Design Ideas on what gear to light arena show with.

Saint

Member
Hey folks,

My first post here and I am very excited to hear what you all have to say. I am looking to get a few ideas on a basic look for ann arena concert show I am doing in a few months. The stage is like 64 wide by 48 deep. Hoping to do like 2 maybe 3 trusses 1 upstage 1 midstage and 1 down stage. Also will have like six vertical towers up stage at various heights with white material that will be be uplit with led wash fixtures and have a mover on the top of eact tower. Looking to get an idea of what model fixtures are recomended and how many movers I should hand on the flown trusses? Also wondering what type of traditional light is recomended as the show is also being videotaped with 5-6 cameras. Would love to hear your ideas and see if what i was thinking is in the same direction. Look forward to reading these later. Love the way creatives have such different ideas.

PS I will be writting the show blind in MSD Gold and then running it on an M1 most likely.
 
With a stage that large, chances are your trim heights are going to be ≥30', so 1200W moving lights are probably essential. See the thread http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...o-fixtures-similar-mac-2000-profile-spot.html . But regardless of what we suggest, you're going to be limited by what your chosen lighting shop has available. MAC 2000 Profile, Performance, and Wash; VL 3000/3500 Spot and Wash; should be readily obtainable. VL3500 Wash FX, and M2K Wash XB less so. MAC700s and VL2500s, in both Spot and Wash, may be acceptable, depending on expectations.

As for conventional fixtures for video, what kind of concert is it? Will you have enough color-corrected followspot s to dedicate one to each principal? Are you planning on having truss spot s? Often a barrage of eight six-lamp par-bar s would hang on the DS truss, all with 1/2 CTB, waiting patiently to pile loads of front light on the stage and totally hinder any efforts to paint a pleasant stage picture.

As to "how many movers I should hang on the flown trusses?", 1) as many as will fit, and/or 2) as many as the budget will permit. Also consider floor lights placed directly on the deck; easy to deploy, and help to add another layer to expand the space and draw the audience in. Speaking of audience, do you have to light them also, or is the video just for IMAG?

Many, many ways to skin this dead cat.
 
Last edited:
Conemporary Christian show. We are making a live dvd and yes the audience will need to be lit. Thinking 4-6 blinder banks. Using the towers rather than lights on the deck for there will be over 120 people on stage and need to get them above there heads a little. Only two follow spots from mid arena bird nests. Trying to find a happy balane of effect lights and enough light to capture clean video. If that all makes any sense.
 
So pretty sure as far as mover go going with:

18 Mac 2k Spots (6 DS truss, 6 US truss, 6 on verticle towers)
12 Mac 2k Washes (6 DS truss and 6 US truss)
6 Color blast 12 10 deg. (uplighting each tower)

Now just need some sugestions on what type of fixtures to use to get the wash needed for video. Source 4s? 1k Pars? Parnels? Open to suggestions. Thanks folks starting to get things honed in can not wait to program this show.
 
As I said, eight par-bar s (PAR64 or S4-PAR, all MFL) on the front truss. Perhaps six par-bars on the rear truss, MFL also. All L202. For the followspots, L205+L249. Have video white balance to the spots, and everything else will fall into place and render nicely.
 
So pretty sure as far as mover go going with:

18 Mac 2k Spots (6 DS truss, 6 US truss, 6 on verticle towers)
12 Mac 2k Washes (6 DS truss and 6 US truss)
6 Color blast 12 10 deg. (uplighting each tower)

Now just need some sugestions on what type of fixtures to use to get the wash needed for video. Source 4s? 1k Pars? Parnels? Open to suggestions. Thanks folks starting to get things honed in can not wait to program this show.

Perhaps get some LEDs to do truss warmers in the hung truss as well?
 
Technically all LEDs flicker. "Flicker free" LEDs are a myth. It has to do with how an LED creates light. The difference is that a lot of companies make it so that at full their units flicker in a range that doesn't match up with the standard fps on the cameras. If you turn the frame rate on the cameras up or down far enough you will see the flicker in the units.

And 90% of what is out there qualifies as "flicker free". So pick up some units and make some truss warmers on the flown truss. Have a ball.

And if you use PAR bars, be sure to be very careful with them or you will wash out all of your effects.
 
I would also talk with the video company. If it isn't high quality equipment, and sometimes even if it is, you can burn out the video making it useless. In other words, watch swinging straight into cameras with movers. I saw a concert on TV the other night and everything fast had movers going everywhere for no apparent reason and made watching quite difficult. Sometimes you have to decide what is more important, the video or the live.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back