Sound, Lighting and Video: A Resource for Worship

CHAPTER 14

Close-Up on Dimmers

We referred to dimmers in passing at the beginning of this section, but let’s take a more in-depth look at their function and basic controls.

Dimmers have come a long way over the years. Much like everything else in our life, they have gone from large, heavy, cumbersome units to rather sleek, lightweight (relatively speaking) components that can be easily interchanged. There are several companies that manufacture lighting dimmers, but only one or two predominately used brands for entertainment systems.

A dimmer works by controlling the amount of current going through the circuit, thus allowing a lamp to dim. Without dimmers your lighting would simply be on or off. No fade, no variable intensities – just on or ...