Light’s fan noise

[Vivilama]

Hello folks,

I am an absolute rookie in this field and was delighted to find this forum where I hopefully can get answers to my endless questions.

Now I am not working in this field but rather doing my own entertainment/ tutor show for YouTube. I decided to bump up the production value by adding stage lighting.
Basically the idea is that whenever someone donates money, I want the light mood to change to something vibrant. For my default mood I am using lights for video/film as skin tones are important. I wonder how I can switch the light mood of two worlds? Power switch?
I also have to pay a great deal of attention to noise as I want to record high quality sound and use sensitive microphones. I already get the problem that PC, video switcher and some other devices start to accumulate noise. It is still somewhat acceptable but now I worry about the DMX controller and DMX lights as I have spotted fans on them and know that they are made to be used in a noisy environment anyway. To be fair when changing mood music and sounds will also be triggered ( don’t know how yet ) so a little bit of noisy shouldn’t be an issue.

So long story short, how noisy are those fans?
Do they have an idle mode where the fan don’t spin or won’t the fans turn on if i

My room is fairly big but the mics might be about 3m(9 feet) away from the DMX equipment.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

vivi

 

[RonHebbard]

@Vivilama "DMX equipment" as you termed it should be silent, or so close to silent you won;'t notice.
As far as fan noise on lights, several points:
Non-moving, non-colour changing, lights should have no fans and emit very little noise; a hint of vibrational buzz due to filaments heating and rattling slightly due to some dimmers but no moving parts and no fans.

If you want to progress into this century and gain features such as colour changing and / or movement.
Look at LED fixtures, generally less heat, less need for fans.
For even more money, look at water proof, weather tight fixtures designed for out door use: No vents, no fans, even less noise; designed to cool via convection and heat sinks.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[Vivilama]

@Vivilama "DMX equipment" as you termed it should be silent, or so close to silent you won;'t notice.
As far as fan noise on lights, several points:
Non-moving, non-colour changing, lights should have no fans and emit very little noise; a hint of vibrational buzz due to filaments heating and rattling slightly due to some dimmers but no moving parts and no fans.

If you want to progress into this century and gain features such as colour changing and / or movement.
Look at LED fixtures, generally less heat, less need for fans.
For even more money, look at water proof, weather tight fixtures designed for out door use: No vents, no fans, even less noise; designed to cool via convection and heat sinks.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

Thank you for your reply. Very good points. Didn’t know about the weather tight fixtures. Although, to start out I would like to try something more budget friendly first and upgrade later.
Could I ask your opinion on these? https://co-z.stage-light.info/co-z-4pcs-dmx-controlled-led-stage-lights.html
Thanks again,

vivi

 

[RonHebbard]

Thank you for your reply. Very good points. Didn’t know about the weather tight fixtures. Although, to start out I would like to try something more budget friendly first and upgrade later.
Could I ask your opinion on these? https://co-z.stage-light.info/co-z-4pcs-dmx-controlled-led-stage-lights.html
Thanks again,

vivi

Never heard of them; I suspect they're "value engineered" = cheap and cheerful, designed to meet a price point rather than for any particular quality of performance, reliability, repeatability.
Let's call out a little help from a manufacturer:
@rsmentele and / or @Ford would either of you mind pointing new poster @Vivilama in a better direction?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

How large of an area are you lighting? Suitable fixtures will vary a lot from a talking head at a desk to a full stage. Maybe post a link or image? I doubt the fixtures you linked would render skin tones very well, but maybe you rely on conventional incandescent for that and LEDs just for flash and trash. Doubt you'll find an LED with suitable performance under $500 a unit.

 

[Vivilama]

How large of an area are you lighting? Suitable fixtures will vary a lot from a talking head at a desk to a full stage. Maybe post a link or image? I doubt the fixtures you linked would render skin tones very well, but maybe you rely on conventional incandescent for that and LEDs just for flash and trash. Doubt you'll find an LED with suitable performance under $500 a unit.

Thank you. Please see attached images.

Yes, exactly as you said Bill, those fixtures will be just for flash n’trash! With blue and orange lights there won’t be much natural skin tones left .
I am looking at the Aputure 120D ii for the more serious/ natural lighting and luckily it has DMX Control.

So the idea was that once someone donates, I switch off the Apurture and let the other fixtures take over. Ideally moving fixtures rotating in at me, but that’s for later. Maybe trigger thunder sound as well and even a wind machine?

The challenge is I am a one man show so I need to try reducing the pushing buttons and pulling faders action to a minimum.

I am already using a pedal to add effects to my voice. Then there is the video switcher and lastly the DMX controller.

As a reference for the “trash” lighting please look at this :

Establish Sunrise & Sunset Onstage With These Unbelievably Gorgeous Color Palettes

Lighting Designer Jimmy Lawlor shares the vibrant sunrise and sunset color palettes he used in his design for a production of "Picnic" at James Madison University.

www.rosco.com

I love this!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Not solving your control options - assuming a laptop - you seem to have good fixtures for basic face lighting. Ill simply assume you have them arranged well for balance and so on. You can get some pretty cheap color changing and even moving lights on Amazon that for effect should be fine. Put one or two on floor behind you and a couple in front perhaps off to side. Which doesnt answer your noise question. I would nor expect the color changing to be noisy - too low power and cost to have fans. The movers might be.

