Weekend Warrior Stage Lighting Discussion

[DirtDog]

A huge shout out to having Wireless DMX! I bought a single send and three receiver kit and it has been a huge space and time saver.

What brand/model did you buy?

 

[Mike7300]

Is anyone on here a qualified rigger?

 

[Jason Stock]

What brand/model did you buy?

Donner 4pcs DMX512 Dfi from that online place Amazon..... Mine are the ones you plug in (not battery ones) and they have been great and no problems at all. I keep them in a small utility box in the tool kit in my lighting trunks. One send from the controller, one in the chain on the back, one to each side of the front lights.

Never had a problem, outdoors and indoors.

 

[Jason Stock]

You might be putting things are under stress in ways they're not designed for by doing that. If something falls & wasn't used properly, there can be big consequences. I'd ask the clamp mfg-er at least (should be able to PM a question) or run it past a qualified/certified rigger if you can. Seems like an OK idea, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is.

THIS is EXCELLENT advice!

Many many years ago I got to work on several large setups for various shows and learned a lot about lighting and sound. Back then, it was not all LED and stuff, but heavy par cans with bulbs that could cook food. I got to help qualified riggers, techs, grips and engineers on a few set ups. I learned a lot. Am i qualified or certified? NO, but the point made by JohnMCA72 is spot on, contact someone in your area to get them to check it out. You said you live in a city so there has to be certified techs that will look at your set up and say yes/no. Just remember, you sometimes have to spend money/time to make things safe, but that is very little compared to the potential alternatives.

 

[Mike7300]

That’s a good idea!

 

[DirtDog]

Donner 4pcs DMX512 Dfi from that online place Amazon..... Mine are the ones you plug in (not battery ones) and they have been great and no problems at all. I keep them in a small utility box in the tool kit in my lighting trunks. One send from the controller, one in the chain on the back, one to each side of the front lights.

Never had a problem, outdoors and indoors.

Sounds way better than stringing 100s of feet of DMX cable!

 

[JohnMCA72]

Here's one of my PAR trees. All power is Y-ed to a single plug. DMX cable or wireless receiver gets plugged into the 2nd PAR, with terminator on the 3rd.

Setup steps (takes about a minute each):

1. Set up the pole.
2. Mount the tree.
3. Plug in the DMX receiver & power supply, powered from the PAR.
4. Plug in AC power.

 

[Mike7300]

Can a powercon connector be attached to one of those ? Or I need all powercon fixtures if I want to daisy chain them?

 

[gumtown]

I use these wireless DMX modules
Wireless Dmx512 Module Board LED Controller Transmitter Receiver 5vdc for sale online | eBay
which I mount 1 inside a light on each bar, and 1 in the smoke machine.
you can then daisy chain your DMX wiring to the other fittings on the same bar,
so all you need to do is hang the light bar and plug in the power.
Currently using 132 DMX channels to run the show.
The DMX module runs from the light fittings internal power supply.

 

[EdO.]

I was referring to the AC daisy chain from one fixture's AC socket to another fixture.

Can a powercon connector be attached to one of those ? Or I need all powercon fixtures if I want to daisy chain them?

Mine are completely daisy chained socket to socket from the source outlet all the way to the last fixture. As stated earlier never a problem with it. With LED lights the amperage draw is so low I can't see where there would ever be a problem, but of course I'm not an expert. Has worked for me for the past 3 years m/l.

 

[JohnMCA72]

Can a powercon connector be attached to one of those ? Or I need all powercon fixtures if I want to daisy chain them?

I don't know why not. Might need to find or build the appropriate cable(s).

What I have on each tree is 2 each IEC (1) C14 to (2) C15 plus a (1) NEMA 5-15P to (2) C14. It was easy enough to find all of them in appropriate lengths off the shelf. No reason to believe something isn't available with Powercon instead of NEMA.

 

[4Mal]

I have an outlet bar zip tied to each of my 4 light bars. Cheesy but it works.

 

[gumtown]

I have an outlet bar zip tied to each of my 4 light bars. Cheesy but it works.

Same here, also replaced many plugs for the piggy-back 'tap-on types, so I can daisy chain most of the lighting.

 

[4Mal]

If it is a gig that requires truss, I have rubber quads that daisey chain with powercon. Stupid expensive but... it is an approved for entertainment uses setup. We occaisionally see an inspector on larger shows so I geared up for that. Fire extinguisher on each side of the stage as well... Never ever needed one but when the inspector sees that, he glosses over a lot of other stuff.

 

[Mike7300]

This may need a separate thread but do any of you do preprogrammed light shows? I’m trying to figure out what the best software is to use for click track and to trigger lighting along with it (so not the software or hardware to program lights but just to trigger them). This will be done by the band on stage so mainly all setup and automated .

 

[JohnMCA72]

This may need a separate thread but do any of you do preprogrammed light shows? I’m trying to figure out what the best software is to use for click track and to trigger lighting along with it (so not the software or hardware to program lights but just to trigger them). This will be done by the band on stage so mainly all setup and automated .

I've looked into it some. Biggest problem (other than getting musicians to actually follow the click!) is handling the variable-length segments that happen when a solo gets extended, somebody talks, somebody screws up a little, etc. - in other words, spontaneity. If a show is so well-rehearsed and tight that nothing EVER changes, it's fine, but as soon as some tiny little thing happens that affects the timing, everything goes out the window.

I've experimented with a couple of software controllers, that can manage a lot more than simple scenes & chases. I can set up basic scenes with transitions, load up a few appropriate ones into a cue list, & execute a scene at an appropriate moment. It takes a lot of programming up front as well as close attention during the show that's more than I can handle along with sound, let alone run from stage while playing.

 

[Mike7300]

Yea I can see that being tough. Besides a couple medleys we have we play our songs basically the same every time so the automation would work pretty well for my band. If we did have a situation where something unusual happened like an extended solo or if we extended a chorus I figure I could use a footswitch to just click the lights to some general type of lighting until the end of the song so that the lights won’t be out of synch.

 

[gumtown]

I have experimented with beat triggering of scenes and strobes, usually a setting to divide the beat by about 16, so lighting scenes change every 4 bars of a song (or so).

Other options are bass/guitar to midi, and use certain midi notes to trigger lights/colors/scenes.
But you will always need a manual footswitch to trigger chase or strobe scenes.

 

[Mike7300]

Yes unless it’s all preprogrammed to a click track which is what my goal is. So then my drummer can just hit a button on a computer or iPad and the click track will start along with the lighting that’s preprogrammed for that track.

 

[SoCal80s]

I've looked into it some. Biggest problem (other than getting musicians to actually follow the click!) is handling the variable-length segments that happen when a solo gets extended, somebody talks, somebody screws up a little, etc.

Right, if it's pre-programmed you HAVE to play it exactly the same EVERY time. Solos must be the same length and if someone screws up you have to get back in synch with the click track. One thing I've used to help with this is to add audio cues into the click track to help keep everyone together. 1 bar before the chorus you hear "Chorus, 2, 3, 4" etc. Having the 1 be a different sound is very helpful too. And that is MORE work that you have to do upfront.