in, strip their rig out, maintain and fault find before re hanging it for general use and giving every lantern a decent focus. More often than not the lighting kit is old and a small amount of it may be electrically dangerous so that gets fixed up or very occasionally condemned. The rest get a check up and a rub down and are good for another few years yet – the solution is very rarely that they need to buy much new gear. The equipment is old but probably hasn’t been actually used a great deal unlike modern hire equipment that has usually seen a lot of use in its short life.

By the time we leave, a whole new lease of life has been breathed into the rig with a small amount of maintenance and an understanding of how to get the best out of what is there, the focus in particular. Despite great leaps in lighting techology, a conventional lantern is basically a metal box of some kind, with a lens and a reflector and a bulb. Sure, some are better than others but the essence of good stage lighting isn’t the date stamp on any fixture – light comes outta the end, we do something with it.

We Have The Wrong Fixtures

LIke “bad” weather (vs. the wrong clothes), you could question whether there is such a thing as having the wrong lights. There are fixtures that suit a particular purpose, purposes that suit a particular fixture and rigging positions which may or not suit both of those. The thing is these are the fixtures we have, what are you going to do with them. A common complaint starts along the lines of ” We only have PAR56s so….”. A normal PAR 56, last time I looked, spewed light from the end of it like anything else so in my book that’s a perfectly good fixture, especially if you are trying to pretty up a pub band.

If the director wants a tight spot and you only have cyc floods, there could be a problem. It could be resolved by trying to find out the required end result of this spot and suggest a lighting alternative you can do. Or maybe not being able to have a tight spot could be flagged as a must-have in which case the Production Manager will have to be approached for the budget to hire one.

It’s their call, all you can do is the best you can with the equipment you’ve got.

Our Rigging Sucks

This is a common one: “We’ve only got a couple of wind up stands” or “We only have two bars over stage” etc. I’ve done a ton of lighting using wind up stands and still do in the events market. They are quick and very flexible as you often have a number of options of where to put them and half of the lighting design equation is where each fixture is placed (vs. where it points). Only two bars over stage? How about zero bars overstage, then? That’s not a far fetched scenario, last year I lit an 8 metre stage presentation using the only viable positions in the venue which were crosslighting from either side of stage at about 5ft from the deck.

In every rigging situation there are things that you can do, things you can’t and things that “it might be nice if..” In lighting, it’s part of our job to dream up innovative and safe ways to get light sources where we want them or, quite often, to think up an achievable lighting alternative.

My Venue is Special Because…

Everyone likes to think they are special. Equally, everyone likes to think that their venue is the only one in the world that has x, is only as high as y, or you can’t do z lighting in. While every venue is unique, it’s not an option to throw hands in the air and exclaim that everything would be alright if only we were somewhere else. Even purpose built venues seem to come with their own purpose built foibles (which makes them even more frustrating), so the thought of one day walking into the perfect venue for lighting might have to be put on hold for now.

There is a common theme developing: this is the venue we are working in, this the kit we have, this is where we can put it. THIS IS IT.

The Solution? Good Lighting Skills

The solution to this ghastly world of the wrong kit, in the wrong place at the wrong time is lighting experience. The knowledge of what and what isn’t possible. What’s important and what’s not. What works and what doesn’t and having more than one answer to every question.

Basic lighting skills such as a familiarity with lighting angles such as side light and back lighting, the effect of different positions, shadows / reflection and making decisions when you don’t have enough of something are what really counts. While it’s tempting to overdose on finding out about automated gubbins, ethernet control, pixel mapping and learning software version 16 of the GrandHog MaxMA Pro Expert VII, light is still light and (we assume) always will be.

Where Do I Learn Good Lighting Skills?

I can remember the first stage lighting rig that I played with when I was very young. At my local village hall, under the supervision of my dad, there were two bars over stage, a couple of low perch positions Front Of House. Oh, and I think we had one push up stand. Control was done using two banks of domestic light switches (at least it was electric). I can even remember the lantern inventory: 8 x Patt 137 floods, 1 x Patt 23, 1 Furse  fresnel (in Hammerite blue with an orange mains lead) and our new pride and joys, 2 x Strand Minim fresnels (no barndoors). There weren’t too many different things you could do with this rig so Dad kept things pretty simple but always managed to work some creativity into the productions, perhaps the odd gobo hire.

After that, I went on to learn lighting skills in youth theatres, schools and other places associated with a general lack of lighting wonderfulness. All of my current colleagues in professional lighting did the same, finding out how to deal with lighting situations in an often simple environment, without the aid of sizeable budgets, shiny toys or fantastic kit inventories. Instead of deciding that your lighting kit is too old, point your attention using all your available skills to get the best from what equipment you have.

Maybe one day you hope to be in the exhalted(!?) position of a professional lighting tech or designer, getting paid for your own personal contribution to the lighting Scrapheap Challenge that is life day to day gigging.

If you are looking to learn good lighting skills to prepare you for such an undertaking, you’d better hope your learning enviroment encompasses shoddy equipment, lack of facilities, ridiculous deadlines and the general feeling that this time it really is going to be impossible. If you look around and find yourself in such a pitiful situation already, congratulations.

Welcome to the best place to learn stage lighting skills, have a nice day.

Before you complain about old lights, poor rigging positions and the wrong kit, think what wonders it’s doing for your lighting education.

Image by Toholio on Flickr.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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On Stage Lighting presents an essential guide to stage lighting jargon and UK lampie slang for anyone who needs to understand what these weirdos are talking about or needs to blag it as a member the LX department.

Every so often, lighting technicians have to talk to people in the real world (or lesser mortals like sound engineers). It soon becomes apparent that, as in every corner of life, there is a certain amount jargon. Lighting terms, slang and other gobbledygook that techies use when communicating with each other, to the exclusion of the outside world.
While a full glossary of stage lighting terms is outside of our scope today, here is the Blagger’s Guide to Lighting Jargon.

Some of the terms are lighting specific, others related to stage work in general and are based on the garbled utterings of UK based lighting techs.

