Flash sync

I am a photographer for a Division I athletic department. I'm

still in school and doing the work for a little money and alot of

experience. I just found out the basketball arena has flash sync in

the rafters. Does anyone know how this works, Or how to plug into

it? Do I need any other gear or could I just plug my camera into

it? I really have no clue so any information you could give me would

be great. Thanks, Ed McCulloch

You need to contact the 'maintenance' department and find out who put the equipment in place. Then you need to find out what 'brand' of equipment is up there. (Research may/may not provide any 'literature' available on campus for the lighting system; and how to hook into it.)

The lights are probably from a newpaper in the area. We light both college (ASU) amd Professional (SUNS) arenas. We used to have drop cords that the maintance people,or one of us would drop from the cat walk. These would run down to the back of the backboard where they were taped and then run to different camera positions. Now we use wireless

remotes to set off the lights.Sometimes SI will come light a arena when they know NCAA finals will be there.I would not just use the lights without asking the owners.If you fire the stobes off to quickly you can pop the circut breakers or blow the stobes.We used to have to count to 3 between shots when we used whitelightings.Usally the lights are set for whatever sport is playing at the time.You want lights pointed one way for Baskeball and another for Hockey.