Lighting Maintenance
With financial belts tightening, people are getting reluctant to spend money on new lighting equipment. Let’s look at getting more out of your existing lighting equipment with some maintenance and how to get more light for free.
Your house of worship should also review its lighting plan and take advantage of the opportunity to reposition any lighting fixtures that could be better employed. While fixtures are being accessed for maintenance, lamp replacement can be conveniently undertaken on a preventative maintenance schedule or to replace lamps that are nearly past or beyond the point of acceptable performance.
Stage lighting maintenance isn’t common knowledge
Many people don’t know much about stage lighting equipment. In fact, stage lighting fixtures are the most in need of maintenance. While cleanliness will be appreciated by anyone having to mount or move fixtures, the performance of lights themselves are likely to be significantly affected by dust or dirt, plus in a humid environment grime can promote corrosion. The usual precautions apply: no cleaning liquids around powered electrical and electronic systems at all; and no liquids that will penetrate lighting, motor, or control housings even when systems are powered down. Vacuums and clean rags are the best options. Vacuum hoses can be fitted with a brush attachment or used in combination with a dry, clean, paint brush to dislodge dust and dirt. Cleaning cloths can be used dry or, when systems are powered off, lightly dampened with water (or with pure alcohol serving as a gentle, residue-free solvent where external grime and dirt are heavy.
Installing and replacing parts and fixtures
If the lighting lens and other lamp lamps or body covers are damaged or broken, please replace them in time. The technicians responsible for the installation of stage lighting equipment must ensure that the equipment has corresponding qualifications in order for it to operate.
Before installation, please confirm that the power voltage you use meets the voltage of the power source marked by the stage lighting systems and has overload or leakage protection. Each lamp must be properly grounded and installed in accordance with the relevant standards. When installing and removing the light bulb or replacing the fuse, the equipment must be disconnected from the power supply.
Regular inspection and cleaning of stage lighting equipment.
For stage lighting fixtures with fans, pay attention to cleaning the air outlets and air inlets to keep them smooth. Clean them carefully at least once a month.
Moving head lights require frequent maintenance.
• The most important optical components in the stage lighting fixtures need to use a vacuum cleaner or airbag to gently blow off the dust on the surface. Use odorless tissue paper or cotton cloth soaked with clean water to wipe off the particulate matter.
• Do not use destructive solvents on the parts with coated color film or the optical lens. The surface of the coating layer is very brittle and easily scratched.
• Moving head lights should be handled lightly to avoid a collision, fall, etc.
• Be careful not to use moving head lights in places where there is a lot of sand and dust.
• After the performance, don’t just cut off the power. Use the console to turn off the bulb. Also, let it continue to work for a while in order to let the fan in the lamp continue to work to reduce the temperature of the lamp body.
The routine detection range of stage lighting maintenance
Make sure to regularly check:
- Whether the bulb can be lit normally.
- Whether all equipment connections are normal.
- Whether all equipment can be used normally, including if the light control switch, color changer control, scanner movement, etc. are normal.
- Whether DMX512 signal can control lamps normally.
- Whether the special effect equipment is in normal use and filled with the required materials, such as smoke machine, fog machine, snowflake machine, bubble machine, etc.
Weekly testing of stage lighting maintenance
In addition, to all the daily stage lighting maintenance, we should pay attention to the weekly regular inspection, too. During the weekly inspection:
- Check the connection of the device, including the power connection, DMX512 connection, etc., to see if there is any looseness, whether there is a breakpoint, etc.
- At the same time, adjust the lamp position and DMX512 programming more comprehensively.
Maintaining conventional lighting fixtures is a simple but effective way of keeping your rig working better longer.
