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[Richard Penrose]

Hi,

I have been providing sound for various local events and am looking to add some lighting. I am completely new to lighting so have no idea what I should be looking to buy. I mainly work by myself so want something small, lightweight and effective.
I have used the common KAM Party Bar type of setup with 4 units attached to a T-Bar but would like to add some other lights to have more impact/variety to the stage lighting??

What would you recommend that's lightweight and very easy to rig by myself? I'm not sure on budget as I don't know what's available or how much it costs?

Thanks

[Jeff Lelko]

Hi Richard,

A lot of this will depend on which specific looks you'd like to achieve.  Generally speaking, the lights you set up will fall into one of two categories - fixtures that are responsible for lighting the stage and the people on it, and the fixtures that do the "eye candy" effects such as beams, pixel grids, etc.  Often you can do double-duty with a lot of fixtures, but that's gist of it.  How large of a stage are you looking to light?

Thinking towards potable and quick to set up, there are a number of 4-in-1, 5-in-1, etc. style "bars" that feature a number of different units all pre-rigged to act as a single unit similar to the Party Bar you mentioned.  Beyond that, you can make your own pre-rigged bars using fixtures of your choice so long as they're not too large or heavy to move around together.  As far as front fill and general wash lighting goes, I'd suggest to either invest in decent LED Pars with RGBW, RGBA, or more to get you nice natural light, or use a few conventional halogen Pars to do the same thing.  As far as the more creative effect lighting goes, you can just get more of the same if you go the route of LED Pars and program tasteful chases with them from an upstage location.  If you plan on using fog or haze there are also some compact moving heads that aren't half bad.  Fixtures like the Chauvet Intimidator Spot Duo and Intimidator Wave 360 pack a lot of movement into a single fixture.  They're not the brightest things in the world, but if deployed in a fitting environment they are decently effective. 

You'll also need to figure out what you want to do for a controller.  The typical debate here is hardware versus software, and there is no shortage of threads about it.  Software is better bang to buck, hardware gives you a standalone all in one product.  Hope this helps!

[Fraser Moffatt]

I run sound and lights for my band (as well as play bass and sing). Lightweight, simple, portable are my keywords.

I stumbled upon this solution that is working really well for us. We usually play in places with decent ambient lighting but need a little extra "oomph" for the stage lighting.  We considered a pair of 4 in 1 stand units, but they're bulky and, to me, they are unsightly on stage. And not terribly inexpensive either at $1000+ for a pair. 

We went with a pair of Chauvet Wash FX units that I mount to the top handles of my mains (ZLX15P) using the Chauvet CLP-10 clamps. Since these are 15 channel DMX units, I needed a controller that could handle at least that. I started with the Obey 3, but realized I needed the Obey 40 to do what I wanted to do. I usually use a small number of pre-programmed static scenes that I adjust to taste when we light any particular stage. Nothing fancy.  I also have and use sporadically a pair of cheap Chinese LED pars that I use for uplighting at the back of the stage where it makes sense.  On occaision I point those smaller LEDs out on the dancefloor and let them run in auto mode (no need for DMX control). That works out pretty well, too.

This takes zero extra floor space and is especially useful for smaller venues/stages.

All in, I spent less than I would have for a single 4-in-1 LED system and it all packs down into a single 25 gal Rubbermaid Roughneck container.



Here's the system in "idle mode" between sets. We bump that up to a nice bastard amber for full lighting during performance.



and here's the lighting in full flight

[Steve Garris]

I run sound and lights for my band (as well as play bass and sing). Lightweight, simple, portable are my keywords.

I stumbled upon this solution that is working really well for us. We usually play in places with decent ambient lighting but need a little extra "oomph" for the stage lighting.  We considered a pair of 4 in 1 stand units, but they're bulky and, to me, they are unsightly on stage. And not terribly inexpensive either at $1000+ for a pair. 

We went with a pair of Chauvet Wash FX units that I mount to the top handles of my mains (ZLX15P) using the Chauvet CLP-10 clamps. Since these are 15 channel DMX units, I needed a controller that could handle at least that. I started with the Obey 3, but realized I needed the Obey 40 to do what I wanted to do. I usually use a small number of pre-programmed static scenes that I adjust to taste when we light any particular stage. Nothing fancy.  I also have and use sporadically a pair of cheap Chinese LED pars that I use for uplighting at the back of the stage where it makes sense.  On occaision I point those smaller LEDs out on the dancefloor and let them run in auto mode (no need for DMX control). That works out pretty well, too.

This takes zero extra floor space and is especially useful for smaller venues/stages.

All in, I spent less than I would have for a single 4-in-1 LED system and it all packs down into a single 25 gal Rubbermaid Roughneck container.



Here's the system in "idle mode" between sets. We bump that up to a nice bastard amber for full lighting during performance.



and here's the lighting in full flight

That's a big light! Nice job on the speaker mounting.

[Allen Smith]

Hi,

I have been providing sound for various local events and am looking to add some lighting. I am completely new to lighting so have no idea what I should be looking to buy. I mainly work by myself so want something small, lightweight and effective.
I have used the common KAM Party Bar type of setup with 4 units attached to a T-Bar but would like to add some other lights to have more impact/variety to the stage lighting??

What would you recommend that's lightweight and very easy to rig by myself? I'm not sure on budget as I don't know what's available or how much it costs?

Thanks

Your not providing enough information for a meaningful discussion.  Even a desired or maximum budget would help get things started. 

[Fraser Moffatt]

That's a big light! Nice job on the speaker mounting.

Yup, they are big! Probably more than i need for a club gig, but has worked for outdoor (non-pro) shows as well. 18 x 4W tricolor LEDs in each head. Lots of juice, I have to keep them throttled back when they're that close to the stage!

A couple of places we work, I might try them decoupled from the mains on sticks and put them out rigged to the ceiling where there's stuff I can clamp on to and run cables to. Might be more effective higher up and farther out in those places.

But, at the end of the day, it's a fairly effective, inexpensive, simple, compact and lightweight system...

[Jeff Lelko]

That's a big light!

I've still got 3 ADJ Tempest 250s in inventory - now those are big!  Only about 53 pounds but incredibly awkward.  Even that is dwarfed by the biggest effect light I'm aware of - the Robe Dominator.  I second the compliment on nice use of an O-Clamp though! 

[Graham Spice]

pair of Chauvet Wash FX units that I mount to the top handles of my mains (ZLX15P) using the Chauvet CLP-10 clamps.

Interesting. Do you think these lights are harsh looking? I like the simplicity and ease of setup that you've come up with here. From the picture, I wonder if they seem harsh in real life...especially without an amber LED available.

I'd like to find a reasonably-sized front light solution similar to this but don't want the light to be weird looking since the fixtures would generally be pretty mounted close to the artists like in your pics...

[Scott Holtzman]

We have been very successful with the Blizzard Weather system.  A real step up from the "4 bar" style of lights.

[Steve Garris]

I build my own "tree's" using $35 Chinese lights. I have a center cluster that runs behind the drums on a sound activated program, which has 4 led par's and an ADJ Mega Bar. The tree's are all pre-wired, with 1 long power drop to plug in. I use the Donner wireless dmx in lieu of cables between the tree's. Total cost per tree is about $220 complete. The lights are in a plastic housing, so a group of 4 weighs practically nothing. They fit nicely in $50 keyboard soft-cases. As Jeff recommends, I use incandescent Par 38's (with a 90 watt bulb) for front spots.

Here's a photo from last Saturday's show:

[ProSoundWeb Community]