Lighting a Boxing event

I am interested in having a boxing show with a lighting kit for the ring (20'x 20') and lighting for the ring-walk. The venue is a gym that seats about 300 people with a ring in the middle. Can anyone suggest a lighting scheme with a modest budget?
 
I am interested in having a boxing show with a lighting kit for the ring (20'x 20') and lighting for the ring-walk. The venue is a gym that seats about 300 people with a ring in the middle. Can anyone suggest a lighting scheme with a modest budget?
@Robert Lewis A few queries and thoughts while you're waiting for other posters to reply:
What's the finished ceiling height over the ring? Over the audience?? What's the ceiling's construction and color??? Are there any overhead lighting pipes and circuits to support and power your lights??? Is this being filmed / televised or only for patrons in attendance?????
Points to ponder:

a; Boxers aren't going to want bright lights glaring in their eyes.
b; You may have neither much power nor control available to you.
c; If you're lucky, the ceiling may be white or at least fairly reflective.
d; Four ground supported stands, each five or six feet out from the corners of the ring, if on a solid, level, flooring using heavy bases, or tripods, and lots of sandbags or barbell weights (whatever's handy for additional weight) could easily support one or two 6" 500 watt fresnels (or even Home Depot flood lights) two or three feet above the pugilists heads aimed up and across the reflective ceiling providing easy on the eyes, non-glaring, diffuse lighting from everyone's perspective without glaring in any camera shots or creating too much heat for the air-conditioning.
There're a few thoughts worth every penny they cost.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I spent 10 years lighting pro wrestling rings. A few questions I would ask first are:
1) you hanging the lights from the building or are they going to need to be on lifts?
2) what’s your rough trim. Height going to be?
3) are they taping/streaming the event? Do you need the consider cameras?

Once you answer these I can help you come up with a plan.

Ethan
 
@Ethan and @RonHebbard Thank you for the response. The information, so far, has been helpful. To answer a few questions, the venue is a standard gym with high ceilings. I haven't done a complete site survey but I know it's a typical gym for basketball. The floor is even and would need to mount the lighting harness from a stand base from the floor. The power needed my have to come from a generator. I have at least 9 show I have you use this lighting scheme within a year. The show will be streamed live for YouTube. Are there any engineers in the Buffalo, NY area that can help me?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
We're not in your area so this isn't an offer to come work with you... but we do a fair number of televised and PPV boxing gigs. The "look" desired differs with each event/TV producer but the big PAR can rig is back in vogue currently - 24kW on each side of the ring, a mix of wides and mediums with a trim of 24-28ft above the ring. With audio (my specialty) there's a full day of move in/set up before the TV crew and fight promoters arrive. You'll also want some light to paint the audience with and some "twinkly" stuff for the beauty shot. Fighter walk in is "spin and puke" or "flash and trash" stuff (think disco).

We've also done some tight-budget boxing that looks more like the way WWE used to do their "drive-by wrasslin'" gigs 15 years ago - an 8 ft piece of 12x12 truss on Genie lift forks, at each corner of the ring, 6 LED PAR or wash fixtures on each. We overcame the producer's aesthetic objections by suggesting they put vertical signage on the audience sides of the lift masts (like they do on the rings corner posts) so he could sell more sponsorship.

What's your budget? Are you trying to do this with existing inventory or is rental/purchase also in your plans?
 
We're not in your area so this isn't an offer to come work with you... but we do a fair number of televised and PPV boxing gigs. The "look" desired differs with each event/TV producer but the big PAR can rig is back in vogue currently - 24kW on each side of the ring, a mix of wides and mediums with a trim of 24-28ft above the ring. With audio (my specialty) there's a full day of move in/set up before the TV crew and fight promoters arrive. You'll also want some light to paint the audience with and some "twinkly" stuff for the beauty shot. Fighter walk in is "spin and puke" or "flash and trash" stuff (think disco).

We've also done some tight-budget boxing that looks more like the way WWE used to do their "drive-by wrasslin'" gigs 15 years ago - an 8 ft piece of 12x12 truss on Genie lift forks, at each corner of the ring, 6 LED PAR or wash fixtures on each. We overcame the producer's aesthetic objections by suggesting they put vertical signage on the audience sides of the lift masts (like they do on the rings corner posts) so he could sell more sponsorship.

What's your budget? Are you trying to do this with existing inventory or is rental/purchase also in your plans?
The lighting kit is only part of my budget and I don't have much experience pricing such an item. i want to facilitate Elite Amateur Boxing in Western New York for years to come so I am interested in purchasing a lighting rig. I think it would be more cost effective. What would $5000 get me in reference to a lighting kit.
 
Based on that information I would do the following.

4 st-25 crank up lifts about 20’ off of each ring post. 6 pars on each lift. You don’t need to do truss, just pipe (or a par bar that is pre wired works).

You want to be high enough not to be in the eyes of the people who paid the most to be ringside, but not too high that you have shadows under the boxers eyes.

I’ve attached a very quick and dirty focus chart of how I use to focus each tower. I did this for broadcast/PPV.

As far as your budget, for purchase that’s going to be real low. Rental it might be ok
32A227D2-0E8C-42D0-8656-C19A81F24B9B.jpeg
 
Curious as to why you would stack it all to one corner and not go 4 diagonal down the middle and 1 on either side?
 
Curious as to why you would stack it all to one corner and not go 4 diagonal down the middle and 1 on either side?
@Amiers Possibly @egilson1 Was illustrating one of four corners, leaving you to duplicate his focus with the other three. Focusing as shown aids in not firing into the eyes of the high-dollar patrons sitting tight to the ring.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
True. But wouldn’t they be around the whole ring?
 
True. But wouldn’t they be around the whole ring?
@Amiers and @egilson1 True and I suspect that's why Ethan's not firing all the way across to the opposite sides from any of the four towers.
Possibly @egilson1 will be along shortly to elaborate.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
During the Baseball strike of 1981 I lit boxing events every weekend for ABC, CBS or ESPN. Depending on the venue, we either ground supported or flew a 40 x 40' box truss square with 24 - 1K Pars on each side.
 
Just tossing in my two cents-- If you can, Hang a large white drop of fabric, stretched out above the ring (12-15' above) as a ceiling, and Uplight it with PARcans or Fresnels. You'll get a nice, diffused light from above, with no glare in anyone's eyes. WIN/WIN. And it's a very inexpensive solution. Hell- you can even have fun and project a gobo/logo on it before and after the fight. -- OR, use a number and do it like a "ring girl" to show what round it is between rounds.
 
Sorry for the delay in response.

So Ron is correct that the drawing I posted is for a single lighting position. You would rotate the focus areas as you moved from lift to lift. I used MFL S4pars and would orientate the lenses to go along the edge of the ring for the sides, and then the far shot unit would be vertical so it would catch the far ring post and a little above that (with wrestling, you have to account for action from the top rope). The near shot unit was horizontal.

I never put ground supported towers on the sides of the ring. Obstructing the view of fans on the sides is a no no.

Again, this is what I recommend for a tight budget. It's a different story if you can fly a 40x40 truss and hang 48 fixtures.

For entrances I would suggest anything that moves and flashes. Boxing is different than wrestling, you don't have a "character" you are trying to promote to your fans over the long term. Boxing is more about the in ring action.

Ethan
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back