[SML] Distributed power, was Leviton Dimming Racks

[Dave Tosti-Lane]

In 2004 we installed distributed dimming (Intelligent Raceway) in a
black box facility - it was a landmarked building (inside and out), so
every cut through a wall had to be approved. 156 channels in raceways
and 30 in 6-dimmer strips that could be plugged in at various
locations in the room.
This was, of course, before LED options were available, so served an
inventory of S4s, 360Qs, fresnels strips, and odds and ends.
The system could be either ethernet or DMX controlled - we opted for
DMX, but in the end wished we'd gone with ethernet because we wound up
needing to install ethernet anyway for obvious reasons.

I'd add a couple of pros and a couple of cons -
Pro - for conventional instruments, there is a large reduction in heat
generated by the system because of the elimination of miles of copper
wire feeding the end circuits. You still need to get the energy to the
instrument, but a smaller number of larger wires feeding the raceways
generated less heat than large numbers of longer smaller wires feeding
the end circuits after the dimmer. This calculation surprised me, and
is significant.
Coupled with that, the elimination of a central dimmer room full of
racks constantly generating heat. Again - you still have the dimmers
generating heat, but distributing them in the room gives you more
exposed space around each, eliminating the need for fans and cooling
systems. In addition to eliminating the heat, you eliminate the noise
generated by the cooling system for the room.

Attached Con - Since the heat is reduced so significantly, your
facilities planners will be likely to reduce the cooling capacity for
the building - in our case, they decided we needed no active cooling,
just heating. They used the money saved on cooling to pay for the
dimmers. BUT - they failed to calculate the heat generated by the
instruments themselves (or failed to listen to our concerns about
that) resulting in a facility that is nearly un-usable in the middle
of summer. (Always remember that when a building install happens, you
will very likely never see another dime for improvements for many
years - you have to get everything you need in that one window of
opportunity)

Pro - easy access to dimmer controls on local modules (assuming you
are in a lift doing a hang or focus)

Con - ANY maintenance or service work on the dimmers most likely must
be done in the active user space of the facility. You cannot service
dimmers while any rehearsal or meeting is happening in the working
space, or put differently, you must reserve potentially large blocks
of time that cannot be revenue-generating in the space for access to
your distributed dimming system for service.

Pro - when all is working, you need less cable in a system.

Con - You are stuck with the manufacturer once you put a system like
this up, and there is a pretty good chance the system will be in the
"great new idea" phase not the "stable proven product" phase of it's
working lifetime.
(just take a look at the "discontinued products" section of any
manufacturer's websites - assuming they bother to provide one)
We loved the system we put up for the first show, and remained in a
honeymoon with it for about the first 6 months, and then the module
failures started to accumulate. By the 2nd year, we had more than 10%
of the modules down at any given time. By the 5th year, that number
approached 20%, the manufacturer had moved on to new designs, and it
was harder and harder to find anyone who was still interested in
solving problems. We engaged in a years-long email and phone
discussion trail including multiple tries at shipping failed modules
back and forth that never really wound up fixing things. So, in the
end, we wound up negating some of the value of the distributed system
because inevitably there would be a concentration of dead modules
exactly where you needed dimmers for a particular show. We moved
modules around to reduce this issue, but that meant adding hours of
time to a load-in.

In the end, I still think that the distributed dimming is a good way
to go - the elimination of the dimmer-room and it's associated heat
and noise is significant, especially when space is limited. But, I
wish we'd had the benefit of living with one for 10 years BEFORE we
sat down to negotiate the details. I suspect that 10 years from now,
people will have similar thoughts about their new LED systems
installed today. (Of course, to be fair, when has it ever been any
different?)

Dave Tosti-Lane

On Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 7:48 AM, Ford Sellers via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> There was an interesting discussion of distributed power (and dimming) vs
> centralized dimming at the NATEAC conference.
>
>
>
> Some interesting points (I thought):
>
> Cons:
>
> ·         With large PD (think 30 or 50amp plugs), you have to hide the
> breakouts… a lot of venues (especially “flexible” ones) have hanging
> positions in direct view of the audience, and do not like having bundles of
> cable visible.
>
> ·         If you’re using distributed dimming, you need to hide the dimmer
> racks (sticks, or whatever)… see above
>
> ·         Since Dimmer Racks aren’t generally powered with their full
> potential load, you can’t just swap a rack with a breaker panel.
>
> ·         Many modern LED units have PowerCON plugs, which cannot be
> installed as a panel mount because it is a dual voltage connector (120 and
> 240v), so there is no way (other than either testing, or plugging in) that
> you can determine what the voltage is.
>
> Pros:
>
> ·         Many modern LED fixtures have power linking (so you can daisy
> chain power and data), which can help keep things neat.
>
> ·         Since the load of LED fixtures is typically far below 20amps,
> fewer individual circuits may be needed in any given physical location.
>
> Also Consider:
>
> ·         If you’re redistributing power, you had better also redistribute
> Data.  Not just DMX, but (isolated) TCP/IP Ethernet.
>
> o   1gb networks look like they will be suitable for entertainment systems
> for the next decade, at least, and are far more affordable than 10gb
> networks (right now).
>
>
>
> Lots to consider when thinking about updating a venue to take advantage of
> current and emerging technologies…
>
>
>
> -Ford
>
>
>
> From: Stagecraft [mailto:stagecraft-bounces at theatrical.net] On Behalf Of
> Bill Conner via Stagecraft
> Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2016 7:42 PM
> To: Stagecraft
> Cc: Bill Conner
> Subject: Re: [SML] Leviton Dimming Racks
>
>
>
> I agree with that too.
>
>
>
> On Jul 24, 2016 6:06 PM, "Kim Hartshorn via Stagecraft"
> <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>
> It might be time to reconsider large investments in conventional dimming.
> 200K would buy a decent inventory of smart LED fixtures.  Distributed power
> and control might be worth looking into.
>
> Kim Hartshorn
>
>
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