Savannah Lighting

Quick guide to the Lightboard

Startup and Shutdown

Update: use SHOWML31.ASC rather than Show01.

LightBoard Wall Jack

Plug the 5-pin cable into the DMX-1 jack on the lightboard, the other end plugs into the single 5-pin jack ( green arrow) on the wall near stage left.

Do not use any of the grouped jacks (crossed out in red).

Pre Defined Scenes (subject to change).

IND - 1 is programmed: DMX Channels 1-96 (except 19, 20 and 22), Universe 1, ON sends 255, OFF sends 0, LATCH mode, Independent of Grand Master.

This is a master power switch for all the stage LED fixtures. It must be ON to operate any of the stage lights.

After turning this ON, give the fixtures several seconds to initialize before proceeding.

IND - 2 is programmed: DMX Channel 164, Universe 1, ON sends 255, OFF sends 0, LATCH mode, Independent of Grand Master.

This turns on the small low wall security lights.

Manual Control of Savannah lighting

House Lights

Upon entry into the auditorium from the main entrance, there is a switch box (no pins in the lock, any key will open it). There are 4 preset lighting levels buttons and an off button. The off button (red arrow) needs to be pressed before you try to operate the lights from the lightboard. After you are done with the lightboard and all lights are off press one of the preset buttons ( green arrow ) to get the house lights back on.

Fluorescent Stage Lights

The fluorescent stage lights are controlled by the left side (marked by blue arrow) switch in the double switch box near the stage left rear entrance. The right side ( marked by brown arrow) controls the fluorescent light on the wall near down stage left. The fluorescent stage lights can also be controlled by the right side  (when heading up the stairs) wall switch in the house right stairwell. The switch on the left  wall control the lights within the stairwell.

Rear Stage Control Switch

The bright LED work lights are controlled by a switch located by the stage right rear exit. The upper (red) button turns these lights on and off. The lower (green) button turns almost all of the stage lights on and off, this is useful for rehearsals when you don't want to get the lightboard out just to have some stage lights. This switch takes a few seconds to work. Press it, release, and wait at least 5 seconds.

Balcony Stairs Footlights 

The balcony stairs footlights are controlled by a switch inside the chair & table storage closet, accessible
from the hall that runs parallel to the right of the house.

Detailed Technical Stuff

The DMX circuits are configured first through the dimmer controller. It controls the AC power to all the house lights and to the power power sockets that the LED fixtures are plugged into as well as the various floor and wall practical outlets. Normally addresses 1-96 (except 19, 20 and 22) must be turned on at 100% to supply power to all the LED fixtures before they can be controlled (color and brightness) by their assigned DMX  (different than their power address) address. See attached spreadsheet file if you really want to know more details about the dimmer circuits assignments.

After the fixtures are powered up they can be addressed two ways. The most basic is to send a level (0-255) to the device's DMX address for that function. Fox example sending 255 to address 171 will turn on the RED LEDs off one of the house bar fixtures. Address 172 (173) will turn on the GREEN (BLUE) LEDs. Some fixtures have as many as 7 different addresses to control 7 different LED colors. Some fixtures have an intensity (INT) address also that controls the overall brightness of all colors. As the lightboard has only 72 individual channels for the operator to control, several fixtures' addresses have been mapped to each channel. For example, all the RED (GREEN, BLUE) addresses for all the house bar fixtures have been mapped to a single channel. Thus with 3 channels all the house bar fixtures can be set to any color, but all these fixtures display the same color. Control file SHOWML31.ASC controls all the fixtures in this way.

To get colors other than red, green, or blue, just turn on more than one color at the same time. Thus for yellow turn on red and green. To get white turn on all three. Use the color wheel has guide.

Another way to address the fixtures is to consider each one as a device. The SmartFade ML board can control up to 24 devices. In control file SHOWML30.ASC the 1st and 2nd stage bars have their fixtures assigned as devices. The board takes control off all DMX addresses associated with each of these fixtures. This allows colors to be set independently for each fixture by simply adjusting the HUE control of the device. As all the LEDs of a fixture are used, not just the Red, Green, and Blue, the total light output is brighter for fixtures with more than three colors of LEDs. Also by defining fixtures as devices the lightboard's Color Effects feature may be used to easily set up a free running lighting pattern.

See attached spreadsheet file if you really want to know more details about LED addresses of each fixture. The attached pdf file is a quick reference to all the fixtures' DMX assignments and Device assignments.

Practical Circuits

DMX addresses 97 through 120 control 120VAC sockets (with the same number)  that appear in various wall and floor boxes around the stage. These can be used to control electrical equipment (usually prop lights and/or fans) on stage from the lightboard. These are often referred to as practical circuits. These have not all been tested recently. A somewhat unusual plug (available at big box hardware stores) to connect to these sockets.