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[Brian Muth]

I'm doing a band event outdoors on a patio that's maybe 70x150ft total including crowd seating. It has close to zero lighting,and is a dark hole at night.  I place  a 4x par64 led tree on each side of the band and it covers the small stage area wonderfully.
Here's where I need some advice:
For a high dollar fundraiser there, they will be doing an auction from the stage. I've been informed that it needs to be well lit... duh... but the issue is that the auctioneer needs to see the crowd (he can't be blinded by lights), so they want the entire crowd area lit too... BUT with NO ONE "blinded" by lights in their eyes.... this seems pretty tricky to me since I can't put lights entirely above their heads in the ceiling that doesn't exist! Basically they want it to be like an indoor setting, very bright but with no visible lights...

I'm looking for any and all advice on the subject. I expect the answer is in a quantity of dimmer lighting as opposed to fewer/bright lights. I've got a total of 12 ledpar64 currently, and six of the 9ft trees. I know the par cans have fairly narrow patterns, and expect they're the wrong light for the job... I'll spend some money here on additional lights. but would need advice on how to best spend the money-obviously the cheaper the better!
As for the par cans...Perhaps some diffuser gels to mellow out the cans?  How about some uplighting, is there any benefit to that?  Any experience with battery powered led cans?

I really appreciate the advice guys. I need it!

[James Feenstra]

uplighting won't really light up the crowd

your best bet would be to see if they'd rent a tent to cover the event that you can hang lights off of and/or light up so it disperses the light over the crowd

failing that, can you build a truss box around the crowd to do crowd lighting from the top? it's unlikely that you'll be able to light everything without some light being in someones face

[Stuart Pendleton]

We have rented lights for something similar.  Not sure what the unit is called.  It is a pull-behind generator with tower for two large lights, similar to what road crews use for working at night.  we had it brought out for a backyard party for a group of wealthy boaters that wanted the yard and docks lit by the water while we played.  It would cover the area fairly well.  Not sure what the rental cost was.

[John Moore]

We have rented lights for something similar.  Not sure what the unit is called.  It is a pull-behind generator with tower for two large lights, similar to what road crews use for working at night.  we had it brought out for a backyard party for a group of wealthy boaters that wanted the yard and docks lit by the water while we played.  It would cover the area fairly well.  Not sure what the rental cost was.

they work very well, but are quite noisy running, since they are not muffled very well.....mostly seen on the freeway for night construction.


if you can get the lights up high enough, some 500w halogen type work lights would be sufficient. and would not be that blinding if you can get 14-16 feet in the air..

[John Livings]

Have you considered having an Electrician give you an estimate to install a permanent sub panel with output options?

Sometimes the cost is close to that of generator rentals, without the Noise or set-up time.

Find out what the total load might be for lights, sound and..., double that and get a bid.

I don't know your set up, however if this is next to a commercial building or power, this could be an option.

Regards,  John

[Brian Muth]

Thanks for the answers guys. As I thought, getting them up in the air as high as possible is gonna be the key. They aren't going for the expense of tent/ trussing. Of course... they didn't get to be members of a ritzy club by spending their money, did they? 

There's plenty of power to be had on site, so that's not a concern. It's good to hear others confirm the things I suspected... exactly what a forum like this is designed to do!

[Rob Spence]

Maybe rent some crank up lifts and put some 500w pars up there?
I am sure any large A/V rental place will have both.

[Tim Padrick]

Rent a blimp to hover over the site, and hang lights on that :-)

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Rent a blimp to hover over the site, and hang lights on that :-)

Have bidders signal the auctioneer by using their cell phones as signal lights.

[Tim Palmer]

Do the gig in the daytime

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