ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with dimmers and the various systems and methods used to control them. It provides a discussion of how electricity flows through a stage lighting system in a typical theatre. The relatively brief history of electrical stage lighting has seen many different kinds of dimmers used to control the intensity of instruments. Some of the older dimmers, such as the saltwater, saturable core, thyratron tube, and resistance dimmer, have dropped by the wayside. The thyratron tube dimmer was the first electronically controlled dimmer, and the first to use the gating principle–a rapid switching on and off of the load current. The silicon controlled rectifier dimmer operates on a gating principle, which is a rapid switching on and off of the power. Lighting control system dimmers are frequently located in a remote area away from the stage. The finite nature of the digital signal enables digital information to be made up into discrete information or instructional packages.
