Finding the right disco ball lights.

[RonHebbard]

Ron, That's certainly another way, and one I've used in the past. Lighting it from two angles certainly gives you plenty of overlap and movement within the movement of the rotation, and also can give you two colors if that's what the designer is looking for. It can also be too busy, depending on the look they are trying to achieve. Depends on the design and the designer. I was merely expressing my preferred method using one source. If you have a place you can dump the spill light into (behind the leg of a curtain or out of view), then obviously that would be the better choice to retain most of the light.

@DELO72 Lighting from two opposing sides affords the designer at least four options:
- One color.
- The other color.
- Both colors.
- And neither color.
All the above options and we've yet to add color scrollers or 'old fangled' rotating color wheels from the disco era.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[derekleffew]

Understood and agreed but be certain to include the entire ball in your beam, DO NOT fall into the trap of inadvertently reducing the diameter of your beam to less that the diameter of the ball. Trimming in too tightly, and thus missing some of the extremities of the ball, can cost you a lot of the effect's apparent speed of rotation and seeming variations in the rotational speed of a fixed-speed ball.

Personally, I find the hard-edged circle of a Super Trouper's beam only half as big as the ball to be more annoying than overspray.

This isn't a very good depiction, but maybe you get the idea. Watch National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation 1997 for a clearer view.

 

[RonHebbard]

@DELO72 Lighting from two opposing sides affords the designer at least four options:
- One color.
- The other color.
- Both colors.
- And neither color.
All the above options and we've yet to add color scrollers or 'old fangled' rotating color wheels from the disco era.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

@DELO72 While we're chattering regarding lighting rotating mirror balls:
If / when you hang your mirror ball and its rotator below a flown pipe's center-line with two light sources on opposite sides of the same fly pipe, a number of further options become available to you:
- You can trim the pipe, the ball and the lights out of your patrons' sight-lines behind a border and utilize the effect of the ball without ever forecasting / revealing its presence or having it dangling in view distracting from your performers' and pulling attention to itself before its turn. (Pun not intended on 'turn')
- The relationships between the ball and its light sources remain unchanged as the pipe's trim height is altered.
- You can fly the pipe in to a lower trim between acts and manually change or add colors.
- You can keep the ball's existence a secret, utilize its effect while the ball itself remains out of sight, then use it again later with it in view and part of the set designer's look.
- Having the ball, its rotator and its light sources on the same pipe also makes focusing and replacing burn-outs appreciably simpler.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[kendal69]

Forget the mirror ball, the world BEST dico light is the Martin RUSH WIZARD.

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I purchased 4 of these and every time they go out the cusromers rave about them. They give you the same "mirror ball" pattern but it's DMX has colors, patterns etc.
What I do is set them up near the statge put them on SOUND and they don't even need to be controlled, let the musin do the work for you.

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[Grayson Lights Chicago]

Good evening everyone and happy 4th of July!

This coming spring is our school’s spring musical. This year it’s going to be In The Heights. My job of course is lighting design and I’m honestly very excited I got a 10 month headstart.

After doing some research I believe that the nightclub scene is one of the key scenes and every nightclub isn’t complete w/o some disco lights (in my opinion, at least).

Now there isn’t a budget set yet but I’ve been looking into some disco lights and the Rotosphere Q3 by Chauvet DJ has really got my attention except for the pricing (yikes!). I’m wondering if anyone in the CB Community has had any experience with using disco lights and could probably throw some suggestions and ideas my way.

DMX Control would be very nice and the price range shouldn’t be too high. My plan B though would be to have a mirror ball and have LED lights aimed at the mirror ball to reflect some color.

Thanks and please ask some questions if clarification is needed.

Check out some Gantom fixtures for reliable, color changing pin spot option

 

[Amiers]

Forget the mirror ball, the world BEST dico light is the Martin RUSH WIZARD.

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I purchased 4 of these and every time they go out the cusromers rave about them. They give you the same "mirror ball" pattern but it's DMX has colors, patterns etc.
What I do is set them up near the statge put them on SOUND and they don't even need to be controlled, let the musin do the work for you.

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While that looks awesome and amazing it doesn’t have any of the classy gaudy disco look. IMO. obviously I wasn’t even bornt so I wouldn’t know exactly what it was like but I have a good idea.

 

[mbrown3039]

Good evening everyone and happy 4th of July!

This coming spring is our school’s spring musical. This year it’s going to be In The Heights. My job of course is lighting design and I’m honestly very excited I got a 10 month headstart.

After doing some research I believe that the nightclub scene is one of the key scenes and every nightclub isn’t complete w/o some disco lights (in my opinion, at least).

Now there isn’t a budget set yet but I’ve been looking into some disco lights and the Rotosphere Q3 by Chauvet DJ has really got my attention except for the pricing (yikes!). I’m wondering if anyone in the CB Community has had any experience with using disco lights and could probably throw some suggestions and ideas my way.

DMX Control would be very nice and the price range shouldn’t be too high. My plan B though would be to have a mirror ball and have LED lights aimed at the mirror ball to reflect some color.

Thanks and please ask some questions if clarification is needed.

There's a lot of information here and I think some of it may be over-complicating the matter...I did a fair bit of lighting work for large nightclubs in the 80s and 90s, and, in my opinion, there is no fixture that properly simulates the effect of a mirror ball. Not the CP Astroaggi, not anyone's "porcupine" (like the unit pictured above), nothing. The lazy, somewhat mesmerizing spin can only (and most cost-effectively) be achieved with a glass mirror ball.

As for DMX control, there are several DMX-controllable mirror ball motors on the market. As for illumination, a Par38 pin spot using a VNSP lamp works best for single color -- the best placement (if possible) is directly below the ball (directly below the "south pole") as a single fixture can be focused to illuminate the entire bottom half of the ball. With a bit of air media (fog), the light column itself becomes and element; and, if you have any spill, it may be irrelevant as it will most likely be on the backstage ceiling.

As for the spill/no spill argument, I've done both: if your mirror ball will be near a scenic wall, then the halo created by over-shooting the ball can be just as dramatic as the ball itself.

If you want something larger than 6', you can order half-spheres.

Best wishes, M

 

[Calc]

A moving light or zoom fixture can be good for this- or a S4 19 deg., 10 deg, or 5 deg. depending on how far away, or using an iris.

I tried this out last year for a dance recital- note that different distance throws will give you different size specs of light. If i remember, a closer wider fixture will give you bigger blobs, while a smaller degree fixture from further away will give you smaller specs. If using multiple lights, you could use this to contrast them instead of color too.