Directional Terms

To an outsider, one of the most peculiar things about stage workers is their sense of direction. On stage, normal directional communication gets mangled. Any one who remembers acting in a school play will know that their drama teacher kept talking about “Stage Left” and “Stage Right. Drama teachers themselves often get this muddled up, so let’s be clear: Stage Left is your left hand side if you are standing on stage, looking out at the audience. This is the opposite of House Left (from the audiences point of view) or Camera Left (er, from the camera).

It doesn’t get any easier, though. Stagey people say Up when they mean backwards and In when they mean down. What’s that about?

Up and Down Stage are further and nearer to the audience respectively, relating to historically sloping stage floors. If something “runs up and down” it is not a fitness crazed techie (does anyone know any, BTW), it is something that has its long axis sitting at ninety degrees to the stage front. Up and down stage.

Conversely, it might “run on and off” (Onstage being nearer the centre, Offstage nearer the sides) with its long axis parallel to the stage front.

So having used up the terms Up and Down to mean something else, what are we going to do when we really mean up in the air or down toward the deck? Why, use Out (up / away) and In (down toward the stage floor) of course.

Let me be the first to admit publicly that my tiny brain uses these directional concepts by default, even when absolutely nowhere near a stage. Be warned of this before you try to move a sofa at home with your nearest and dearest techie.

Endless Numbers

Many of the different technical disciplines use numbers but the lighting department seem to barely use anything else. If you think that the world of business uses too much jargon, you should listen to two lampies outlining their plans for the next five minutes.

The trouble with deciphering the numbers is that they are used in a wide range of contexts and that context is only clear if you know what the numbers mean. Otherwise, they are just numbers. Let’s start by looking at what the numbers represent

Quantity and Capacity

Somewhere in the number jumble, there may terms that reference the quantity of items or the capacity of an item. Examples include five [insert another bit of jargon here] or a 6-way [bit of jargon] or a [bit of jargon] to 12 [other bits of jargon]. Also included in the capacity equation are references to power draw (1000 watt or 1k), current capacity or electrical rating (16 or 16 amp rating with appropriate connector type).
A final confusion factor is added to distinguish between equipment that is designed for use with 3 phase or 1 phase power. The term “3” refers to three phase power and thankfully the word “single” is inserted by thoughtful jargon spewers to reduce the shear quantity of integers in any one sentence.

Length

Lighting cables are not only denoted by their electrical rating and connector but also their usable length. The length of rigging kit is also something we might need to talk about. Rummage around in a lampie sentence and you will probably find a reference to the length of something, like 10 metres. 2 10s references two of something, ten meters in length.

So far, we have got the potential for a sentence to contain number that denote quantity, capacity, connector type, phase number. That just describes a piece of kit.

3 63 3s 2 3 63 singles refers to a piece of common electrical distribution kit: Three (of) [sixty three amp, three phase] plug to three (of) [sixty three amp, single phase] socket.

6 16 2 15, 3 10 metre 15 and 2 2 way 16s actually translates to : Six (of) [sixteen amp] plug to [15 amp] socket, three (of) ten metre fifteen amp cable and two (of) sixteen amp two way splitters.

Notice the use of the word “metre” to split up the length and the connector rating. Hey, anything else would just be confusing, right?

Manufacturer Numbers

Rather unhelpfully since the dawn of production lighting manufacture, the makers of stage lighting equipment have followed naming conventions for their various products that rely heavily on numbers. Lanterns produced by Strand Electric went from pattern numbers like 23, 264 and 243 on to ranges with real names that the subsets could only be described by their beam angles such as 16/30 or 11/26 ( 16 to 30 degrees and 11 to 26 degrees).

Modern lighting equipment manufacturers have continued on this unimaginative folly by mainly referencing fixture power such as 700, 1200 and 2000s. Fixtures made by different manufacturers get called the same thing, for instance, the Martin MAC700 profile and the Robe ColourSpot 700 both get called “seven hundreds”. And so it goes on.

4 700s on 3 at 200 translates to: Four (of) [some kind of 700] on bar three, starting at DMX address two hundred.

Reference Numbers

With lots of different parts to a lighting system, we need to be able to distinguish elements within it. In order to stop others from knowing what we are up to (other than skulking in Dimmer City) lampies have devised a cunning and impenetrable method of marking different control channels, dimmers, fixture addresses, intensity levels, gel references and circuit numbers. Yes, you’ve guessed it – more numbers.

The context that these numbers are used in is not so definable. They may be thrown into the middle of a sentence, their presence only discernible by the fact that the integer in question does not relate to either quantity, electrical capacity, length or manufacturer imposed number.

Putting it all together

By now you either knew all this already or are utterly confused. How do you work out which numbers relate to what? Here is some general guidance for cracking the number code:

Jumpers (not the woolly kind) that jump from one electrical connector into another are always referred to plug first. A 16 2 15 (often written 16 > 15 or 16 – 15) is a sixteen amp plug to a fifteen amp socket. Confusingly, in DMX cabling the number of pins takes over from the rating: a 5 to 3 is a 5 pin XLR plug to a 3 pin XLR socket.

Working out what a number it relates to is sometimes a question of knowing what it cannot relate to:

The number 101 is not one that relates to a fixture type, beam angle or common power capacity so it could either be a dimmer / control channel but chances are it relates to Lee 101 – Yellow, a vile yellow gel.

The numbers 16, 32 or 63 all relate to common UK power ratings and connectors but could also relate to anything else. You see how it’s all a question of context.

So, now you have started to get to grips with lampie grammar, let’s take a look at some other lighting terms and slang.

Lampie Rhyming Slang

The UK lighting business follows in the Cockney Rhyming Slang tradition with it’s own version of the language. In true Cockney fashion, the best proponents of this rhyming slang usually only refer to the first word of the term:

• Billys = Billy Bunters = Punters = The General Public
• Dianas = Diana Doors = When the Billys are let into the venue
• Desperate = Desperate Dan = Lighting Plan

A particularly inventive use of rhyming slang is the phrase “Onions” which is a contraction of “Onion Bhajis” – it rhymes with Zarges, the popular brand of combination ladder.

