Starter Packing for stage lighting

[Esoteric]

Yeah.

Think about it this way. The absolute cheapest piece of junk LED lights that will never work entirely right, and not do anything like what you want cost $70-$100 each. Then you add a cheapo controller ($175 for a controller you won't be able to give away when you are done with it) and cables, $400-$600 doesn't do anything. And spending $1000 on that stuff would be throwing away money since it will be broken inside of 6 months and what isn't broken will be flaky and way under powered.

The lowest price LED unit worth having starts at $150-$200 per unit. Even that doesn't buy you a whole lot, but at least what you get will work.

Want to go conventional? You could buy a little two scene preset controller for $150, but even the cheapest dimmer packs are $100 and again, will never work right, be very noisey, and be a fire hazard. Add PARcans at $50 each and lamps for $25 each (keeping in mind you can only plug in 2 PARcans per dimmer pack) and your budget of $400-$600 goes very quickly. And all you end up with again is a flaky system that doesn't really do or look like anything. And a pile of stuff you can't even give away when you are done.

If you do anything, I would buy a pair of good 3W LED PARs (you can get them around $300 each), set them before the service with a pretty color, and leave them. Use them to light up some white silky fabric and go with it. And it isn't that we are saying you have to do something professional or don't do it. Professional level units start at $1500 per LED unit. I did a lighting upgrade for a CMNer that I just added bells and whistles (he already had a full theater rig) and the budget was $25k. I did a lighting renovation for another CMNer that was a full rig from top to bottom, but a VERY small rig and it was $15k. But I did a pair of very small traveling rigs for another CMNer for about $3k each. But you have to have realistic expectations. What is $600 going to get you? A couple of LED lights with no controller is the answer. We just don't want to see you waste your money.

[grinner]

X2. Mike speaks da troof.

[waynehoskins]

The other option you have then there's not much money is to buy used gear. I've done that quite a lot in all areas with success, many things coming from Ebay. The caveat with used, especially of uncertain history such as from Ebay, is that while it is often less expensive, you should be prepared to have to fix it at some point.

You can buy things in phases as money allows, but you really need to have a long-term master plan of what you want to end up with, and get equipment that fits into that. Four years ago we put in two new speaker systems at my church, one in the sanctuary and one in our much smaller children's space. I selected the same series of loudspeaker for both rooms so that, if we were to move into a larger space in the future, they could all be incorporated into a newer larger PA. That hasn't happened yet, and likely won't for another five years or more, but if it does there will hopefully be little "useless" equipment. Plan your end goal, figure out what it takes to get there, and then buy things toward that goal as the opportunities present themselves.

A few years ago someone gave us four cheap music-store P64s, the no-name China kind with 500W lamps. They were too dim to be useful, and I didn't trust them lamped at 500, much less 1K, too unsafe. They sat around in storage for several months until I finally threw them away. They weren't useful, and more importantly they weren't safe. I wouldn't have felt right giving them to someone else, so into the big green bin they went. It's sad that someone wasted money on them.

[adessmith]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

Yeah.

If you do anything, I would buy a pair of good 3W LED PARs (you can get them around $300 each), set them before the service with a pretty color, and leave them. Use them to light up some white silky fabric and go with it.

I like this idea.
See, I knew you guys could come up with something to fit the bill!
That is really all we need.

[Esoteric]

No problem man. Sometimes it takes a little discussion to find what you were looking for.

Mike