Dimmer recomendations

Shane Presley

Shane Presley

Senior
Jan 12, 2011
909
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.bssproductions.com
HI Gang - I'm doing my research now as I am probably going to have to purchase some dimming. I currenty have a 48 K rack of behringer dimmers (24K of it ''ghosts'') so I have to find out why that is. Due to this issue I am not going to trust these to use in my rig, and will probably flee bay them shortly...

My criteria is as follows.
- 90% of the time I get single phase sources. so it has to be able to run on single and three phase...
- must be 2.4 per channel
- must be able to handle 1K pars for a 8 hour full on period.
- dmx
- socapex outputs

Does anyone have any brand preferance, and or experience.

I'm leaning towards the sensor stuff becuase there is alot in town, and would allow for cross-rentability, but I'm also impresssed with the VX leprechon. Any other brands worth mentioning...

thanks
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

If you can find Strand Light Racks, they're worth considering.

If you don't mind building up a rack from rackmount units, the Leprecon and Electrol units are reasonably solid.

Disclaimer - I work for Philips, who also owns Strand Lighting. I don't work for the Strand division, though.
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

The Sensor stuff is my prefered dimmer. I have also rented VX racks a few times and they seem to be decent and I'm pretty sure they are cheaper. Also from ETC is the SmartPack Touring Racks. You can get those in a 4x6x2.4k configuration as well as a bunch of other options. I have rented the 24x1.2k racks and I would happily do it again. They are also much more affordable than the Sensor racks.
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

Consider Applied Electronics, and have them wire up the Soca so it jives with the rest of the world) or Leprecon. Due to the invasion of LED fixtures, there is a bunch of dimming starting to show up on the used markets like LightBroker.com (the squint side of SoundBroker). We still have 240k of conventionals and are slowly selling them off, we've liquidated a bunch of our old dimming already. We kept our Leprecon touring racks and our ETC racks.
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

Shane Presley said:
HI Gang - I'm doing my research now as I am probably going to have to purchase some dimming. I currenty have a 48 K rack of behringer dimmers (24K of it ''ghosts'') so I have to find out why that is. Due to this issue I am not going to trust these to use in my rig, and will probably flee bay them shortly...

My criteria is as follows.
- 90% of the time I get single phase sources. so it has to be able to run on single and three phase...
- must be 2.4 per channel
- must be able to handle 1K pars for a 8 hour full on period.
- dmx
- socapex outputs

Does anyone have any brand preferance, and or experience.

I'm leaning towards the sensor stuff becuase there is alot in town, and would allow for cross-rentability, but I'm also impresssed with the VX leprechon. Any other brands worth mentioning...

thanks
Click to expand...

I am not sure but I don't think the ETC dimmer racks do single and three phase.

However the Leprecon Touring racks as well as some of their dimmers have this built in.
Some of the Electrol racks also have this

We use and own several Leprecon racks with the single/three phase breaker switch.
It works very well

db
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

Dan Brown said:
I am not sure but I don't think the ETC dimmer racks do single and three phase.

However the Leprecon Touring racks as well as some of their dimmers have this built in.
Some of the Electrol racks also have this

We use and own several Leprecon racks with the single/three phase breaker switch.
It works very well

db
Click to expand...

Hey Dan,
I'll have to check next time I am up there, but I know one of our local community theaters that only has single phase service just got a small sensor rack like the one in the picture I posted. I think they said it was switchable but I'm not sure what's involved.
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

Matthew Haber said:
Both Sensor Portable Packs and SmartPack Touring Systems are definitely 100% switchable. This message brought to you by the magic of readily available manufacturer datasheets.

http://www.etcconnect.com/docs/docs_downloads/datashts/SmartPack_Touring_vB.pdf
http://www.etcconnect.com/docs/docs_downloads/datashts/7152L1007_SR__Portable_Packs_Spec_Sht_vD.pdf
Click to expand...

Except that I'm reasonably sure that switching a Sensor rack from 3-phase to single phase involves some internal rewiring.

See: http://www.etcconnect.com/Community/wikis/products/sensor-sensor-touring-racks-packs.aspx
 
Re: DIMMER RECOMENDATIONS

David Karol said:
Also, if going the Sensor route, make sure to always stock a spare CEM.
Click to expand...

+100
they don't die often, but when they do, they die completely.
ETC support is great however, and you will have a new CEM the next day. But that won't help you in the middle of a show.
I have used the sensor racks both portable and one at a venue that is the installed type. I had the smartpack touring system once and would not mind seeing it again.
If you can afford it, go with sensor or smartpack. If not, the leprecon stuff is good. I have had more VX racks from rental houses than I can count and they work well generally, I've never really had problems
 
Re: Dimmer recomendations

Shane Presley said:
Does anyone have any brand preferance, and or experience.
Click to expand...

We have Lightronics dimming systems, and have been very pleased with them. We've got old Lightronics dimmer packs from 20 years ago that are still functional - if you can find an LMX controller to feed them with.

The new stuff has been equally robust, and at a reasonable price. You can get them with fuses or with dimmers, with dip switches or with LCD screens, with Edisons, Soco, terminals, or stagepin. It's nice having the options!

As for single phase.. when we run single phase, we just don't use a third of our dimmers. :p I don't see a lot of high current single phase around here, so we wouldn't be able to load it all up on two hot legs anyway.
 
Top Bottom