Trade names

Every industry uses trade names in their own unique language, stage lighting is no exception. Here are a few of the most common:

Spanset – Technically known as a roundsling, the Spanset, Spanny or Spanz is an extremely strong webbing covered loop using for rigging and slinging.

Grelco – Common in the UK, the word Grelco refers to the specific type of plastic 15 amp 2-way splitter which this brand used to dominate. Younger lampies have been known to call them Snappers, after a more modern trade name. The 3-way version of the Grelco is inventively referred to as a Trelco or Trellies, in case you were wondering why Dave said he needed some trellis but does not seem interested in gardening.

Socapex – The popular brand of multipin connector used for dimmer and power circuits, “Soca” has become the lampie slang term for the entire cable as well. Other terms include Multi or Snake and different connectors are referred to by their dominant brand – Lectriflex, for example.

People

In the stage world, it seem like everyone has some form of derogatory term for those who dare to work in other departments. Some used by us “lampies” include “Noise Boys” and “Hum Scum” for the our arch enemies in the sound department and “Vidiot” for anyone involved with screens, tellies and cameras.

Electricians are unsurprisingly called Sparks or Sparkies while Chippies (carpenters) are also known by other phrases, depending on the level of abuse intended. “Wood Butchers” right through to “Hairy Ar*ed Nail Benders”. In the world of trades shows, Rug Tuggers are in charge of all flooring requirements throughout the hall.

For some reason, Riggers are often known by the most derogatory monikers but only from a distance. They are generally too scary to insult in person but the term “Nappy Wearing Sky Gods” cannot be heard above the noise of a cherry picker at 15 metres. “Nappy” refers a fall arrest harness and not to the results of a particularly vibrant curry from the night before. Watch out though, riggers have a special spy called the Groundman who lurks around on deck and reports insulting language to the roof via Motorola radios. They can also drop things on you.

Animals

In the stage lighting world, you don’t get too close real animals unless you happen to be on the electrics crew for a “Horse Of The Year” show (yes, I have). To feel closer to nature, lampies occasionally use animal based jargon including:

Spiders – a many legged, cabley thing that breaks circuits out of a mulitcore. If you are feeling more rock n roll, you can call them Fan In and Fan Outs instead.

Badgers Clamps – A  scaffold half coupler with an eyebolt for suspending barrel.

Pigtail – Any kind of short cable coming of something such as the power lead of a moving light or a flying lead from a breakout box.

Descriptive Lighting Terms

Sometimes, the best slang is based on an obvious likeness of something to something totally unrelated or a consequence of their presence. This is the case with:

Pickle – a pickle shaped hand held switch used to locally control electric chain hoists AKA the motors.
Ray Guns – Plastic 16a Ceeform 2-way splitter that looks like – well, a gun. “Sod it, Nev. Just gun ‘em together, I can’t be bothered to run another 50 metre 16 to this one as well”.

Trees – Plastic 16a Ceeform 3-way splitter of tree like appearance.

Binoculars – More 16a Ceeform 3-ways that look…. Well, you’re getting the hang of it now.

Tripe – A bundle of cables, taped together for easier management that ends up looking like tripe. Another term is Loom.

String – Electrical, referring to cable including the largest of heavy mains supplies.

Shin Busters – Low mounted fixtures that trip everyone up, specifically the monitor engineer (if you get it right)

Acronyms

While the financial and business sector have the monopoly on outrageous acronyms, stage lighting jargon has it’s fair share. We won’t go into all of them, but here a selection:

• AJ – Adjustable spanner, a UK term.
• DBO – Dead Black Out. Everything dark.
• TRS – Tough Rubber Sheath. A reference to the insulation on mains and dimmer cables . Used to denote a single channel of cable.
• RCD – Residual Current Device. Safety switchgear that protects the user.
• MCB – Miniature Circuit Breaker. Safety switchgear that protects the equipment.
• FOH – Front Of House. Anywhere forward of the stage line or where the general public hang out. Also used when leaving – F*** Off Home.
• FUCT- Acronym for various words including Failed Under Continuous Testing. Used to mark up faulty equipment

Unimpressed by Technology

In order for technical types to real feel that they are the masters of all the bells and whistles they survey, they resort to derogatory names for posh kit. This can be found in other departments such as the video where they habitually refer to the snazziest of 90” Plasma screens as Tellies.

In the lighting world, this practice is evident by terms such as Nodding Buckets or Wobblies for moving lights and Waggly Mirrors for scanners.

Contextual Terms

No highly complex language is complete without some terms that use the same word for multiple purposes, to the confusion of non-speakers. Here’s a few.

Dead – A height at which a flying piece rests. A busted something. Something that isn’t broken but is no longer required in this performance. “ Are these boxes dead?”

Strike – To dismantle the entire show. To remove something from the stage area. To fire up discharge light source.

Spike – To nail. To decide on a fixed position for something an/or mark that position. The use of white tape to denote a hazard such as tripod legs or Shin Busters.

How to pretend you’ve been doing this for ages

In order for the Lampie Blagger to convince those around them that they have been around since the dawn of nodding buckets, it’s a good idea to throw in slang from times past such as:

Cracker – The cracked oil machine referred to an early form of atmosphere generator. Today, they are usually called Hazers but using the word Cracker will really give you a history.

Black Light – Ultra Violet (UV) lighting effects are not quite so in fashion these days.

Floats – Floats refer to another out of fashion lighting technique, footlights. Originally floating wicks, footlights were used extensively for a part of theatre lighting history. Sound engineers still call low mounted microphones Float mics, don’t let them nick your terminology.

How to avoid getting rumbled

Here are some common Heffalump traps that will flag you up as a rookie instantly. Avoid.

Incorrect use of “Lamps” – Stage lighting technicians refer to lamps and never bulbs, although the word Bubble will give you an old fashioned kind of cred. Lamps never refers to the fixtures themselves, which are called lanterns or more specific terms.

SocapLex – This is a common faux pas and is like a sign that says “I hope to go there one day, but so far I have only bought the T shirt”.

So, that’s all for now. Now you should be able to order a cable, chit-chat in the local tongue and hurl abuse toward other residents of the stage area. What more could you possibly want?

