Performance/Rehearsal Lighting in the Classroom

[chouston]

I have been requested to research and recommend an LED lighting package for our middle school and lower school drama classrooms. They would like lighting in the room to illuminate their rehearsal/performance areas in each classroom.

Each room has an area of about 270 to 300 sqf. that they want to light. They also want to incorperate a simple controler (w/ sliders) so that a kid can act as a board op. The rooms have 9' ceilings, so not a lot of head room

I'm thinking of some sort of small DJ rig, but I'm not sure what to look at as I am much more familiar with theatrical lighting.

Has anyone here run into this sort of thing, or could steer me in the right direction? Many thanks!

 

[almorton]

Do you want colour or just white light? A lot of the very affordable warm white LED fresnels use a single channel mode for brightness. To a certain extent you can gel them. We've got some elumen8 MP60WW fixtures which subjectively feel like a 500W fres in brightness. Could be worth a look? A few of those on lighting T bar stands could be all you need. One channel (slider) per fixture. Just run DMX from stand to stand and terminate the last one.

 

[macsound]

A few questions
1. Is this meant as a learning tool for an actual stage you have somewhere else on campus that the kids are preparing for? Or is this just meant as the feeling of a theatre, but the lights only need to evoke emotion vs doing a good consistent job illuminating?
2. Do you have power in any particular locations you need to tap into, or this is just temp with extension cords?
3. What's the ceiling made out of?

 

[kenact]

How many rooms are you talking about, and what kind of budget do you have? Multi color LED Pars will give you a lot of color options, but may require a board with more sliders than you're thinking of.

If you are interested in having color options, you may want to look at fixtures that have a 2 channel mode (color & intensity). Narrow beams will help with isolating areas.

You might also look at a software solution, instead of a physical board, to give yourself more flexibility in your fixture selection. There are a number of free software packages available. There are also software packages that offer educational licensing.

 

[RickR]

I recommend ceiling mounted track or strut. Keep the power cords off the floor for safety and convenience. (Assuming frequent use) Similarly, permanent controls with sliders will be far easier for the youngest to understand.