"In the old days, we would have fed a DMX line into the floor and then up into the truck," commented Johanna Town, the Royal Court's head of lighting. "However, having seen City Theatrical's Wireless Data System at the PLASA Show I wanted to give it a go!"
Town contacted White Light - City Theatrical dealer and it supplied a system consisting of a WDS Transmitter and a WDS Receiver.
"We have created wireless systems in a number of ways for previous productions," comments Dave Isherwood, White Light's hire and technical director, "sometimes using industry-standard 'WiFi' wireless Ethernet products to send network DMX such as ArtNet or Strand's ShowNet to trucks.
The advantage of the City Theatrical System is that it uses standard DMX. You feed DMX into the transmitter, and get DMX out of the receiver, which can be run from 12V DC power to then connect to dimmers or moving lights as needed. If the entire system needs to be battery powered, it can be connected to one of City Theatrical's 12VDC DMX-controlled dimmers."
Needing multiple dimmers, the Royal Court team used a standard dimmer rack fed from a mains feed in the floor. "The receiver then sat in a wooden box jammed behind the dimmer rack in the back of the truck which is, of course, all metal," Town explains. "We put the transmitter in the rig, directly above the truck, fed from one of our DMX outlets... it worked first time, and has given us no problems, which is fantastic."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