If you have any particular favourite stage lighting terms, techie jargon or reasonably clean slang, let us know in the comments below.

Image by Jake Bouma

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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In a free conference speaker training course, we are going to look at life from the other side of the lectern. As part of our Keynote Speaker Awareness Week, we are going to empathise with with this desperate bunch and remember importance of visibility on stage.

Please turn off your mobile phones.

Dear Mr Speaker,

Yes, I know it’s hard, being the star of the Sales Division Kick Off. Company profits are down, the CEO is on your back as Head of Regional Sales (Rutland) to get your chaps all singing from the same song sheet, leveraging your synergies and thinking outside the box.

So, you’ve got great plans. The management team is onboard. All you need to do as the keynote speaker is to communicate your grand design to the 600 suits assembled at the Winsor Suite of the Rutland Intercontinental (near the A378, by the Little Chef). These turkeys need to understand, they need to see it your way and be in no doubt as to how they should proceed to flog more gear.

OK, let’s see what you’ve got so far.

The Powerpoint deck you’ve spent weeks on waits eagerly, ready to bring the first name slide proclaiming the all powerful job title that you have arse-kissed for 10 years to get. Animation will never be the same again, not after they’ve seen these beauties.

You’ve agonised over content, scripts and worked out how to stand on stage nonchalantly, hand in pocket, without looking like you are playing with yourself.

Everything is ready.

The secret to good communication

The black clad ninjas that dap around the grey carpetted stage say they are ready. You speak. It’s odd hearing your voice coming back at you with a delay. So you say “ It sounds funny to me, can you hear me at the back?”. The ninjas say carry on and disappear again into the darkness.

But wait.

Looking up from your notes at the lectern, something terrible has been wreaked upon you. There is a light, no two, and it’s dazzling you. The more you look at it, the more dazzling it becomes until you finally turn away, toward the screen and your favourite slide with the Venn diagram. “I don’t remember those purple spots?”

You stop, look at the light again and enquire after the possibility of dowsing the two offenders. Not all of the lights (you’re not unreasonable) just that one and the one on the other side. They are the worst, let’s lose them.

The ninjas get a little agitated. There is manic whispering in the dark. One of them speaks “We’ll do our best but those are your lights, I’m afraid” How ridiculous. This place must have more than 60 lights, you only want to get rid of two – in percentage terms, a meagre amount.

Mr Speaker, let me assure you that the ninjas have only the best intentions. They are fully “onboard” with your restructuring plans and can’t wait for you to share them with the masses. They also know the importance of communication.

You need lighting, dammit

In order for you to communicate your message to a room of 600 delegates, the great unwashed need to be able to see you clearly. Hey, you pride yourself in being a people person, able to win the sceptical over with your special eye sparkle and the elbow squeeze – right? If you are going to be able to squeeze the ranks of chairs filled with drowsy delegates, it’s no good hiding in the dark.

Light needs to fire from the source, bounce off you and make it all the way up the room to the guys you rely on to deliver on those Q1 targets. For this to happen, the light needs to come at you pretty hard and it’s something that professional performers have to put up with. They know that in order for them to become a real star, the adoring public need to engage with them on stage. And seeing is a good chunk of the engagement equation. And being able to see someone as they speak, assists comprehension and audibility. Yes, you really do seem louder when we can see you, Mr Speaker.

The reason that only two lights are dazzling as you grimly grip the lectern, is that those are the light sources that make engagement possible. Without them, you look like some kind of character from a shadow play, not the strong, and confident leader addressing the troops.

The lights might not be quite so annoying if they were fixed higher in the air. But unfortunately, the Winsor Suite of the Rutland Intercontinental has only a 12ft ceiling height and no facility for hanging lighting equipment overhead. This isn’t an excuse but just so you know. Perhaps after this years performance, the CEO will let you book the O2 for your keynote next year.

But, if you want to act the big shot after bouncing up on stage shouting “Good evenin’ Rutland! Are Yoo Awight?”, you need to act like a pro and put up with the trappings of your exhalted position. If it’s good enough for Robbie Williams, surely you can cope with a couple of lights.

Don’t stand in the dark

Now, you might feel you have a better solution. Moving slightly to one side, you notice that those pesky lights are not bothering you now. In fact, at one point you decided to really engage with the crowd and stand with your toes poking over the edge of the stage and leaned right forward, real communication. That felt good didn’t it, Mr Speaker? You reached out to the huddled masses and also found comfort away from the photon emitting pests. Great.

The trouble is, in the both the above scenarios, you disappeared from view. Your face was sucked into a black hole and the most important part of your speech went with it. I can personally guarantee that if you can’t feel the lights on your face, you can’t be seen. Using this knowledge to your advantage is what pro performers call “finding your light”.

So, like I said. I know it’s hard and every sympathy is with you but let’s all remember why we are here. We are here to communicate your message to those who will be instrumental in your next move toward Global Sales Director. Having spent weeks on the slides, the script and choosing your outfit, don’t forget the basics of good communication – not hiding.

The ninja has spoken.

If you feel that this was the most valuable piece of keynote speaker training you have every received, please feel free to get in touch with On Stage Lighting and we will let you know where to send the cheque. With professional speaker trainers earning hundreds of pounds a day by picking holes in your delivery, you might a least buy us a beer or two.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

A brief guide to the understanding and using of electricity systems in stage lighting, we start by looking at the basics of how electricity arrives at the stage and common equipment used in stage electrics.

Reader curiosity about power equipment and it’s uses has sparked (?!) this article. We won’t go through all the ins and outs of electrical theory but instead give you an overview of the systems involved and how to recognise certain elements.

Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide some insight into the working of a professional stage electrical system for the beginner. It does not provide comprehensive training in electrics or safety and should not be viewed as such. The design of a stage lighting electrical system should be entrusted to an experienced and competent person. No warranty is implied concerning the accuracy of any information contained therein. On Stage Lighting can accept no responsibility for any inaccuracy of information or for any loss, damage or injury arising from any interpretation of its contents.