Basically it seems the real economy LEDs are not available for demo.

Best I can do.

 

[Vivilama]

Not solving your control options - assuming a laptop - you seem to have good fixtures for basic face lighting. Ill simply assume you have them arranged well for balance and so on. You can get some pretty cheap color changing and even moving lights on Amazon that for effect should be fine. Put one or two on floor behind you and a couple in front perhaps off to side. Which doesnt answer your noise question. I would nor expect the color changing to be noisy - too low power and cost to have fans. The movers might be.

Basically it seems the real economy LEDs are not available for demo.

Best I can do.

Very much appreciated!
Thanks Bill!

 

[RickR]

Limited control of most DMX fixtures can be done without a DMX controller. They can be set to a color or even a built in effect from their own panel. They then keep that setting when powered on/off. But do note this is not universal merely very common.

Another thought is to set them to sound activated. In your case, probably a separate speaker that plays only your money sound, right at the light microphone. Many cheaper "DJ" fixtures can be run in a master/slave mode. This could make the effect automatic without much effort.

If you find fixtures from one of the larger DJ/import brands (ADJ, Chauvet DJ, Blizzard) someone here may have experience with them and their detailed settings. Manuals can be confusing and incomplete. You might also check out a local dealer. Try renting a few lights and get some experience of your own for limited cost. Many dealers sell used gear!

 

[Vivilama]

Limited control of most DMX fixtures can be done without a DMX controller. They can be set to a color or even a built in effect from their own panel. They then keep that setting when powered on/off. But do note this is not universal merely very common.

Another thought is to set them to sound activated. In your case, probably a separate speaker that plays only your money sound, right at the light microphone. Many cheaper "DJ" fixtures can be run in a master/slave mode. This could make the effect automatic without much effort.

If you find fixtures from one of the larger DJ/import brands (ADJ, Chauvet DJ, Blizzard) someone here may have experience with them and their detailed settings. Manuals can be confusing and incomplete. You might also check out a local dealer. Try renting a few lights and get some experience of your own for limited cost. Many dealers sell used gear!

great idea with the sound triggering! Will look into that. Thanks a bunch

 

[taneglaus]

You might look at MIDI control of both sound and lights. You could program midi to change music and the lighting mood with a single trigger.

 

[almorton]

Maybe spring for a copy of QLab, and have a couple of cues in a stack, one for the "normal" state, with no sound effects, plain lighting, then one that plays the Tada!! and at the same time dims the lights and flashes the colours, then loops around back to the steady state again, ready to go. Then all you have to do is hit the space bar. Qlab can do sound, DMX lighting and video in one package if you need to.

 

[Vivilama]

Maybe spring for a copy of QLab, and have a couple of cues in a stack, one for the "normal" state, with no sound effects, plain lighting, then one that plays the Tada!! and at the same time dims the lights and flashes the colours, then loops around back to the steady state again, ready to go. Then all you have to do is hit the space bar. Qlab can do sound, DMX lighting and video in one package if you need to.

This is awesome! Never thought there was a software that can do all. Unfortunately only Mac and pricey... is there an alternative?

 

[RonHebbard]

This is awesome! Never thought there was a software that can do all. Unfortunately only Mac and pricey... is there an alternative?

Calling @dbaxter
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[macsound]

This has been mulled over by a lot of Twitch gamers since they spend lots of time in front of cameras. Not that you should only use these products and tacticts because they're so specifically designed for this Twitch market, they can be limiting and expensive. However, don't have to completely reinvent the wheel.

Check out elgato, they make 2 important things for your use - Key Light and Stream Deck. Key light is an LED, controllable light, Stream deck is a customizable bank of buttons. You can program the buttons to do a bunch of things that would otherwise require clicking or using an app for, but they are super simplified because they're physical buttons.

Also, check out IFTTT. If this, then that. You could setup an automatic function to turn a striplight or Nanoleaf bank a certain color every time someone makes a donation. Completely automated.

On the otherhand, since we're all super familiar with theatre, I echo using QLab to make some simple cues to fire that include lighting and audio. The huge advantage to using "industry standard" gear that uses DMX is you don't have to worry about interoperability like with the above mentioned gamer stuff. If it's got DMX, it works. So you could potentially add confetti, smoke, fire and moving lights in the future without having to completely re-engineer it all.
That all being said, if you become super popular and people are throwing virtual dollar bills at you faster than you can say thank you, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you'll quickly get tired of the effect.

 

[dbaxter]

Responding to Ron's call out - our software, Cue Player, is a less expensive Windows alternative to Qlab. Right now, there is one package for sound and another for lights - but they can 'talk' to each other and trigger cues from one or the other. In other words, one cue list can control both sound and lights. There are remote control, wi-fi web based, applications for both to control the main computer(s). If you have any questions, please send me an email. Goodness knows, like the rest of us, I have time to answer.

