Hello all! I will be live-blogging this session starting at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 18. Check back then for pics, ideas, gear news and more!

4:25 p.m. Packed room!

4:32 - Jim Smith introducing the panel and giving overview of wireless dimming.

Panelists include

Karen Robbie Vance - Alley Theatre

Anna Goller from Cincinnati Playhouse (on the right)

Wireless dimming for props and costumes. Untethered in data and power, but completely invisible to lighting designer.

Demands of wireless lighting/dimming:

100% reliable

Fast and in sync

Seamless - has to work well regular wired rig.

They believe RC4 does that, and they brought in two props makers to make their case for them.

Anna Goller from the Cincinnati Playhouse is up first.

Quickly programmed their own transmitter for Cincinnati Playhouse's props -- which are currently in show. Brand new transmitter quickly set up.

Anna starts by thanking Jim and RC4 on behalf of the master electrician of the Cincinnati Playhouse for not messing with her electrics.

Playhouse currently doing Peter and the Starcatcher. Director said "I want two huge motorcycle lamps for eyes." In first production meeting, they said cables would be fine. One week before tech "These cables aren't working for me."

Much laughter.

They gutted motorcycle head lamps and replaced them with LED lights and created the RC4 dimmers. Director was happy.

Coat is from Christmas Past from Christmas Carol. Used to be incandescent, has become fiber optics. Coat hasn't changed, but the tech in it has.

Used to be powered by actor, who had to remember to turn on switch. "But they're acting. So sometimes that would happen, sometimes it wouldn't"

Not it is controlled by dimmer board and much more magical b/c they can control intensity and sparkle.

Dimmer from 2008, dimmed by "mouse and fingers" -- still elicited a gasp from audience when they actually dimmer.

Close up of dimmer pack in jacket.

Amulet changed from white to amber and the audience loved it -- lots of oohs and aaahhhhs.

Karen Robbie Vance from Alley back.

Has largest number of dimmers of any customer -- "Because I love them."

Talking about all the wiring and building that had to happen before when using something as simple as lanterns. Have to build out bases a little bit to store batteries, but so much easier, especially on actors. They have 10 different lanterns in stock.

Used units to light road units and bed for Othello.

Also used RC4 unit to pump blood through plastic in blood. IT lasted two days in rehearsal, and then got cut. (Cue laughter.)

Used technology to rotate treads on tank for Toxic Avenger.

"We use this stuff all the time." A lot of times just to eliminate cable runs. A big wedge of scenery for Peter Pan had lights for Tinkerbell to move through it, and also for her nest.

When Hook tries to poison Peter with milk, they put an LED underneath the glass that they changed white from milk ato green with poison. Then Tinkerbell comes along and drinks it. They used a tube in a tube, and used a sled controlled by RC4 to pull the angle down and allow "level" of milk to go down.

What goes wrong?

Tech'ing show, same scene for 5 hours - sometimes batteries die. Anna agrees.

Jim addressing uneasiness of wireless in mission critical show: "It's Awesome." Karen just worked on show with 762 lights in a show. With actual, hard-wired dimmer packs. And while they were swapping out dimmer packs the electrician turned to her and said "We should just put it on RC4, it's more reliable."

Batteries and types of batteries very fundamental.

Lithium Ion batteries least recommended for theatre, because they are the most dangerous when used without a lot of cautious engineering. Charger, sensors, wiring, temerpeature, all taken into account by Apple, but beyond scope of what you can ask props person to do. Too many variables, and likelihood of fault is quite high. Search lithium battery fire on YouTube and you'll see what he means. (Can't put it out with fire extinguisher or water.)

So Jim recommends Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.

Also recommends sealed lead acid. Solid, and totally recyclable. Drawbacks: Big, bulky, and problems with re-charging. Can get damaged draining too much.

Can also work with power supplies.

Receiver and lighting source are powered by the same source -- it's the least for you to worry about.

This was year to jump out of box and go further than just "simple" dimming.

Michael Curry, of Michael Curry designs needs wireless for his animatronics along with lighting.

So they've added ability to control server motors and put them into position.

Dimmers that also control EL-Wire.

Now, all the units do all the things: Dimming, EL-Wire, motor cueing, fire effects/flicker engine -- all changeable in each unit.

LED Smoothing also a part of their units to model thermal energy of incandescents and their curves, what the curves and responses are, and mimic it for their dimmers.

Also have color matching, so you can take LED tape, choose one as reference, and correct to each other. It holds that curve, and corrects it through all the spectrum. Quick way to color match.

Unit firmware also able to be updated with Code Loader. For free.