Stage Electrics and the Lighting Department

Historically, the wrangling of show electricity has been entrusted to the aptly named Electrics Dept. in theatres or the Lampies in a concert touring environment. These days, sound crew and riggers have an increased knowledge of power distro and often take care of much of their supply management and while on larger shows, a whole separate Mains department is common. No wonder, electricity is the one thing that we really can’t get by without.

While many departments use power, the overall design and distribution of a safe and bombproof electrical supply still often falls into the hands of the LX crew. Temporary power distribution equipment for events is commonly of the “plug and play” variety which doesn’t require a degree in electrical engineering to connect a system together but it does a good understanding of electrical theory and safety.

Anatomy of Stage Electricity Supply

It’s important to understand a little about how power arrives for us to use on stage, without going into all the details about substations, transformers and power stations.

Incoming Supply – With any luck, the venue has one or more incoming electrical supplies (usually 3 Phase) that comes in on a hefty set of cables. Big Cable = Big Power. The incomer(s) ends up in some kind of box ready to be split off to different parts of the building. You shouldn’t ever need to see the incomer but just know that it’s there.

Distribution Boards – Supplies from the main incomer are sent to a number of dist boards situated around a building depending on the electrical needs of each area. Each board has a set of switches that do different things and recognising them is important, particularly if you have a supply outage “upstream” from your kit. We’ll go into that in detail further on.

It’s also good to understand that some distribution boards, particularly smaller ones, can be fed from another distro panel – worth knowing in the case of a supply interruption.

3 Phase and Single Phase

When you’re new to stage lighting, 3 phase electricity is perceived as both mystical and dangerous – something scary and hugely difficult to comprehend. Let’s just clear this up – ALL ELECTRICITY CAN BE DANGEROUS. It can kill you, 3 phase or single phase.

Is 3 phase electricity more dangerous?

In the UK, our supply voltage is around 230 volts. This is the Potential Difference between the supply and Ground and if you get a Single Phase 230V electric shock it can at least ruin your day if it doesn’t kill you. With a 3 phase supply, each phase to Ground still has a p.d of 230V – however, the p.d between two phases can reach up to 415 Volts. So, what we call a “phase to phase” shock is more likely to kill you. In that sense, 3 phase is more dangerous but the thing that really does for you is the current (Amps). All large electricity supplies deliver lots of current, that’s their job. A domestic 13A socket will send you 13 Amps of sizzle before it fuses (plenty to knock you off your perch). Large lighting supplies can deliver >400 Amps and three lots of it too!!!

Let’s let the Grim Reaper take five for a moment and try to get behind the mystics of 3 phase electrics. Because of the way electricity is generated, it comes to us in three different supplies. What do I mean by supplies? Well, take a the socket on one side of your kitchen then another on the opposite side. Chances are, they are both different outlets of the same supply – and on the same phase. In fact, unless you live is a big house, you are likely to only have one phase coming into your house in total. One supply. Your neighbours house may well be on a different phase to you, with neighbours on the other side on the third phase. They are on different supplies.

We use all three phases in stage lighting systems because it brings more power into one place. The use of a large 3 phase cable is where confusion sets in but it’s just three supplies – 3 x Line/Live conductors and 1 x Neutral (shared between the supplies) plus an Earth. 3 Phase plugs usually have 5 pins, one for each conductor (actually, some 3 phase plugs have only 4 pins but we don’t need to worry about that right now).

Stage Electrics and Protection

A major part of safe electrical systems design is what we call protection, things that stop people getting hurt by electricity and the fallout when something goes wrong.

People protection – The parts of an electrical system that protect people from electric shocks cut the supply at the first sign of trouble. In the UK, Residual Current Devices (RCDs,) are built into different parts of the distro system particularly at the “user” end such as on stage supplies to backline equipment. An ideal show supply would have individual RCDs protecting small power socket outlets, moving lights, consoles etc meaning that any interruption does not remove the entire supply. RCD’s are called GFIs in the US.

Kit protection - Fuses or MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers) provide overload protecton – cutting the supply if any equipment draws more power than the supply was designer for. Overload on a circuit is a good way of detecting some kind of fault and ditching the supply prevents fires and excess damage to kit. Fuses or MCBs don’t save people.

Recognising Switches

On venue dist panels and lighting distro kit, switches are very much the thing. Working out what they do is the first step on the road to recovery in a power outage. If you do suffer from a loss of power, work out where in the stream the loss has occurred and switch off all outlets downstream of it before firing it up again. The most important part about re-energising (fancy word) is to do it in a controlled manner and with a full understanding of the entire system. Flicking a breaker back on when your buddy has his hand in the back of another distro will make you either unpopular or a criminal or both.

Isolators – A switch that simply isolates the power. Maybe a big, single red switch on a dist board or a separate box with a toilet flush handle, the isolator is used to shut off power to a panel when performing maintenance on the installed system. The isolator is not like an MCB or RCD, it doesn’t go off of it’s own freewill.

It is worth knowing that some electrical installation boxes have some form of isolator that activates when the front panel is disturbed or door is opened, particularly ones that have live terminals inside. If you are still reading this article, obviously you wouldn’t be poking around in such a box but mysterious power outages have been solved by banging on a worn isolator door to shut it properly.

RCD’s – RCD’s on a panel or distro box are often different to the majority of other switches in appearance. They usually have writing on them that give details of the tripping current such as 30mA or 0.003A and have a Test (T) button. If a RCD can’t be reset, it’s likely that you will need to unplug all equipment downstream before fault finding.

MCB’s – MCB’s usually make up the majority of switches on a board and provide an isolator to the circuit as well as overload protection. Usually marked up with their type letter and their maximum power rating in Amps such as C16 – a C type rated at 16 Amps. 3 Phase MCB’s look like a line of 3 switches with their handles joined together and are again marked with their type and rating.

Temporary Stage Power System Basics

When designing a stage power system, you essentially have the same elements as the building supply we talked about at the start:

Incoming Supply – From the venue, a facility panel with one or more sockets. These sockets might have their own isolator switches, RCD’s or overload protection near them but they could also be upstream and the dist board supplying the outlet. It’s good to find out where this is before you need it.

