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[Heath Eldridge]

Hey all,

I’m not sure if this is the right spot for this, if not please point me in the right direction.

I’m a small time one man production operator. Typical gigs are standard bands playing at either black tie events (weddings and corporates) or bars.

Like most people in that role I guess, my interest is primarily in sound, but I have a bit of a lighting setup.

I’m curious for pics or details of how other people set up their lighting and what they operate for that type of show?

[Jeff Lelko]

Hi Heath, yes, this belongs in the Lighting section but I'm sure a Mod can move it for you.

Bars versus corporate/black tie are essentially polar opposites in terms of what might be required to successfully perform.  I don't do bars since there's no money to be had there, but those that do typically use whatever will fit.  Real estate can be at a premium in a bar/club setting so try to stay compact and low-power.  The patrons couldn't care less about the quality of your lighting there, so as long as it works and is flashy you'll be fine.

Corporate is a different story and one I have much experience with.  Here's my take on what you need to consider:

- You need a setup that will look good with and without fog/haze.  Not all corporate events will allow haze, so don't build a rig that's reliant on beam effects.

- High quality lighting is essential for any presenters.  The CEO of a company you've heard of won't want to look pink during his/her speech. 

- All lighting needs to be film/video friendly - no flickering.

- Equipment needs to be silent or mostly silent.

- Reliability is paramount.  Have spares too.

- Use a controller/console that is busking-friendly.  Often the needs of the event can change on the fly.

All that being said, totems and uplighting are two trends that are popular in this market right now that can be done without significant rigging.  My specific product selection will vary by job, but typically the mid-range selections from Chauvet Pro and Elation are the "lowest" I'll go on the totem pole for events that matter barring the use of a specialty fixture, and for large corporate I typically look to the Mac Viper and Robe Pointe to do most of the heavy lifting.  Noting that those are both varsity level fixtures, what kind of budget are you looking at and what's already in your personal inventory?  Hope this helps! 

[Steve Litcher]

"Back in my day..." (ha, couldn't resist) But seriously, before I closed-up my production company to focus on touring efforts, we did a *ton* of bar bands/local/regional club acts and so on.

I started with QLC+ with a super simple MIDI-trigger pad (I think it was an Ableton if I recall). QLC+ is free, fairly intuitive, and seemed to work OK. The goal was to have simple cues that I could mash a button to trigger during a song (chases, strobe, vary the speed of a chase/flash, etc) and it worked pretty well.

We then upgraded to Martin M-PC and eh. Can't say I liked learning to program it, but once it was set-up things seemed to work well. I ran it on a touch-screen laptop and got rid of the Ableton. Tried to have simple cues, black-out, full white, etc.. Nothing too fancy. As Jeff indicated, the bar crowd really doesn't care so long as there's some type of lighting.

Fixture-wise, we used Blizzard Hotbox RGBW 7x10 lights and I mounted them in groups of four to ADJ T-bars. I could then mount the t-bars on their respective tri-pods (for smaller gigs) or hang them from trussing for bigger events. I made all of the patch/jumper cables for the T-bars so the wiring was nice and tidy and modular - we could quickly add more t-bars and connect them via PowerCon and a single DMX cable. Really reduced set-up/strike time.

For transportation/storage of the T-bars, I got some Gator SLIM88 padded keyboard bags. They held a single T-bar with the "feeder" or "jumper" cables (usually a 15-foot NEMA-to-PowerCon cable and a 15-foot DMX cable). Easy to transport; could stack 4 of them on a cart and roll them around without any drama. The tripod stands were carried 2-per Gator tri-pod bag.

For a typical bar gig, we'd bring 4 sets of the T-bars (total of 16 lights) and deploy 2 t-bars down stage and 2 t-bars up stage. Easily run from a single 20A circuit, with power to spare. For haze, we started with an Antari Z350 but then upgraded to a Radiance. For really "big" bar bands/gigs (that would draw 400-500 people), I'd add some relatively inexpensive movers - we had the Blizzard Blade RGBW and the Blizzard G-Streaks.

I could mount them on the T-bars or trussing as well. They all had pass-through DMX and PowerCon, so it supported the modular/flexible design no matter how many fixtures we deployed.

[Mark Scrivener]

I'll 2nd Steve's comments on Martin M-PC (now Onyx). It is a joy to use, and a royal pain to program.

[Dave Garoutte]

I like Luminair for its simplicity and flexibility.  It's a bit of a pain to truly busk with it, but for scenes and sequences it works well.  You do however, need wifi and a ethernet to DMX box.

