Ah' but a single parcan is only going to give one color and light in one area as per a PAR can. A strip light is a completely different animal. For a wall of light the PAR will do a good job given projection distance. This very much does depend upon projection distance also - the strip light being the king of short throw washes in covering a large area in an even wash of light. For overhead wash of light covering the stage, even a lot of PAR fixtures would both leave a lot of holes as an overhead light and not have the "feel" of a strip or cyc wash. Grounding a fixture is easy, it's a question of the wiring feeding it once that's done. This wiring might need to be replaced given inspection and it's no longer permissible to attach an outside grounding conductor to a cable. The grid also needs to be grounded by todays's standards, and could be a solution.
On the other hand, and your point of man-hours is very valid, especially if they require re-wiring due in part to extra personal safety precautions that will be necessary. American DJ does sell some cyc lights that are extrememly cheap in cost and would also fit premis of a wash of light as an alternative to the strip lights - especially if you went with 375w HIR lamps. Will such fixtures last as long as these obviously did, or will they fall apart given it's ADJ' is the main question verses labor. They would at least be lighter in weight - me expecting these are some 20' long strip lights that take an entire crew to move and are a true meaning of dead hang. Colortran, Stand, Altman and L&E, ETC amongst others make better or at least more dependable products.
Still for the purpose of the space, given a lot of supplemental lighting, it would be a shame to just toss out the strip lights. They are simple and provide a lot of use.
On the dimmers, these dimmers at least in part have lasted 51 years and still work to a certain extent. With some care and parts, one might expect at least 3/4s of them at least could work again without much effort. Low end dimmers are uusually lucky to last ten years and require the same constant maintinence. Plus part of being economical is in being low amperage normally 10 amp in rating. In other words, given three banks of 20' strip lights 6" on center with four circuits and at least 150w lamps, that's 2,250w per dimmer on four dimmers. This would necessitate a 2.4Kw dimmer package for the overheads. At very least a NSI system if not one better known for their dimmers. This being a school system install, name brands and reliability are much better to be using and that means money.
Yes, I would in the long run replace the dimmers and provide a simple light board, (think of the floor space you would open up) but for a band concert, where the levels are pre-set and someone just needs to turn an all be it large knob, such a system could be made to work for now in a cost effective way.
The strip lights I might save given their purpose has not changed, even consider chopping them up into 6' sections to make it easier to move them should the space be used for other things and you need the light pipes, but the dimmers that labor and parts - plus safety should be balanced against the cost of a completely new system as an immediate verses long term goal. As long as the equipment is safe to be using, it does not really matter how ancient it is - especially if it's simple enought to use. Think junior high school - twisting a large knob verses what might happen if the same student had to program cues at the last minute. For the upgraded system, I would go with an architectural based system with preset cues and various panels around the space for easy cue setting and activation, much less perminant easy to use light levels available to press go by way of both teacher and student. This would be a lot of money to be budgeted for. If you expect your school system to eventually invest in a theater program in the space, you might coordinate the architectural system with a DMX one for direct control by way of light board in the future. A little more money, but certainly worth it. Until such a time, the more simple and easy to use you can make it, the better the job you will have done given inadiquate supervision and training otherwise. Buying some dimmers and light board and plopping them into the space would be counter productive if you are the only one able to use them to effect and that's not your primary job.
Strip lights depending upon how bad they are could go or stay, but the control of the system I would were I there, prefer to stay simple to use than very expensive to install modern but also easy to use. A few cues to program a few looks with, a few pre-sets beyond that, all accessable thru wall panels spread around the theater. Until such thing is in the budget, if the current system can be made to function sufficiently and safely, why not keep using it? If 50 some odd years ago it was able to do it's task, why would it not be today much less another 50 years from now?
Once the dimmers are replaced as probably advisable for an architecturally based - not necessarially theater based control system, I would ensure at least some of the dimmers made their way along with pictures to the college that's the theater lighting museum I forget the name to, or at least some of them made their way to the high school along with various exempilary parts as visual museum of how it used to be done. This is education the students necessary to pass on to them.
In the long run I expect it's very much a question of just how much time and cost it will take to bring the system up to at least 1950's standards supplemented by what's necessary to have for compliance today verses budget to improve and upgrade it to something just as easy to use but very expensive. This in addition to front lighting and specials that by today's standards will be necessary and add ever so much to the concept to the space.
The floor pocket I might disconnect for now and just seal up and leave in place without any work. It's value is marginal if on a budget. Best not to mess with it for now I expect. Later, might be an interesting project and that's also the key to doing all of this - as a project for you in gaining a theater space with such a feature usable at times per your design or need, plus your own development. Front curtin lighting a good option otherwise to service the floor pocket with the rest of the lights. Still it can probably wait a while given front lights will be able to at least do something.
Can't wait for the pictures.
Author
Topic: Old auto-former lighting system (Read 4799 times)