I need to light the high school gym floor. This is the 2nd time I have done this, last years worked ok but not great. I used 6 s-4s of the rear basketball goal and ran a cord from the outlets up to three on each side. I did not have much lighting on the upper part of the where the aerials were being done. I want to do a better job this year. If anyone could make a suggestion that would be great.
Lighting a gym for a cheer-leading competition
- Thread startergmff
- Start date
ArthurRiot
Member
The goal for this type of show is even, bright, white light, I'd assume?
How big a performance space are you trying to cover? How many circuits do you have access to? How many kW can they each handle? How many instruments do you have at your disposal, and exactly what? S4s come in a pretty wide variety, and that degree is important, plus are the lamps 575 or 750?
And do you have S4 PARs? If so, what lens do you have in those, and do you have any spare lenses?
How big a performance space are you trying to cover? How many circuits do you have access to? How many kW can they each handle? How many instruments do you have at your disposal, and exactly what? S4s come in a pretty wide variety, and that degree is important, plus are the lamps 575 or 750?
And do you have S4 PARs? If so, what lens do you have in those, and do you have any spare lenses?
Constant even lighting in a 42'x 42' square and at least 16' high and the background must be illuminated for good contrast to the cheerleaders. The lights can just go on and off, no dimmer control is needed.
I have 6) 26 & 6) 36 degree source 4s, 18) Altman 6" Fresnel & two sets of 4 par64 tree lights.
I have edisons on 3 of the 26s and 3 of the 36 but every things needs to be adapted to edisons if used around the gym as everything else is twistlock. Everything has 500 or 575 watt bulbs, I have lots of 12 gauge extention cords and each outlet is wired to a 20 amp circuit with 12 gauge from breaker to outlet. I have no control of the fresnel overthrow as I have no barndoors or tophats.
I have 6) 26 & 6) 36 degree source 4s, 18) Altman 6" Fresnel & two sets of 4 par64 tree lights.
I have edisons on 3 of the 26s and 3 of the 36 but every things needs to be adapted to edisons if used around the gym as everything else is twistlock. Everything has 500 or 575 watt bulbs, I have lots of 12 gauge extention cords and each outlet is wired to a 20 amp circuit with 12 gauge from breaker to outlet. I have no control of the fresnel overthrow as I have no barndoors or tophats.
Littleton High School, Sat. Jan 29th
Hey Icewolf08, Glad to hear from you. To live part of your life in Northern NH in the 1950s and 1960 compared to any where else or any other time is like winning the Lottery. Growing up here was just like it was on "Leave it to Beaver". I mhope your experance was that good. We are still trying to hold on to some of that.
Hey Icewolf08, Glad to hear from you. To live part of your life in Northern NH in the 1950s and 1960 compared to any where else or any other time is like winning the Lottery. Growing up here was just like it was on "Leave it to Beaver". I mhope your experance was that good. We are still trying to hold on to some of that.
A thought. DON'T change connectors on your instruments, instead make some Edison>Pin (twistloc?) adapters. About 4' has worked well for me in the past. This will let you then use your normal cabling and twofers for everything, making life much easier. Make 'em once, and you've got them for use in the future. Use 20a hospital grade male edisons btw.
From a pure design standpoint, when I've done these I tried to keep light off of ANY vertical surface (including trying to be careful where floor reflections went) and tried to minimize it in their eyes. Generally used fairly steep angles (backs and sides were at about 80deg, front about 70deg). About half my instruments are non-gel'd, half have fairly deep colours (blue shinnbusters, red/magenta at shallow angle in front, lemon yellow at mid-steep angle. The colours added interest for the audience making a long day of watching this stuff a bit more tolerable (and increased attendance in future years).
Do you have access to a genie to hang instruments in the ceiling?
From a pure design standpoint, when I've done these I tried to keep light off of ANY vertical surface (including trying to be careful where floor reflections went) and tried to minimize it in their eyes. Generally used fairly steep angles (backs and sides were at about 80deg, front about 70deg). About half my instruments are non-gel'd, half have fairly deep colours (blue shinnbusters, red/magenta at shallow angle in front, lemon yellow at mid-steep angle. The colours added interest for the audience making a long day of watching this stuff a bit more tolerable (and increased attendance in future years).
Do you have access to a genie to hang instruments in the ceiling?
WOW! 18 of those fresnels. I can't think wheter thats impressive or unfortunate 
. For just that clear nice wash I would use the par64's but 4 probably won't cut it. Will the lights in the gym be on or off? For the flying you might be best using a spotlight it could add a nice touch, even if you don't have one on hand you could rent one or buy a stand and grip handel from city theatrical to make it into a spotlight.
. For just that clear nice wash I would use the par64's but 4 probably won't cut it. Will the lights in the gym be on or off? For the flying you might be best using a spotlight it could add a nice touch, even if you don't have one on hand you could rent one or buy a stand and grip handel from city theatrical to make it into a spotlight. 
A couple of thoughts:
If using hard service (SJO) instead of extra-hard service (SO) cord, you're limited by NEC 520.69(C) to a max. length of 1m (3.3 ft).
A 20A Edison male (NEMA 5-20P) may be problematic, as it has the neutral blade turned 90°.
Hospital grade is unnecessary, and only comes in white. Black commercial or industrial grade is fine.
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
WOW! 18 of those fresnels. I can't think wheter thats impressive or unfortunate
The biggest issue i see with using a spotlight is your 60% more likely to hit the cheer leaders in they eyes, and seeing is one of the most cruicial elements to an event like this. Also when lighting above if there are acrobatic elements in either of them be careful how far vertical you have your lights above the acts. It sucks to have too look up into a catwalk but when they are looking at their flyer and they can't see them because of the lights it adds a very dangerous situation into an almost always problematic one.
As well as with a spotlight you would have to either have a really good spot op or other because when we did this in a theater space with two full blown spotlights designed for the purpose of following flying acts in very quick succession it was difficult to keep the light on them.
My suggestion is get as much wash as you can on the performers colors are all secondary specialty, for this i would use the Fresnels as well as the pars, Use the ellipses for any kind of color specialty or for areas that don't require as large of an area.
