Looking for some lighting ideas for this space on a very tight budget

[passmaster16]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

It all becomes about what you can live with. I have lit entire theater shows for $500 total. But it depends on issues such as how much power is available, how close people are to the performers, how close you can get lights, where you can place lights, do you have to have dimming, what kind of control are you looking for, etc?

We set up Revive Church with a pretty good portable LED/Conventional rig for $4000. I have pics of it on our website. Lots of color, lots of control possibilities, pretty big rig for the space.

ENTTEC USB to DMX Pro
4 PAR64 with 500W WFL Lamps
2 Shoebox dimmers 20A
12 Visioneer Illumination 252 LED Strip Lights
4 Visioneer Radiance RGBAW LED PARs
2 American DJ 12' light stands
All cables

Now they did have their own houselights.

Thanks Mike, is your online store still up? I tried to get on it yesterday and it seemed like a dead link.

[Esoteric]

It is down at the moment. I didnt like Shopify at all. We are having a custom store built and integrated (forgot to take the link down) but it will likely be 2 weeks or so before it will be up.

Did you need something?

[james tucker]

Originally Posted by passmaster16

We'll most likely be projecting our slides on the middle wall towards the back of the stage so I was considering using some sort of uplighting to throw some color on the angled walls on either side of the "screen area". Do you think Par38s would be enough here or do I need a stronger light? I also have two cheap ADJ cyc lights like these http://www.planetdj.com/i--BL-CYC that I was considering using for this purpose.

First, that pin spot idea is pretty cool. I used to do arrays of four on dimmers for techno partys. If I see a pile of pin spots go on Craigslist again for $5 each, I will buy a pallet of them.

Par 38s will be alright for you back wall, its not as cool as LEDs as mike pointed out several times.

I have 2 of those AMDJ punch lights. They make great blinders. The problem with those lights is that the gel doesn't last long enough to make it useful. Also, to fully power those things with 4x 500 watt lamps, you will need two more dimmer packs and two more 20 amp circuits. If power is still a concern for you, I would take the portable dimmable house lights over the AMDJ cyc lights. The best thing for portable controllable uplights is an LED par can. I put 4 in that little package for you in my original post. Mike sells the exact same led, he can probably give you a great deal.

1 watt/3 watt RGB led pars are quite useful.

Attached are 2 pics of led pars: the first with the stock beam spread (26ish) degree, and the second is the same leds with Source 4 par wide lenses on top of the fixture to cover more area.

I am a fanboy of the $200 led pars over the $200 LED strips.... you get more punch, EVERY cheap strip looks great for eye candy facing the house, but on a wall or cyc, the color mixing looks "banded" you turn red and blue on to make a magenta(ish) color and you get red on the bottom of the cyc and magenta ish about 2/3 the way up.

Those AMDJ wall cyc things are like gold, I suggest putting the pair on Ebay for $200 for the pair and use that towards getting a pair of 1 watt led pars from Esotetric aka Magic Mike.

[passmaster16]

Thanks James. Yeah I jumped the gun a bit early by getting those ADJ cyc lights. I wasn't sure if Pars LED or Conventional would give me enough coverage to fully light that wall. Wall is probably a good 20+ feet high so I'd like to fill it out as much as possible. I trust your judgement though and I know those cyc lights use a lot of power and blow through gel.

Mike, can you PM me with a price on the LEDs that James is talking about?

Thank you both!

[Esoteric]

No problem passmaster.

Thanks James.

Yeah, my strips are very good about blending (and a little VERY light frost helps as well), but all LED strips are going to have that area about 4" above the unit where you see the output of the individual LEDs. But beyond that, I think we avoid the banding that you are talking about James pretty well.

That being said, you are probably only going to wash 10'-12' of wall with a 252 10mm LED strip. We also sell the little 5mm strips, but those are eye candy only.

The 1W and 3W are good units. Very bright. If you can live with RGB color mixing you can usually get them cheaper than the RGBAW or RGBW units. Tri LEDs also cost more than just a straight RGB unit.

I am putting together a rig for a church in Birmingham this week. He is doing more bells and whistles and has a larger stage. I will post an equipment list and a rendering as soon as I get the chance.

We also have picks back from a project we did in Akin, SC about 6 months ago, and we are finishing up two very low budget projects here in Wylie, TX soon.

Would you guys be interested in pictures and gear lists of some of our past and current projects?

[passmaster16]

Mike,

RGB would be fine for us as they would only be used as uplights. Pics and gear lists would be helpful. I still think we'll end up going with some sort of par56 conventional for front light and we do like the pinspot idea. The LEDs would be helpful to use for uplight if we can get them at a decent price point.

Thanks
Josh

[Esoteric]

Yeah, no problems. It will probably be a series of blog posts over the next 2 weeks. The one in the other thread was a mix of conventional and LED stuff.

The only caveat with the pin spots is that your front light must be VERY under control (pinspots just aren't that bright, they won't fight through a lot of front light) and you have to use haze to get the effect.

[mstone133]

Akin, SC = Aiken

I've been meaning to post more pics after we finally received permission to use haze and installed the cage for front lighting...hopefully soon.

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by mstone133

Akin, SC = Aiken

I've been meaning to post more pics after we finally received permission to use haze and installed the cage for front lighting...hopefully soon.

It so is! My phone auto corrected it. I guess in the grand scheme of things it could have been a lot worse. *lol*

Mike

[mstone133]

deleted

[Esoteric]

Okay guys! Part I is up. It will be an ongoing series, so LIKE us on Facebook to get updates!!!

[bpalermini]

Mike, in Firefox the text lines in your blog are messed up. They continue past the right edge.