Lighting suggestions?

[Sayen]

I'm lighting a small show on a football field, with stadium lights up, and I'm looking for any ideas on lower end lights that will have some visibility. We're leaning towards LEDs in the design because of power issues - by the time we run cable and a break out, plus dimmers, the LEDs are probably cheaper. I want to rent a bunch to play with, but I'm a bit inexperienced.

Without running a professional power setup, I have two 15amp circuits to work from.

Event is a rock band...

I have no illusions about doing fancy lighting under my budget, I'm mostly looking for some sort of pretty colors to make the audience think we did something fancy. The whole performance is about 15 minutes, and the budget is around $10K. Equipment has to be purchased new for the actual show, no rentals.

We're renting gear this week for a test run. I'm going to try a couple of different LED pars, and although I have my doubts my partner is bringing a Chauvet colorstrip. Any other thoughts on what we might try?

 

[derekleffew]

Forget about trying to compete with metal-halide/mercury-vapor stadium lights. The best you can do is point the LEDs at the audience and hope someone notices them.

See this thread: Automated Fixtures ShowPix On Today Show (Beyonce). You could maybe buy half a ShowPix®.

I'd try for ColorBlast12s.

 

[Footer]

Colorblasts can be bought used for 300-500. They are solid fixtures that should be readable in stadium lighting. Whatever you do, you are going to want to point lights at the audience and forget about lighting the people.

There are some interesting products out there that are LED units mounted on yokes. That would be the other way to go. Either way, audience abuse is the name of the game.

 

[Sayen]

I've worked with Colorblasts before, I'll give those a shot.

Among other things, I'm hoping I can turn off some of the stadium lights. I'm going to time how long they take to reach full brightness this week. I've been told 3 min...we'll see.

 

[Les]

I've worked with Colorblasts before, I'll give those a shot.

Among other things, I'm hoping I can turn off some of the stadium lights. I'm going to time how long they take to reach full brightness this week. I've been told 3 min...we'll see.

In my experience it's usually more like 15 or 20 minutes, depending on their age.

Hopefully it's set up so that you can have individual control of poles, or maybe banks within the poles. How they actually turn them on and off might matter also. I would guess that it's just a big panel with circuit breakers, but some stadiums have it through a computer system so that they turn on and off at certain predetermined times. That may be hard to override. Let me know how its done when you find out because I'm curious!

 

[Sayen]

They are about two years old, and on individual switches. Even 15 minutes is perfect...shut off the lights right before the performance, and they'll be up and running by the end.

As another thought, anyone try running a haze machine on a small stage like this? I'm wondering if it will help with a visible glow.

 

[shiben]

They are about two years old, and on individual switches. Even 15 minutes is perfect...shut off the lights right before the performance, and they'll be up and running by the end.

As another thought, anyone try running a haze machine on a small stage like this? I'm wondering if it will help with a visible glow.

Is the stage open air? If it is, good luck with haze. If not, good luck with haze on a small budget.

Just out of curiosity, why no rentals? For 10K, you could definitely rent a cooler rig than you can possibly buy.

 

[LeadHead]

Mercury Vapor/Metal Halide (most likely metal halide if its a newer setup, since the selling of new mercury vapor ballasts has been banned) may only take 3-4 minutes to reach full brightness, but the issue is that they will not re-strike when hot. They can sometimes take up to 10 minutes to cool down enough depending on ambient, and just how insulated the actual lamp housing is.

 

[shiben]

Mercury Vapor/Metal Halide (most likely metal halide if its a newer setup, since the selling of new mercury vapor ballasts has been banned) may only take 3-4 minutes to reach full brightness, but the issue is that they will not re-strike when hot. They can sometimes take up to 10 minutes to cool down enough depending on ambient, and just how insulated the actual lamp housing is.

Re-strike time in our less than a year old arena is 20 min, 15 to cool the fixtures and 5 to reach full intensity and temperature. Thats the official word, I can restrike them at 9 min, but they dont all go at once. Check this when you are planning.

 

[Sayen]

I was thinking about donating my Radiance hazer to the performance. The stage is open air, but closed in enough with gear that I'm wondering what would happen...assuming there wasn't a breeze...I suppose it can't hurt to try.

I'm not sure how this is funded, or if it's state funds or what, I've just been told that rentals are out of the question, and if the show is a success it's a project they want to continue. It's not actually my project either - a friend of mine, an audio expert, agreed to help, realized he knows less about lighting outdoors than I do, and came to me with their issues. I'll post a mockup or photos of the final product...it's sort of an interesting challenge, especially on the budget he was given. My first thought was rentals as well, but for whatever reason that is not a direction they are willing or able to go.

To be honest, I don't even know who is putting on the show...I just foolishly agreed to help solve some lighting problems. They are willing to pay to rent a number of lights to experiment with, just not for the actual show, go figure. So we're renting an assortment of low end LEDs to test out in the middle of the field.

Thanks for the note about the lights needed a cooldown to restrike...I'll time that as well.

 

[WooferHound]

As another thought, anyone try running a haze machine on a small stage like this? I'm wondering if it will help with a visible glow.

I have seen haze and fog used outdoors many time, but always with fans, the stronger the fan the better, within your power limitations.

 

[Sayen]

Well...

Turns out up time, from cold, for the stadium lights is about four and a half minutes. Restrike from hot...was too long, I got bored and gave up timing it, once it was apparent it was outside of my available timeframe.

I learned the event is a small rock show put on by a wealthy parent, who funds his kid's band. High school freshmen, with a manager/technician and crew member. They want to buy and not rent because...they're rich? I gather they discovered football fields are cheap to rent in the off season.

 

[bishopthomas]

Why not buy the stadium?

 

[shiben]

Why not buy the stadium?

Because then they would need to buy a rig like U2 has, and they would hate to have their kid feel bad when no one showed up...

I learned the event is a small rock show put on by a wealthy parent, who funds his kid's band. High school freshmen, with a manager/technician and crew member. They want to buy and not rent because...they're rich? I gather they discovered football fields are cheap to rent in the off season.

If they are really rich, tell them that u need more like 100k for a cool rock show lighting rig.

 

[Les]

Just out of curiosity (nothing to do with your situation), what type of switchgear do they use to control the stadium lights?

 

[Sayen]

Looked like four separate breakers tied to a single key switch.

 

[mstaylor]

Color blasts and LED strips either pointed at the audience or up through the drum kit, key boards and anything else that might be reflective. If you tryt to haze ACLs from the stage works well too.