[Paul G. OBrien]

I'm also a one man operation so here are a couple pics of what I try to do. These are usually weddings or corporate parties, I try to get pars on trees to the side to get some front lighting on the performers at the very least, I now have some warm white LED pars that helps with this. Any on stage uplighting or truss warmers that are used are under DMX control, I often have much of the room covered with uplighting anyway. Moving heads on truss totems are more eye candy here, they can't really provide any stage lighting but people(and DJs) like to see them so they are often included. Occasionally I get to mount some on a tall t-bar at the back of the room and can use those as follow spots but that is more an exception than the rule. I have some hardware controllers that I use (Blizzard ProKontrol MH) and also use Freestyler on a PC at times, if I know what the room layout and instrument positions will be ahead of time I can pre program some looks and sequences, but generally the lighting is low key and not intended to be too distracting.

[Heath Eldridge]

Thanks for the comments. I have Luminair but I find it a bit clunky. Definitely a big part of what I’m looking at is other options.

When I say corporates I mean relatively small. I’ve done gigs for bigger ones but they’re in rooms like the casino and big hotels where the lighting is supplied.

So very small corporates, weddings etc, but the focus is on the bands (and I’m hired by the band)

I’ve currently got:
Front lighting - either:
4 x chauvet Q12 or 2 x chauvet T6 (the Q12s are on T-bars which I don’t like. The T6s screw onto the top of the FOH)

Rear lighting:
2 x chauvet gigbar 2.0s
2 x cheap movers generally on the floor
Chauvet 1d hazer (generally not the black tie events)

[Jeff Lelko]

Thanks for the comments. I have Luminair but I find it a bit clunky. Definitely a big part of what I’m looking at is other options.

I think you'll be hard-pressed to find something better than Onyx (M-PC) for the price.  As others have mentioned there's definitely a learning curve to it as you'll find with any fully-featured software application, though especially factoring in the wings it's still one of the best value packages out there right now. 

Regarding everything else - what are your customers paying you to provide?  What added capabilities are they requesting that you currently struggle to meet?  It's one thing to swap out a product for convenience or personal preference - it's another to make a significant investment into equipment that has no promise of ever appearing on an invoice...  Good luck!

[Ed Taylor]

I think you'll be hard-pressed to find something better than Onyx (M-PC) for the price.  As others have mentioned there's definitely a learning curve to it as you'll find with any fully-featured software application, though especially factoring in the wings it's still one of the best value packages out there right now. 

Regarding everything else - what are your customers paying you to provide?  What added capabilities are they requesting that you currently struggle to meet?  It's one thing to swap out a product for convenience or personal preference - it's another to make a significant investment into equipment that has no promise of ever appearing on an invoice...  Good luck!

there...someone said it.. "what are your customers paying...." 
over the years I've found that lighting isn't a money maker for me, I've used it as a selling point but seldom been able to charge for it.  the big weddings etc, there's usually already an uplighting being provided by the pipe n drapes vendor etc..so I only get the actual stage biz. that said I always offer what I describe to the client as a "stage wash"..so that they can actually see the band. As space allows I'll place a T-bar each side of the stage with (4) thin Par DMX (RGBW) per side and then I also add a 5th Par to face out on to the dance floor to at least provide some wash light. basic DMX controller lets me change scenes..ie a slow dance might go down to all blue or cyan..rockin the house is going to go full on, chase maybe..and then if it is a dance floor I'll also provide some basic DJ fx lighting...usually a couple of Kinta multi units is enough..gives me strobe, lasers, gobes, etc in one nice box..and, unlike DJs, I don't just put them on ramdom and let them go all night long ... if my stage scene changes to slow dance, all blue example, the FX lights will stop their crazy and hold blue as well.  I'll usually add a couple bars for uplighting behind the stage..again, if it's a good paying gig, I'm happy to make it all look that much better, if it's barebones..then they will still get some lighting. 
my biggest concern has always been that speaking DMX is like a black art or something...so if I'm sending out a smaller PA with crew and I'm not on the job, then I tend to run a much simpler DMX 4 channel fader unit that the guys usually can operate.. the larger programmed rig without someone who can make changes during setup day-of...that's just asking for trouble.

[Tim Weaver]

Although I pretty much am “above” this guys demographic, I still subscribe to his channel because I think he has some pretty good videos on how to light things on a budget, and his explanations are pretty straightforward.

https://youtube.com/channel/UC1waxWgPLQJv7UVBe9dr5cg

[ProSoundWeb Community]