Main Distro Box – Often receives a large 3 phase supply and splits it down into smaller outlets either 3 or 1 Phase. Each outlet has it’s own MCB protection and the whole box may have some form of RCD. The RCD on a Main Distro box might have a key switch to disable it – this is for situations where you have adequate RCD protection downstream of the box and wish to eliminate the chance of a whole supply outage. The switch isn’t to be used just coz you have earth problems with the kit and the supply keeps popping out.

Sub Distros – Further down stream, you might have small supplies feeding other distribution boxes for a load of moving light supplies, dimmer feeds and power for other departments such as sound or rigging. What each department requires is very much where the system design starts (with regard to how much total power is available at the incomer too, of course).

Individual Feeds – Dimmer outlets, cables to moving lights, sockets for the band etc. This is where the user meets the juice.

The End Result

A stage electrics system is just like any other power distribution. It starts with a very large supply and cascades it down through various types of protection until it arrives where it is needed via a much smaller socket.

Using specifically designed distro kit with competence, creating a safe and reliable power system doesn’t have to be hard. Getting a rock solid incomer in certain parts of the world can be tough and getting a decent earth in the desert even harder – but that’s another story.

Electricity should be taken seriously. Stay safe.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Readers of On Stage Lighting regularly get in touch, via the comments or Facebook or Twitter, to ask their stage lighting related questions. Many of these questions start with “How Do I…?” or “How To..?” so here’s some of the more common ones, together with some quick answers and other stage lighting resources that could help you.

• How do I light a Stage?
• How to do lighting..? / How to design lighting for…?
• How much lighting do I need…?
• How do I work out how much power I need for lighting?
• How do I connect up a lighting system?
• How do I control lighting using my laptop / PC ?
• How do I persuade my school drama teacher to buy some moving lights?
• How do I get a job in stage lighting?

If you have any “How do I…?” questions, put them in the comments box below. We are planning on adding to this article as more stage lighting FAQ come up – you might even have some better answers for other readers. Also, if you find any other good online resources we haven’t mentioned, let us know.

How do I light a Stage?

The real answer, of course, is “How ever you like!” – there isn’t a mystical scroll containing “The Rules of Lighting Designe”. But that’s not what were talking about. When asking “How to light a Stage?” people are trying to find accepted principles and practices that are a good starting point to lighting a stage successfully.

Lighting a stage for visibility (surely the lighting designer’s primary purpose), there is a method that can be adapted upon to fit your own situation. The basic principle is to divide your stage into areas and light each area using a number of lighting fixtures. The edges of these areas are blended together to try to achieve a seamless, controllable light across the stage. Each area can have lighting from different angles – front light, side light, backlight etc. – for good visibility from the audiences view and to add clarity to the form of actors and other stage elements such as scenery.

Rules of thumb about these lighting angles is sometimes known as the McCandless method (after Stanley McCandless, author of a book outlining it). Two front lights (per area) from an angle of 45 degrees from horizontal, 45 degrees either side of centre from in front of the stage. These are traditionally coloured in a warm gel from one side, cool from the other, to allow mixing of either a warm or cool “keylight” with the opposite angle filling in. These front lights, together with a steeper back light from behind, do give a pleasing light on stage. Each area being individually controlled, we can highlight certain areas of the stage depending on the action.

Most stage lighting design books have a section explaining the use of these methods. Rules of thumb, rather than laws of physics, they provide a good starting point on “How to light a Stage?”.

• Books On Stage Lighting
• Lighting Intro
• Choosing Spotlights
• Guide to Backlight

How to do lighting ….? / How to design lighting?

This kind of question ranges from “how do I do lighting for a band?” to “How to design lighting in a…?”. Like lighting a stage, there are no rules to how you go about “doing the lighting”. Starting points are:

• A lighting system you have or budget to hire one.
• Places we can put lighting equipment. Rigging options.
• How much power is available. (I’ve only done few lighting designs that didn’t need mains power)
• Things that we need to light on stage so the audience can see.
• Fluffy design stuff like mood, atmosphere, time of day etc.

There are plenty of resources online which have the answer to specific “How to do lighting…?” questions. These include:

• Blue Room Lighting FAQ’s – Including links to useful threads that have covered common stage lighting questions.
• Stage Lighting Primer – The basics of stage lighting and design in an easy to digest format. We also have review of Stage Lighting 101 – Bill William’s more comprehensive writing on lighting design.
  Your First Lighting Design – A Crash Course
• Stage Lighting Books – Some really good books on lighting reviewed

.

How much lighting do I need for…?

Working out how much lighting you need for a particular task gets easier with experience. Starting out, you need to work out:

• How big an area needs to be lit.
• How far from the stage your lights will be.
• How much control do you need over different lighting elements.

Once this has been worked out, you can calculate how much lighting you need. A large area, lit from a long distance needs high powered, narrow angle fixtures (2000W is a standard high powered fixtures used in large venues). Conversely, an area lit from a short distance such as 3 metres might require a good number of wide angle, low powered lights (300w – 500w) to give a good coverage.

Of course, once you have worked out what you need, you still have the thorny issue of how much you can afford and how much electrical power is available. See:

• Stage Lighting Systems – A beginner’s guide to the basics of a stage lighting system.
• Blue Room Equipment FAQs – A host of related threads on choosing equipment
• Beam Angle Calculator – A simple bit of Javascript that works out the beam angle required, based on throw distance and area diameter.

How do I work out how much power do I need for stage lighting?

This ones easy. The physics is Electrical Theory – Power Law and is based on a simple equations to help you work out how much power is required. Knowing your available power source in Ampheres / Amps (A or I in the equation) plus the known voltage in your venue (volts / V), you can work out the maximum power (P) available in Watts – I (amps) x V (volts) = P (watts). You can also reverse the equation, knowing two of the paramaters.

• A handy electrical power calculator
• Power law explained at Wikipedia

How do I connect up a lighting system?

Any lighting control system, inlcuding DMX512, has different elements that work together to process the signal. Using the correctly rated cables to connect up a DMX lighting system is a matter of understanding DMX and how it talks to lighting equipment:

• Guide to DMX basics
• Basic Lighting System Reference
• Quick Reference for DMX cabling
• 
  Fault Finding DMX
• Book on DMX control systems

How do I control lighting using my laptop or PC?

