New lighting equipment will soon be installed at Cookeville High School after the School Board approved a $680,000 bid.
Special Ed Teacher and Musical Theater Program Assistant Jeremy Craig said the school will be getting new catwalk lights and stage lights to use for any events in the auditorium. Craig said all of the new lights with be LEDs instead of halogen bulbs, meaning they will last much longer.
“It may bring in more students if they’re interested in being in shows and things, but definitely the quality of what we’ll have what will be so much higher,” Craig said. “And I mean there won’t be, there can’t be any electrical problems, like with the halogen bulbs they can get really hot sometimes and so sometimes that’s a bit of a concern, but these don’t get hot like those do.”
Craig said the project includes redoing the auditorium’s electrical system to sync up with the LED lights and replacing the can lights over the auditorium’s seating. Craig said the new lights will save a lot of time because they can all change color internally instead of requiring special filters.
“With regular halogen bulb fixtures you have to cut out gels to put in the front to change what kind of lighting you would like in front of it,” Craig said. “Whereas with these lights you can just simply change it on the computer and you don’t have to worry about cutting the gels out.”
Craig said all these changes will make the space more presentable for assemblies, musicals, and all other events. Craig said the installation should take place this summer so everything will be ready to go next fall.
“I know that there are camps and stuff that happen here at the high school but I know that they’re just going to kind of go around and not use the auditorium and just use different rooms instead of utilizing the auditorium,” Craig said.
Craig said the new equipment will save the school money on its musical theater shows as it will be able to rent fewer lights from a company in Nashville for each production.
