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Reply to "House lighting"

Just a bit of advice:

At nearly any venue I've been in, assuming I am allowed to touch the house lights(and I prefer to have a house guy do that), it has ranged from flipping breakers off, banks of simple wall switches and/or dimmers or some sort of multi-panel/multi-location lghting control. At no time did the sound or light people touch house lights at least during a show. We had a house guy on clear com told to bring lights up/down.

So, my suggestion to you is that if you want the sound/light people to have control over houes lights, you have 2 options(and further options from there). If you can install a bank of wall switches or dimmers near where they are, that's a big help and might be the best option. If you want people to be hands off, put the switches in a little wall mounted cabinet. It's amazing what a wooden door can do to prevent curious hands from gaining access. The multiple panel systems with computer control are nice, but can be expensive and budget might be better used somewhere else.

Since you're in a fixed location, you've got a lot of options to consider. It does come down to budget. As far as control, do you want hardware or software? I recommend software because you can get way more for your money going that route, especially compared with limitations in low-cost hardware controllers or the big price tags of really good hardware controllers.

Start thinking of everything. Do you want this portable or removable? Fixed? Options? Mounting? How about running DMX cabling through the walls and having convenient access points at good locations? What work can you do on your own? What do you need to outsource?

A word of caution is that this can get expensive fast. If budget is a concern, then try to think in stages. Buy wisely and intelligently so you don't waste money. Think expansion and growth as well.
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