This question has been very popular in the last few years. Using a laptop or PC, a DMX USB dongle and some lighting control software you can put your computing power to good use and control a lighting system. Although not the same as a dedicated console, PC lighting control software can be FREE and the hardware used to output DMX is inexpensive. If you are willing to trust your show to a laptop, we have some useful links for you:

• PC Lighting Control Software
• Cham Sys MagicQ PC – Free Software available from Cham Sys
• DMX USB Dongle from Enttec
• Stage Lighting Software for the iPhone

How do I persuade my School Drama Teacher to buy some moving lights?

This is question is far too common. The question should be “Does my school need to buy some moving lights?”. The subject has been covered many times, here is some good reading on the question of moving lights and their uses in small venues:

• 
  Should I buy Intelligent or Conventional Lighting?
• Blue Room threads on “What lighting equipment should I buy?”
• Small Show Lighting Design using Moving Lights

How to I get a job in Stage Lighting?

There are many people in the business who would question whether you really want a job in lighting at the moment (See Boom and Bust in the Lighting Business) but no matter. The entertainment industry always seems to have plenty of hopeful talent trying to make their way in. Today there a number of options to getting a job in the stage lighting business – formal education, work experience, working your way up from the bottom. The subject of which was the best education to get a real job was covered in our serious of interviews with major stage lighting employers:

• Getting a job in Theatre Lighting
• Becoming a Lighting Designer
• Getting into Production Lighting
• Working in the Lighting Hire Business
• And finally, the round up : What Education Do I Need to Get a Job in Lighting

Some other related links on jobs in stage lighting:

• The Best Way to Learn Stage Lighting
• StagejobsPro Backstage recruitment wesbite.
• The Stage – Industry newspaper with jobs that advertises jobs.
• Careers Advice on stage lighting technician jobs
• Freelance Lighting Technician – The Inside Story
• Blue Room Job Board – Opportunities to get work experience often come up here, as many of the advertisers are struggling shows with small budgets.

That’s about it for the moment. Don’t forget, we are going to be adding more stage lighting FAQ to this page. Put your “How Do I…? or “How To…? in the comments box below. Or you could get in touch via Facebook or Twitter.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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• Theatre Electrician- Stage Lighting Education I
• Freelance Stage Lighting Technician – The Inside Story
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The comprehensive DMX book “Recommended Practice for DMX 512: A guide for users and installers” (phew) by Adam Bennette has been updated. On Stage Lighting looks at the new edition plus some other DMX books.

Updated DMX stuff

On 2nd edition of his book on DMX, the author Adam Bennette is quoted

“Users who only require a simple DMX system, without any of the new features, may still use the original advice in the first edition of this booklet if they wish. However, systems set up in that way may not be upgradeable in the future. “

What’s that all about? Since the original specifications of DMX512 and DMX512-A there has been some development. Remote Device Management (RDM) is a system that allows the lighting user to control things like fixture settings remotely from a console or other device. The control is sent using the existing cores of a DMX cable, but the “hubs” of DMX equipment need to be able to cope with bi directional communication. Many new DMX fixtures, splitters and consoles are compatible with RDM to enable future expansion. So basically, some new stuff that may eventually filter down the stage lighting tree.

If you are keen to find out about the latest DMX practices from this book, you can buy it from PLASA in the UK (following the LSI bookshop link) or USITT in the US. If you aren’t quite ready for that and just want to get the basics, read on.

Are there any other books about DMX?

Modern books on stage lighting cover the basics of DMX stage lighting control. You can read the important stuff in our DMX Stage Lighting… article. There are a few books available that cover lighting control systems and DMX more extensively.

Control Systems for Live Entertainment ( Focal Press) by John Huntingdon

An extensive book with a fairly high brow explanation of control systems, the use of standards plus DMX, AMX, RDM and other protocols. If you are serious control system boffin, this book is for you – if you just need to know which end of a 5 Pin XLR shoots the juice, probably not.Also available in the US at Amazon.com

Practical DMX (ET Press) by Nick Mobsby

This DMX book includes a bit of lighting control history, DMX system equipment and set up plus some information on networks, ethernet and the future. The book is an easily read introduction to DMX for the beginner with enough scope to be of interest to you if you already know a little bit about lighting control systems. 4 stars at Amazon.Also available in the US at Amazon.com

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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In a series of interviews, On Stage Lighting spoke to four industry professionals about getting a first job in the lighting business. This article considers the results and what to think about when choosing your stage lighting education.

If you missed the interviews, they were: Stage Lighting Education – Theatre Electrician…, Production Lighting…, Lighting Designer…, Hire Company…

Our experts gave us an peek into the minds of potential employers and how they pick new talent in their own industry areas. While expressing their views differently, some common themes emerged. These are important if you are looking to give yourself the best chance of a career in professional stage lighting.

Our employers highlighted what is important to them when looking for new members of their lighting team. Only you can decide what stage lighting course, work experience or personal development is best for you.

Formal lighting training isn’t everything.

Although our experts thought highly of good quality stage lighting courses, industry qualifications and practical training, no one said:

“If you don’t come to us with a certificate in X, we won’t give you a job!”

What they are looking for is a demonstration of the ability to commit to learning, however displayed. Modern employers are happy to you provide high quality training, but can’t afford to spend money on time wasters.

Our experts also were keen on “the right person” – personality, attitude etc, regardless of the wheelbarrow of training certificates you heaved into your job interview.

Relevant Experience

Relevant experience, in stage lighting, theatrecraft or performing arts is important to stage lighting employers. You don’t need to know every moving light, how to program the Grand MA or write your own Fixture Personalities for fun (who does that?). Relevant experience just means an understanding of shows, the hours and ethos of working backstage. School shows, Am Dram productions, lighting local bands – anything.

If you can get your experience in a professional environment like a local theatre, even better. This method of getting stage lighting experience is still possible, although it might seem difficult.

