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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => Lighting Forum => Topic started by: Mike Sullivan on January 26, 2014, 03:05:34 PM
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So money is not entirely in abundance with me, and I wanted to use a better way to light the front of a band than using my LED's (something about the color mixing just does not project a great front image IMHO)...so I had an idea. I went to Lowes and purchased a few of the Utilitech 250 watt work lights to try out...wouldn't hurt the pocket too much as they were $12 apiece. Put them on the front truss, with 8 of my Fab5's on the rear truss, set on a slow fade (my laptop HD crashed, just got a new SSD the other day and didn't have time to design some scenes), and it actually worked out really well. Stage was about 20x12, and lit up all four members decently. Not a bad cheap solution IMHO.
Excuse the crappy iPhone pictures. But it does give you an idea.
(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/djiceman1575/IMG_77631_zps84c1ce29.jpg)
(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/djiceman1575/IMG_77622_zps0d075973.jpg)
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nice bend in the rear truss there...looks good though...you should put some diffusion on the front lights to get rid of the hot spots...
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nice bend in the rear truss there...looks good though...you should put some diffusion on the front lights to get rid of the hot spots...
Truss has been tossed around so much, I have to sit down one day and get some of the pieces bent back in place and adjusted right. I'm not sure if these will last forever, I'll probably end up picking up some PAR56's or an LED equivalent at some point, trying to keep power consumption down, but I had everything running off of two 20A circuits (all 3 250w washes, 8 Fab5's, 2 KW153's, 4 KW181's, EV wedges and backline) and didn't have any problems.
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Truss has been tossed around so much, I have to sit down one day and get some of the pieces bent back in place and adjusted right.
If it has been bent then it is no longer safe to fly. It's scrap.
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If it has been bent then it is no longer safe to fly. It's scrap.
I probably should have made things a bit clearer, the truss itself is not bent at all, the connector on the upper part that screws in may be in the wrong position, giving it the bent appearance. It's been tossed around enough that some of the connectors are bent a bit, but not like that. :-)
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It doesnt look like it is bent in the photo as much as it looks like the right crank up is a little lower. Either way always be safe.
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mike if you put your uprights inwards a couple of feet, this my help to alleviate the smile we see :) to me it just looks like that its the banner that holds the most wieght...so give that a go...
secondly i have use this style truss, and i do find that it does bend...maybe flex is a better word...very easily even under minimal load...just something to be wary of more than anything else... :)
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Used similar lights on many occasions back before other fixtures became less expensive. Worked quite well for the $$.
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It doesnt look like it is bent in the photo as much as it looks like the right crank up is a little lower. Either way always be safe.
Looking back at the photos it may have been a bit lower, there wasn't a ton of room to work with. I always play it safe, I would never put it up if I thought it was going to be unsafe. It's just the way the connectors are, I think the top ones are screwed in too far and give it a "flexed" appearance. I'll tinker with it this week.
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Just an update. I have worked with the truss this past week, it no longer has the "bent" appearance as I set the upper screw to a more proper position to give it a straighter appearance. Also, I purchased a couple more of the worklights for a past show (budget wouldn't allow me to rent the PAR56 trees I would have liked to have) but they worked fine for this show. Here's a picture from their Facebook, it was an 80's "hair" band, they actually put on a pretty good show. The $50 front lighting solution worked fine temporarily. Would I use it in a permanent or upper professional situation? Probably not...but it works.
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10173617_3983323237536_400355247_n.jpg)
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American Dj durratruss is not designed to extend past 15 feet