Dear Forum Members,
I read over a good number of threads last night trying to gain some knowledge. I found your advice to be most helpful, so I decided to run my situation by you to see what you think.
My background is in IT where I provide contract support to a number of area businesses. One of these is a school that lost their sound/light man at the beginning of the year. There was no one qualified to take over, so I have been doing it. I feel pretty comfortable with the sound at this point. (I found a very good local mentor.) However, I am pretty much just getting started in lighting.
The school’s main performance area doesn’t really have much in the way of lighting, so I haven’t done really anything with this. (There are a dozen or so lights on four household style dimmers.) I basically turn them on or off. I just started doing DJ work for the school dances. I purchased a CHAUVET® DJ GigBAR™ IRC for this. So far, I have been impressed with this for the application. (It has also increased my interested in lighting, especially DMX.) That is the full extent of my lighting experience.
This brings me to the real question. In a couple of weeks the school is doing a fundraiser that will have a small band (piano, guitar and five vocalists) performing on a portable stage approximately 20 x 10. Since the stage is portable and not being setup in the main performance room they asked me to find some lighting. (The area where they are setting up the stage is actually the darkest section of the room.) The GigBAR is obviously not designed for this, so back to the store.
The ceiling in the room has three center areas that are 10 to 12 feet high and an outside ring that is only 8 feet high. The stage will be setup within one of these higher sections. Therefore, my original plan was to get 16 Chauvet DJ SlimPAR™ 64 RGBAs. I planned on setting eight up in each of the front corners of the stage on two Chauvet Heavy-Duty Tripod Stands set as high as possible. (I am a little concerned about the lighting in the center of the stage, but I don’t see much option.) My thinking was to get a lot of lights. Then, I would also be able to use them for up lighting at other events.
In reading other posts in this forum, I am now concerned I might be going too low quality on the lights. I have to pay for these myself, and I only have $2,500 to spend. (I would like to spend far less, but I also want the show to look good.) I am now wondering if I should go with eight Chauvet DJ SlimPAR Quad-12 IRCs. This would cost about the same, and I would have (I think) better lights that I could add to later.
I plan on spending some time learning lighting in the next few months. I am particularly interested in DMX control, so having some lights to learn with would be nice. However, I need to get something in place for this event in two weeks!
Any suggestions/tips would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Matt
I read over a good number of threads last night trying to gain some knowledge. I found your advice to be most helpful, so I decided to run my situation by you to see what you think.
My background is in IT where I provide contract support to a number of area businesses. One of these is a school that lost their sound/light man at the beginning of the year. There was no one qualified to take over, so I have been doing it. I feel pretty comfortable with the sound at this point. (I found a very good local mentor.) However, I am pretty much just getting started in lighting.
The school’s main performance area doesn’t really have much in the way of lighting, so I haven’t done really anything with this. (There are a dozen or so lights on four household style dimmers.) I basically turn them on or off. I just started doing DJ work for the school dances. I purchased a CHAUVET® DJ GigBAR™ IRC for this. So far, I have been impressed with this for the application. (It has also increased my interested in lighting, especially DMX.) That is the full extent of my lighting experience.
This brings me to the real question. In a couple of weeks the school is doing a fundraiser that will have a small band (piano, guitar and five vocalists) performing on a portable stage approximately 20 x 10. Since the stage is portable and not being setup in the main performance room they asked me to find some lighting. (The area where they are setting up the stage is actually the darkest section of the room.) The GigBAR is obviously not designed for this, so back to the store.
The ceiling in the room has three center areas that are 10 to 12 feet high and an outside ring that is only 8 feet high. The stage will be setup within one of these higher sections. Therefore, my original plan was to get 16 Chauvet DJ SlimPAR™ 64 RGBAs. I planned on setting eight up in each of the front corners of the stage on two Chauvet Heavy-Duty Tripod Stands set as high as possible. (I am a little concerned about the lighting in the center of the stage, but I don’t see much option.) My thinking was to get a lot of lights. Then, I would also be able to use them for up lighting at other events.
In reading other posts in this forum, I am now concerned I might be going too low quality on the lights. I have to pay for these myself, and I only have $2,500 to spend. (I would like to spend far less, but I also want the show to look good.) I am now wondering if I should go with eight Chauvet DJ SlimPAR Quad-12 IRCs. This would cost about the same, and I would have (I think) better lights that I could add to later.
I plan on spending some time learning lighting in the next few months. I am particularly interested in DMX control, so having some lights to learn with would be nice. However, I need to get something in place for this event in two weeks!
Any suggestions/tips would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Matt