Jeff,
I am surprised yo have had no replies as yet so I thought I would chime in. You certainly can connect 4-5 White Lightnings together and trigger them using a Pocketwizard Multimax. The commonly used line is 16 or 18 guage lamp wire easily found in hardware stores and available in 250 foot spools.
You simply connect each strobe to an add-a-tap using the appropriate connector for your strobe and then also put the Pocketwizard receiver anywhere in the circuit. One caution is to turn each strobe on and plug in the sync cord to the zip line. If the strobes fire when you plug one in, the polarity is reversed so you have to unplug that synh cord and reverse the plug. If you do not do this the set-up will not fire when you try to use the Pocketwizard or the test flash button. I always plug the flash in backward so it fires and then I know when I have reversed it it will fire. If you do not get this right you will be going to all your strobes, disconnecting and trying again, which can be a real pain on catwalks or if you have to use a ladder to get to each one.
You can use a very long zip line for connection since you are basically creating a closed circuit when you trigger the flash and dropping the resistance from infinity to a very low impedance (the impedance of the zip line). I tend to use 16 guage line since it is more durable and I use it many times. Handle the zip line with care and it will last a long time. If you crimp it and create a short somewhere in the line, it will not be fun to isolate the problem, especially under a deadline.
I have wired many swimming pools for major competitions and have run sync lines up to 500 feet with up to 8 Elinchrom units in the circuit. I usually use 2 Pocketwizards in the circuit to provide backup and allow me to roam on the deck and worry about interference. I like to minimize the number of trips to the catwalk.
Patrick Racey-Murphy has some nice pictures and tutorials on arena lighting on his website
www.arenastrobes.com. You can also find information on the Pocketwizard site in the forums. I believe Dave Black also has some information on arena lighting on his site.
Best of luck.
Linear Mode
