Lighting Rigs

[harley_ou812]

hello all,

I am starting to look into designing and putting together a Lighting Rig to go with my sound system. Now I am pretty much a newb when it comes to lighting but I want to learn. One of the questions I had was what is an acceptable amount of wattage to expect to pull from your lighting rig ( I want to put together I nice rig but I dont want to buy a bunch of stuff I wont be able to use cause it uses to much power). My other main concern of the moment is I would like something that can be used with projects where I or someone else will be able to actually control the lights as far as dimming chasing and all that as well as use it for projects where they will be more automatic and require maybe footpedals from stage to use or nothing at all. Stuff that can be triggered by the music would be great but I dont know how that really works.

SO if you have any of these answers I would love to hear them. Or if you have and suggestions or even to tell me what you use I would love to hear it.

Thank you
Jared

 

[harley_ou812]

I was running some numbers and doodling some diagrams... I am invisioning 15 200 watt cans 3 on a stand on the front on each side of the stage 4 on a bracing accross the back of the stage 2 on the floor pointing up at the drums and 1 on the floor in front of each performer. But I dont know if this is overkill, not enough or about right. also I dont know how to control them.

 

[Rick Brienzo]

Your biggest problem is going to be club power. 15 cans at 200 watts comes to about 25 amps and that’s not including your backline or sound system. You will have to find two free electrical circuits in a club or run your own distribution panel wired to 220V. Most little clubs I have been in you are lucky to get one or two 15 to 20 amp circuits for lights and sound. You may be playing in better places but club power has always been a problem for me.

 

[harley_ou812]

Yeah club power is a major concern for me. I just dont know how to figure out what I can get away with power wise on a circuit. if anyone could enlighten me on how to figure that out it would be great. I had a feeling 15 200 watt cans would be to much but i really had know clue if my gut feeling 3was right or not.

 

[bassplayer347]

I've been thinking about updating our stage lighting with some thing like this.....

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[perfdavid]

This is what I got for our band. And it works awesome. I am extremely impressed by our wash lights, I can't say enough about them. They really do a grat job. Oh, and our band was on a budget.

 

[Dkerwood]

I would advise going with some of [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

250W apiece, and best of all, you don't have to mess with gels on par cans.

Will you have a person running the lights, or will you simply have them on some auto program? I don't know what kind of budget you have, but with a little thought behind your programming, these would be very cool for your show. Even just two of them are great.

Just remember this - there are only two reasons to have lights onstage. First, to see the performers. Second, to add some color and visual interest.

For the first function, a PAR can at the feet of each performer would do the job (if they don't move around much). Heck, I've seen bands use those clamp-on shop lights you can get for $5 from Wal-Mart. My personal preference is that your basic lighting should be white, beige, or some other neutral color. My eyes get sort of tired of looking at blue, red, yellow, green performers all night. That's just my opinion, of course.

For the second function, you don't need a lot of power to throw some color around, especially if you have some smoke/fog in the air. We use two stands in the back with PAR38s, along with an AmDJ Vertigo, throwing some beams of moving light up into the air. Those stage washes that Perfdavid mentioned are excellent for this function as well. But again, IMHO, don't let the washes be your "basic lighting" unless you really want to look green all night.

Oh, one last word of advice. Go all DMX. Don't settle for anything that isn't, or can't be used as DMX.