Chase P.
Well-Known Member
Greetings all!
So I need some advice on new lighting for a month long (mostly) orchestral festival in a tent.
(TL;DR Color correct RGB pars or purchase LED "crowd blinders"? See full details below)
When I took over the event, they had:
-A 40'wide by 36' deep stage (black gloss StageRight decking)
-Boxed in with black velour drapes on three sides
-16 Altman 750watt 6x9's hung roughly 16' above stage height, on truss 16 from the downstage edge of the stage for front light and soloist specials
-Two unistrut battens, 13' above the stage
-With 8 350-500watt rectangular outdoor flood lights pretty evenly distributed on each batten for top light
-6-8 more flood lights above the audience as house light
-Powered by an ancient 36 dimmer Scrimmer rack, each dimmer is 3.6 kilowatts, powered off a 100a feed
-In a big white vinyl clearspan tent.
I kept using their previous setup for a couple years, adding some back or side light from LED RGB pars that I could get on a bro-deal from another company I work for.
They now want to switch to all LED, getting rid of the dimmer rack. The lights add too much heat to daytime rehearsals, the dimmer rack sounds like a jet engine, and the Altman's are literally rusty and corroded from being stored in humid conditions for years. Power on the site is very limited, obviously the instruments listed barely make a dent in the available capacity from the Scrimmer rack.
I've tried out the Monoprice Stage Right led ellipsoidals, and they'll do the job for front light. (They're not horrible, despite being plastic housing. They make a zoom in a metal housing as well. We should discuss these in a separate thread).
To the meat of my question: I'm trying to come up with a very affordable top light solution for performances to replace the outdoor flood lights. I'll be running truss at a similar (13-14' trim) across the stage to replace the unistrut, so actual theatrical fixtures can be used. With the existing truss, and the size of the tent, trim is pretty well locked in.
Budget is <$4k. I could rent every year, but the event is a month long, and gets expensive. Purchasing a budget solution would allow me to upgrade something else next year (and there's a lot that needs it).
My two current thoughts are:
Bite the bullet and purchase something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/COB-Light-...m=352232521628&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598
Use a bunch of the RGB Chauvet Tri-Par IRC's that I have cheap access to, with color correction gel to get the "white" close to something useable.
I also have to LED-ize the house lights. Might use LED high bay fixtures, 0-10v control with a DMX converter, since they never need to dim to 0%.
Any advice or experience with these solutions would be appreciated.
So I need some advice on new lighting for a month long (mostly) orchestral festival in a tent.
(TL;DR Color correct RGB pars or purchase LED "crowd blinders"? See full details below)
When I took over the event, they had:
-A 40'wide by 36' deep stage (black gloss StageRight decking)
-Boxed in with black velour drapes on three sides
-16 Altman 750watt 6x9's hung roughly 16' above stage height, on truss 16 from the downstage edge of the stage for front light and soloist specials
-Two unistrut battens, 13' above the stage
-With 8 350-500watt rectangular outdoor flood lights pretty evenly distributed on each batten for top light
-6-8 more flood lights above the audience as house light
-Powered by an ancient 36 dimmer Scrimmer rack, each dimmer is 3.6 kilowatts, powered off a 100a feed
-In a big white vinyl clearspan tent.
I kept using their previous setup for a couple years, adding some back or side light from LED RGB pars that I could get on a bro-deal from another company I work for.
They now want to switch to all LED, getting rid of the dimmer rack. The lights add too much heat to daytime rehearsals, the dimmer rack sounds like a jet engine, and the Altman's are literally rusty and corroded from being stored in humid conditions for years. Power on the site is very limited, obviously the instruments listed barely make a dent in the available capacity from the Scrimmer rack.
I've tried out the Monoprice Stage Right led ellipsoidals, and they'll do the job for front light. (They're not horrible, despite being plastic housing. They make a zoom in a metal housing as well. We should discuss these in a separate thread).
To the meat of my question: I'm trying to come up with a very affordable top light solution for performances to replace the outdoor flood lights. I'll be running truss at a similar (13-14' trim) across the stage to replace the unistrut, so actual theatrical fixtures can be used. With the existing truss, and the size of the tent, trim is pretty well locked in.
Budget is <$4k. I could rent every year, but the event is a month long, and gets expensive. Purchasing a budget solution would allow me to upgrade something else next year (and there's a lot that needs it).
My two current thoughts are:
Bite the bullet and purchase something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/COB-Light-...m=352232521628&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598
Use a bunch of the RGB Chauvet Tri-Par IRC's that I have cheap access to, with color correction gel to get the "white" close to something useable.
I also have to LED-ize the house lights. Might use LED high bay fixtures, 0-10v control with a DMX converter, since they never need to dim to 0%.
Any advice or experience with these solutions would be appreciated.