Room/ceiling uplighting

[brunatius]

Hi guys,

I'm interested in making a ~30'x50' room with fairly tall ceilings (~20') more warm and cozy by using an RGB wash light. This is not a super small room but we will not need a lot of light, indeed, the levels will be fairly low. Not too dark, but not super dark. People will be dancing social argentine tango, so no strobing, etc. The light needs to be indirect in order to not annoy any dancers.

I've never done any lightning so I am a bit at a loss without real world experience of what works, what power required, etc. I thought a Chauvet Core 3x1 could do the trick by pointing it at the ceiling from one edge of the room (where the DJ will be).

I don't mind doing trial and error but I would need to find a dealer that would let me try some different lights. Is there any dealer you would recommend for DC area?

 

[derekleffew]

http://www.yellowpages.com/washington-dc/theatrical-stage-lighting-equipment
Barbizon are friends of ControlBooth. Also, not included in the yellow pages listing above is 4Wall DC.
You might also check Chauvet's dealer listing for DC and Virginia.

Note that bouncing light off the ceiling, although a great method for diffuse, indirect light, isn't considered "uplighting" in DJ parlance. Uplighting is lighting the walls of a room, to accent or add architectural elements, with either a narrow beam instrument to create shafts or streaks of light, or a wide angle (wall-washer, cyc light) to flood the entire wall.

LED fixtures are great for this, and battery-powered and wireless DMX are definite plusses if you can afford the added expense. Look also at the offerings of http://blizzardlighting.com/index.p...ayout=category&task=category&id=49&Itemid=275 .

 

[RickR]

The key to this sort of lighting is lighting the surfaces people will see. No matter how bright the 'working plane' is the mood is defined by the visible surfaces. After all air doesn't reflect light (unless you've fogged the place!) and the floor and ceiling aren't what folks look at, generally. The higher the ceiling the less it matters. So in the end it's the walls that matter! Then apply the usual design tools, brightness, pattern, texture, color, movement...

 

[brunatius]

Thanks guys, this is very informative. I will no longer use uplighting for bouncing off the ceiling and seems like since it is made out of wood it will not be the best for bouncing and diffusing light. This made me realize that maybe I should go with multiple lights pointing at the walls throughout the room. I have a friend that is getting rid of 8 slim par 56 and a controller. I plan on using Max to control the lights so the controller isn't that attractive but it's part of the package. I think this would work, I would spread the lights throughout the room but it's definitely much more of an involved setup than my pie in the sky idea of having just one source

Is there anything you would strongly say against this solution to start off with? What is a reasonable price for second hand stuff? He only used this once a week and for short periods for maybe a year or two. I understand these are not as strong as the new 64 but hopefully bright enough for me? Are they very narrow?

I find it odd that there is not a standard way to assaying all these lights on the market using some sort of standardized metrics, like people do for photography. I'd like to roughly estimate how many ft in between lights along a wall to not have visibly dead areas..

 

[Calc]

From Elation's website:
• DMX channels: 3 or 7
• DMX connectors: 3-pin
• Light source: 108 (36 red, 36 green, 36 blue) 0.25W (20mA) LEDs 100,000hrs
• Beam angle: 14°
• Field angle: 23°
• Illuminance: 876 @ 2 m
• Power linking: 50 units @ 120 V / 100 units @ 230 V
• Input voltage: Auto-ranging 100-240 VAC 50/60 Hz
• Power and current: 24 W, 0.2 A @ 120 V 60 Hz
• Power and current: 27 W, 0.1 A @ 230 V 50 Hz
• Weight: 2.7 lbs (1.2 kg)
• Size: 9.5 x 8.8 x 2.2 in (241 x 224 x 56 mm)
• Approvals: CE, MET

14 degree beam may sound narrow, but seems just about right to me. If your ceilings are really 20', that's a 5' wide beam at the top. The bounce off the ceiling will still spill some color onto the areas in-between, so it won't look too plain.
Where you put them will change based on layout, decor, and a hundred other things. We do uplighting for some of our events here, and I change around where they are almost every time. Leave yourself some time to play around with them, and it'll be fine.