| Repertory theatre - presents many different productions and therefore holds many lighting rehearsals. A suitable
control board
should save a great deal of time in plotting the lighting during rehearsal. Such a board controls a large number of control channels, and has a color monitor to facilitate the representation of complex information. Working methods in the repertory theatre require that the lighting should be controlled from the
lighting booth
as well as from the stage. Control from the
stage
enables efficient focusing in the interim period between shows. |
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| The Compulite Vector Red. | |
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| Rock and Roll - these control boards have many faders , each of which controls a dimmer or group of dimmers. The switching of dimmers to the faders is recorded as a "page". These boards also contain a wide variety of effects. A
rock board
should include a MIDI
interface
which allows the music to be coordinated with the lighting changes. A MIDI
interface
allows communication with
MIDI
compatible sound equipment. A
MIDI
signal from the sound system can be used to activate lighting cues which have been set during lighting rehearsals. State-of-the-art boards for rock and roll enable control of moving lights and manual intervention to control the intensity of the different channels. |
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| The Celco Gold has 180 manual channel controls. |
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| Touring house - Touring houses have to satisfy the different needs of a variety of shows and events, usually with little
lighting rehearsal
time, if any. Therefore combination control boards are used, which permit manual as well as computerized operation. Some advanced small houses enable control of intelligent luminaires. |
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| Vector Blue by Compulite | |
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| A small touring company - when touring a small company may wish to carry their entire lighting system, including their
lighting control
board. This makes adapting the lighting plot to a new venue a simple matter of adjusting a few levels rather than re-plotting the whole show into the house board. These boards are designed mainly for running a show rather than for plotting the lighting. Complex plotting routines are therefore omitted. Some of these boards also control intelligent luminaires. |
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| Vector Orange by Compulite |
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| The Compulite Spark, a compact combination of a manual and
moving light
computerized lighting board. | |
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| Discotheques - a small discotheque may use a small portable theatrical manual board, which allows
MIDI
communication with other technical systems: a sound system, a
chaser
system, strobes and similar effects unique to disco. Larger discotheques use computerized boards operated by a menu, which enables connection of all the smaller control boards to a central lighting board. Keys (often touch keys) are the main tool for control of complex routines. The board displays all the connected systems and any cues executed by them as well as the lighting cues. |
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| The Compulite Photon, a compact combination of a manual and computerized lighting board. | |
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| Son-et-Lumiere and theme parks - In these cases, the lighting
computer board
may be connected to the sound system, and be operated by commands recorded on a dedicated channel on the show tape. Today this mode of control has been replaced by more advanced data storing medium such as
laser
discs and the CD-ROM. Virtual computer memory has also become a viable possibility and many such shows are run directly off computers which store all the sound and video data of the show. The control computer will also
cue
in the
lighting board
using DMX 512 communication protocol, or
MIDI
if the board has
MIDI
interface. |
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