 

[Vivilama]

This has been mulled over by a lot of Twitch gamers since they spend lots of time in front of cameras. Not that you should only use these products and tacticts because they're so specifically designed for this Twitch market, they can be limiting and expensive. However, don't have to completely reinvent the wheel.

Check out elgato, they make 2 important things for your use - Key Light and Stream Deck. Key light is an LED, controllable light, Stream deck is a customizable bank of buttons. You can program the buttons to do a bunch of things that would otherwise require clicking or using an app for, but they are super simplified because they're physical buttons.

Also, check out IFTTT. If this, then that. You could setup an automatic function to turn a striplight or Nanoleaf bank a certain color every time someone makes a donation. Completely automated.

On the otherhand, since we're all super familiar with theatre, I echo using QLab to make some simple cues to fire that include lighting and audio. The huge advantage to using "industry standard" gear that uses DMX is you don't have to worry about interoperability like with the above mentioned gamer stuff. If it's got DMX, it works. So you could potentially add confetti, smoke, fire and moving lights in the future without having to completely re-engineer it all.
That all being said, if you become super popular and people are throwing virtual dollar bills at you faster than you can say thank you, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you'll quickly get tired of the effect.

oh wow, what a great forum. Glad I found this.
Yes I am familiar with the streamdeck and elgato product line. For the reasons you mentioned I am trying to avoid them. It is made for a specific target hence has limitations. Now I don’t wanna sound like a selfish spoiled brat as I am well aware that quality , reliability and expand-ability has its price. With Qlap being pricey I meant in respect of the uncharted territory I am about to enter. If you guys say that it is the industry standard and second to none, I will actually consider it.
You mention also a very interesting point which is also swirling around in my mind for a while ( perhaps one of the reasons why I hesitate to poor a lot of money into it) . The effect will get boring. So I wonder how to solve that. Is it creatively possible to always come up with something new/fresh? I guess to some extend it is.

Thanks for all your responses, really appreciate!

vivi

 

[almorton]

For PC based software I've used Show Cue System in the past. It was always easy to use and reliable, we only stopped using it because we stopped trusting Windows (had W10 do an update mid-show even when it shouldn't have been possible) , so moved to Qlab on Mac.

 

[Vivilama]

For PC based software I've used Show Cue System in the past. It was always easy to use and reliable, we only stopped using it because we stopped trusting Windows (had W10 do an update mid-show even when it shouldn't have been possible) , so moved to Qlab on Mac.

Thank you!
Will check out Show Cue System. Indeed it seems Qlab is the way to go. I haven’t understood the way it works yet but will do my homework.
- Will I still need a DMX controller?
- How does Qlab or Show Cue System control the lights,fog machine etc?
- Where are the sounds it controls stored?
- Does it also support/control midi?
The reason I am asking about midi control is the following.
I am using a synth (Korg Kronos) with a pedal to change my voice by triggering a chain of effects. I also want to use the Korg for Jingles and sfx and maybe even to play a tune once in a while ( why not?).
So if I could trigger a program of lights, sounds, wind blower,l and whatnot by a simple press of that pedal hooked into the Korg Kronos, it would be actually super awesome.
Speaking of pedals, I am also using a dedicated pedal to switch cameras on my video switcher. This is very important as I walk from A to B and therefore the pedal is perfectly hidden from the cameras and I can simply step in it on the way.
My question here is,
- is there a way to actually split a pedal signal and control another program with it?

Now you might wonder why I need this crazy setup. Well, when I stand at area A I require different lights than at place B .
of course I have yet to try it out as currently it is all in my head and I know from my experience that in reality things look a bit different.

I am sorry that I have concatenated a bunch of question into this thread and hope it is ok. PerhapsI should rename the topic ? Or is it better to start a new topic? Maybe “ how to create an impressive one man show”

 

[almorton]

Qlab or SCS (or whatever else comparable you might use) becomes your DMX controller. You need to attach a unit to generate the DMX, which in the case of Qlab I is an artnet to DMX node or a USB-DMX interface, in the case of SCS a USB-DMX converter (the small range of supported converters is pretty much the same for both), and then all your lights are controlled from there. If your fogger is DMX controlled you would also control it via the DMX controller. You program the cues to generate the DMX values you need for the lighting states, the amount of fog etc instead of pushing faders or buttons on a DMX controller.

Both systems store he sound files on their local hard disk, and output via the sound card or an external sound card. This then feeds to your mixer, streamer or amplifiers or whatever.

Both systems can send MIDI and receive MIDI, both to control things like synths, external MIDI controlled devices such as full lighting consoles, and also to react to MIDI events e.g. run a cue when a pedal or key is pressed.

The MIDI interface may have a MIDI in and thru, in which case more than one device can react to the same midi command arriving.

Both systems are extremely powerful. They take a little while to become completely comfortable, and they are different in their approaches, but it could be worth it for you. Both have free versions you can try out before you decide to commit cash. The manuals for both are online, so you can take a look at the workflow before you even download anything. Qlab manual here and Show cue system here.