The Technology : Old Technology
A graveyard showing our now no longer used systems & devices.
There are many other small devices & systems that are not mentioned (eg. a till light bulb). I'm sticking to the major things!
Sound to Light Unit
The Terminator
Wild Blaze
Wharfedale 75W Speakers
DMX Control Panel
Rear Sound System
Sound-to-Light Unit
Brought into service: Summer 1999
Rebuilt: Early 2000
Retired: June 2001
Current Status: One unit used for Pulse light; second unit intact but out of service.
The sound to light unit originally consisted of a small circuit that had a microphone on it. This microphone picked up the music (or anything else!),
processed it, and output mains voltage onto three different channels (bass, mid range and treble sounds). Attached were three bulbs which lit up in time to the music.
All this was mounted on a plank of wood and looked a bit of a mess..
The system was rebuilt in early 2000 and expanded to two units. These were hollow blakc wooden boxes each containing the three bulbs. This gave two sets of lights doing the same pattern. The circuit was now hidden
away and unit was much tidier.
One of the rebuilt sound to light units
By the end of 2000 our interest grew into much more sophisticated lighting (scanners, DMX, etc.) and the sound to light was looking rather out of place. Plus having six 60w bulbs shining out meant the Bar was bright and very hot.
The decision to retire the unit then came. One unit now forms the Pulse and one lies out of service under the desk.
The Terminator
Brought into service: November 1999
Removed from regular service: Christmas 2002
Retired: Early 2003
Current status: Broken and in storage.
The Terminator was our first 'professional' lighting effect. It consisted of two 300W (!) bulbs and a central pivot that rotated to the beat of the music.
Beams of light would then flash across the room (or hillside at our festival!). The only controls were power on-off and sound sensitivity level which was tuned before each event.
For a long time the Terminator was our main light effect as it was very versitile and good for discos. However for a small Bar it was very overpowering, hot and expensive to run (the bulbs cost £15 to replace each time!).
With our new intelligent lighting effects being used more often the Terminator would often hang switched off for most of the night.
With the purchase of the Mojo Scan there was no longer room for the Terminator so it was taken down from active service. It was put into reserve for use at discos & parties.
However in early 2003 the brush contacts failed & a bulb blew. The decision was taken to take it out of service. It now awaits repair or disposal.
The Terminator in action
Wild Blaze
Brought into service: November 1999
Removed from Bar: mid-2000
Current status: Not owned by us.
The Wild Blaze arrived around the same time as the Terminator as part of our New Years Eve 2000 party systems. It was never owned by The Bar but was on loan from a Bar member.
It was a simple sound-to-light scanner that had a moving mirror head that moved to the music. It also had a spinning multi-coloured gobo (pattern) that moved to the music.
The sound to light system was pretty inaccurate and it'd often go mad (especially compared to the Terminator) spinning all over the place.
It was removed by its owner during the summer of 2000 after he went 'strange' and left the Bar...
The Wild Blaze in action
Wharfedale 75W Speakers
Brought into service: Early 1999
Retired: Late 2000
Current status: Working one sold off, other binned.
A high quality set of speakers used for nearly 2 years. One speaker blew when too much volume went through it.
A speaker
DMX Control Panel
Brought into service: June 2001
Taken out of active service: June 2003
Current status: In storage awaiting sale or disposal
A simple DMX lighting controller obtained for use with our first DMX fixture, Micro Scan. It was a bank of sliders that allowed
you to control each DMX channel (each channel controls one aspect of the light- brightness, colour, etc.). It had
the ability to store patterns and sequences in by using a time consuming programming process.
The panel was taken out of service with the completion of the Visual Basic control software allowing lighting to be computer controlled.
This allowed us to have much more flexibility and made the system much easier to operate when less than sober... ;)
A photo of the DMX panel
Rear Sound System
Brought into service: Early 2000
Taken out of active service: Mid 2002
Current Status: Amp used in another room; speakers in storage awaiting a use.
System consisted of a Sony 25W Pro-Logic amplifier and 2x25W Sony speakers. We used it in order to get a good spread of sound around the room.
Because the speakers were fairly low quality they made the sound near to them feel very 'cardboard' like compared to the main speakers. Plus the main speakers were already very loud.
For this reason we stopped using the system. The speakers remained in place in the Bar until summer 2003 despite not being used.
The rear sound speakers