(There is concern among budding “lampies” about being to get good experience at a young age, on grounds of insurance and safety legislation. On Stage Lighting has an article in the pipeline that deals with young people, employers and H&S at work or school.)

A wide range of experience.

All our stage lighting employers told us that a wide experience of all aspects of technical production was preferred. It is good to understand all departments, their roles and difficulties, in order to work effectively as a production team. Broad, technical stage management courses are still popular with lighting employers. There are lots of ways to learn specific stage lighting skills.

So, think carefully before doing that MA in Gel Apportionment (That’s cutting colour, y’know).

Having a degree does not make you a Lighting Designer

The subject of graduate expectation came up with our stage lighting employers. It is also a subject which is talked about by old lags in the lighting business (me included). Having spent a few years and a lot of hard earned cash of becoming a “qualified” Lighting Designer, you might expect to be able to burst into the stage lighting business – your name in lights in the West End. It may be disappointing to find out that your qualifications do not give you an instant pedigree as an LD or other senior position, ready to take over the world aged 25.

Becoming a senior lighting professional is more than doing a few school shows, going on an expensive course and then waiting for the offers to roll in. But then you probably already knew that.

The Usual

The Careers Officer advice about personal presentation, attitude and punctuality seems pretty boring coming from a middle aged woman in a beige jumper, but our all our stage lighting employers cited these factors. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a job in stage lighting or nuclear physics – employers want this stuff.

The Answer?

If you have read this series so far, hoping to find the definitive answer to “What is the best stage lighting education for me to get a job?” – Sorry. This information should help you find about your own career path and give you some ideas on how to start your own stage lighting journey in education.

Good luck for the future. And don’t forget to keep in touch with On Stage Lighting when you are a superstar LD like Durham Marenghi.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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This part of our series finds out what the Managing Director of a large Lighting Hire business considers essential in any stage lighting education.

Think of big names in the UK lighting hire business and White Light is on the list. Originally serving West End theatres, White Light now has a portfolio that includes No. 1 touring shows, corporate clients and international events. Bryan Raven, as MD, is enthusiastic about the lighting technicians of the future and gives us his thoughts on a good stage lighting education, from a hire company point of view.

What is the most important thing that you look for when deciding to employ a newcomer into the lighting business? And how do your measure it?

BR: A company such as White Light is often looking for slightly different people to the normal lighting technicians. We need staff to have a more commercial aptitude as well an acceptance that they will always be “one step removed” from the frontline. Some people enjoy that element, others much prefer to be at the sharp end and actually “doing” shows.
We say to prospective staff, “turn up on time, work hard and care about doing a good job” and the we will do the rest – making sure you have the right skills, tools and time.

There is a growing emphasis on provable training and skills – the business is becoming more “professional”. Do you think that the “old” ways of getting into the business (like helping out at your local theatre) will become impossible or obsolete?

BR: Not from our point of view at White Light. We have specifically targeted the amateur dramatic companies for recruitment in the past and will do so again. Someone who has a background in sales and does the lighting at their local am dram could be perfect for our sales office .

Stage lighting has more degrees courses and specialist training focusing on particular areas like moving light programming or lighting design. Do you think that these courses serve a real demand for graduates?

BR: I am not convinced they are the best way forward but equally there are no longer as many jobs in the industry that give you a chance to “learn on the job”. There are less crew in every venue than before so you can’t really afford to have a “trainee” filling one of those positions.
In many ways I would prefer to see more opportunity (with a reciprocal willingness from the technicians) for training “mid career” where people can learn more skills once they have been out in the industry for a while.

What would be your ideal education for new lighting technicians, to gain good experience and qualifications before coming to you for a job?

BR: Obviously it depends on the job, but our belief is that the qualification is less important than the person. A basic understanding of “the show must go on” and that deadlines are “real” are key elements.
We take on a lot of drama school graduates who come with a basic grounding in most aspects of the business but one of the issues with them is that they are all in such a hurry to be “lighting designers” or “production managers” by the time they are 25.

Thanks Bryan. That’s really given us something to think about.

Next…

In the final part of this series about employers views on stage lighting education, we will pull together some of the answers from our experts and draw some conclusions. What qualifications do you really need to start in professional stage lighting? And how important is formal education to an employer?

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

You May Also Like:

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The third part of our series about stage lighting education finds out what a top UK lighting designer thinks is important before starting out in the lighting business.

Durham Marenghi is a top flight international Lighting Designer. The only Bristish LD to light an Olympic event, Durham is behind many theatre shows and high profile spectaculars – he recently lit the Royal Opening of St Pancras Station. As a successful freelance LD, Durham understands the importance of both professional training and personality when it come to getting work in the stage lighting world . He also has extremely high standards, not least when choosing his own lighting team.

What is the most important thing that you look for when deciding to employ a newcomer into the lighting business? And how do your measure it?

DM: Calm approach, a sense of humour and a very professional attitude. Technical skills and attention to detail are important for technicians. A pride in your work and your appearance too.

There is a growing emphasis on provable training and skills – the business is becoming more “professional”. Do you think that the “old” ways of getting into the business (like helping out at your local theatre) will become impossible or obsolete?

DM: Qualifications in all areas of professional life are becoming fundamental to getting work. A good degree plus relevant experience on your CV will be the best route into the industry.

Stage lighting has more degrees courses and specialist training focusing on particular areas like moving light programming or lighting design. Do you think that these courses serve a real demand for graduates?

DM:Lighting professionals need to know every aspect of their art. They also must have an understanding of many other associated disciplines, such as sound, carpentry and rigging.

What would be your ideal education for new lighting technicians, to gain good experience and qualifications before coming to you for a job?

DM: A 50/50 mix of a good degree course and actual experience in the industry. This should start from the bottom rung of the electrics department so that the absolute basics are not skipped.

Thanks to Durham for taking the time to speak to us.

Next…

Stage lighting hire is big business and the companies that provide rental equipment for shows employ and train hundreds of staff per year. Working within a large rental company can give a beginner plenty of opportunities to learn, get training and work with some of the latest lighting equipment.
Next up in this series we hear from the MD of one of the UK’s famous names of lighting hire and find out his ideal stage lighting education.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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