10-88 I E S LIGHTING HANDBOOK

Spotlights and floodlights located in the wings adjacent to the border

lights or in the auditorium proper provide accent lighting. (See Fig.
10-61c.) Many stage designers use spotlights almost exclusively to pro-
duce the required high levels, using border lights and footlights to provide
a more uniform level than may be obtained with the imperfect spotlight
overlap. A spotlight is a luminaire in which a reflector behind the lamp
or sometimes a lens in front of it, or both, is used to focus the output of
the lamp in a narrow beam. Incandescent lamps with ratings between 250
and 2,000 watts and carbon arcs are used in spotlights. By comparison,
floodlights have a wide beam. Lamps of any type and size are used, de-
pending on the equipment size, with the control depending on a reflector
behind the lamp and on the housing edge.
Theater Lighting-Control Systems
Theater-lighting circuits for both the stage and the auditorium often
are equipped with dimming devices. The lighting should be expressive
and versatile, achieved through dimmer blending of various color circuits
and by regulating the quantity of light delivered to a particular area.
When this blending or regulation is to be achieved as a part of the lighting
sequence, the gradations of light should be produced smoothl}' and ac-
curately.
Dimmer control of auditorium lights facilitiates eye-accommodation.
Even relatively low auditorium levels may cause momentary blinding glare
when the lights are switched on immediately after either a dark stage setting
or a motion picture has been viewed.
Most dimmers regulate light output by varying lamp current. Indi-
vidual preheat-starting (hot) cathode fluorescent lamps cannot be dimmed
conveniently in this manner over a wide brightness range, since the arc
extinguishes with a small voltage drop. However, the output of incandes-
cent lamps and instant-starting cylindrical (cold) cathode lamps may be
controlled smoothly over a very wide range. The most common dimmer is
the resistance
type.
When not loaded beyond their rated capacity, re-
sistance dimmers can handle smoothly the circuit to be controlled and
dissipate the heat produced by its operation. Circular dimmers are de-
signed for loads as high as 4,000 watts. When resistance dimmers have too
little load for their rated capacity, complete blackout of the circuit is not
possible. This condition is corrected by the addition of dummy loads or
by the use of other types of dimmers, particularly variable autotransformer
dimmers or electronic tube-reactor dimmers.
Churches
Lighting for churches should be co-ordinated with the church service,
and suited to the architectural design. (See Fig. 10-62.) Soft well-
diffused illumination is recommended. High levels attract the attention
of the worshipper to the altar or pulpit at certain points in the sendees.
The amount of illumination provided at the pews should be keyed to the
amount of reading expected of the congregation, some of whom may have