[Build] Lighting

[jim]

   current lighting plans are to keep what's there as 
is, pretty much. 
   there'll be lights over the entrance doors and 
switches by each door. 
   fluorescents will likely be repositioned, regrouped 
and locally switched: 
* over the "dirty workshop" 
* over each classroom 
* over the electronic work benches 
* over the front area 
* over the middle area 
* over the rear, tiled area 



On Wed, 2009-09-09 at 01:13 -0700, Brian Molnar wrote:
> So having finally gotten a chance to come up and see the new digs
> tonight, I was curious to see what the plan was for lighting there.
> Obviously with such a large space, rows of fluorescents seem to be
> most practical, but I read on the wiki that there was interest in
> tasking the large space as a disco as well. If this is the case, this
> space would do well with a centralized/automated lighting system.
> 
> A popular approach, at least in theaters, is to use a DMX system which
> allows for up to 512 separate channels on a single bus. This could
> easily cover work lights, accent lights, and party lights for the
> entire space, with enough room to set up logical blocks of channels
> and allow for expansion.
> 
> The system is relatively cheap and easy to set-up. The control signal
> is sent out from a single master to all the dimmer and relay units via
> a single three-conductor wire (usually an XLR cable) that chains from
> one unit to the next. The dimmers run about 60 dollars for a unit with
> four channels capable of switching up to 15 Amps total. I have one
> seuch dimmer pack that I could donate. And for the controller, I have
> an RS-232 DMX controller, and basic controlling software I wrote, that
> I could also donate.
> 
> The big benefits here are:
> 
> (a) Preset scenes can be programmed to provide lighting to particular
> areas of the space, or to set-up lighting for specific events, like
> projector use or meeting mode.
> 
> (b) If the large room is eventually used as a disco then setting up
> party lighting is as simple as plugging in the extra lights and
> writing a python/ruby/etc script to set-up a lighting program to have
> them flash in patterns, randomly, or if you get more creative, you can
> create scripts to control the lighting to respond to music.
> 
> (c) Intelligence could be added to the software to reduce
> energy-consumption from unnecessary lighting, e.g. using a motion
> sensor to determine if anyone is in a particular area of the space, or
> automatically reducing the lighting output during the daytime hours
> when light splashes in from the windows.
> 
> All-in-all the cost to convert the existing lighting could be quite
> low and future expansions could be done as necessary.
> 
> Something to noodle on.
> 
> Cheers,
> - Brian Molnar
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