Portable Light Board

[soundlight]

Well, if the pars are for presentations, get two more of them. You will only be using two channels of a 4 channel dimmer pack. Seems like you'd want to utilize the equipment to the fullest.

If this lighting will be used for dances as well, get two of the $25 moonflowers from BulbAmerica:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/products/15201

Bargain price for a proven effect for dances.

If you can go for a bit more, get two of these:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/products/15204

By now, I have probably busted your budget. (I'm known for that.)

Do your best to decide what you need based on what you know about the gear (and ask more questions if you need to).

OSRAM lamps: good lamp (bulb) manufacturer. If possible, I always pick the OSRAM lamps over the BulbAmerica brand when ordering from them.

 

[Charc]

Well, if the pars are for presentations, get two more of them. You will only be using two channels of a 4 channel dimmer pack. Seems like you'd want to utilize the equipment to the fullest.
If this lighting will be used for dances as well, get two of the $25 moonflowers from BulbAmerica:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/products/15201
Bargain price for a proven effect for dances.
If you can go for a bit more, get two of these:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/products/15204
By now, I have probably busted your budget. (I'm known for that.)
Do your best to decide what you need based on what you know about the gear (and ask more questions if you need to).
OSRAM lamps: good lamp (bulb) manufacturer. If possible, I always pick the OSRAM lamps over the BulbAmerica brand when ordering from them.

Haha, I'm busting my own budget by insisting on everything being DMX controllable. I guess one would run those cheap dance lights off the 4 ch dimmer?

Edit: Anyone else notice I forgot safety cables on my list? Haha, oops.

 

[soundlight]

About the DJ effect lights: Nah...you could just put them on a switch. Just get an inline switch from the local "home improvement center" (mega hardware store) and put it inline with an extension cord that goes to the fixtures specifically. Easy, cheap control. They move on their own. Just turn 'em on and leave 'em on for dances. If you want EVERYTHING to be DMX controllable, these lights would be the fault in your system.

I think that this would be the best thing for DMX'able dance effect that might be in the price range:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/products/653
two of those would work well. It's a roller mirror that produces a large number of images because it has a multi-faceted mirror. Two of these at different angles would create a very cool effect for dances.

Just for reference, the color changer will do you almost nothing for dances unless you want to spotlight a single person. And it's not always best to use a color changer as a spot - get a spot bulb for at least one of your pars if you don't want to do that. Most people are not cool with their face being lit by red, green, orange, purple, or yellow.

And I agree with BillESC's comment about switching blacklight models.

Also, you can use the dimmer pack to chase lights, so if you had 4 parcans and gelled them with different colors, you could chase them using your control board during dances, creating a cool effect. You could also use the LED parcans to create quickly changing colors that flash rapidly.

 

[Charc]

Yea, the color changer was not going to be for dances, but performances. I was thinking about taking the led pars and aiming them down, and the gelling the conventional pars and aiming them up, hoping for spill down around the room, add light to ceiling, and ambient light, as they turn off the lights in the building.

 

[Charc]

What is the difference between something like this, and the old light board I found in the attic. The old one is 12/24, 3 pin dmx. Do I need the flashy dmx controller?

 

[lighttechie5948]

depends. are you using intellegent lighting? Is the old board DMX? How many channels do you need vs. how many does each board have. And you always want more channels on a board. Youm should not fill it totally up. You should leave some growing room for years (and lights) to come.



-Joe

 

[soundlight]

Also about the old board: are you SURE that it is DMX? There are a bunch of older 3-pin protocols that will absolutely fry DMX gear.

 

[avkid]

Such as AMX, LMX, Multiplex, Ultraplex, and then all the brand specific languages come into play.

 

[soundlight]

The brand languages are the fun ones . They can really throw curveballs. All them strand and colortran and nsi and leprecon and jands lightronics before anyone got standardized.

 

[gafftaper]

Hey Charcoal, If you want to understand DMX I heavily recomend the book: Practical DMX by Nick Mobsby about $30. It's an easy to read (even fun at times) guide to the history and future of the DMX mess explained in plane old English.

 

[nalange]

I did the same kind of thing at the school I work at, a kind of coffee hour with musicians etc, using limited power. What I did was use two of our 50 degree Source Four lights with 575W lamps about 15-20 feet away for front light, angled about up and apart about 30 degrees, and put in Rosco 34 color, which is called "flesh pink". Then I put a 50 degree Source Four directly above the stage about 10 feet as a down light, in Rosco 68, which is a rich blue. I didn't use a dimmer, I just plugged the lights into a three-fer and into an edison extension cord, which handles 15A (1800W). 575W x 3 instruments = 1725W. You can also try 375W lamps in Source Fours. The stage looked very pretty and evenly lit, and the down light in blue highlights the person onstage beautifully. With the Source Four, you get much more control than a fresnal or par and they put out a very even field of light.

 

[DarSax]

They're also ~$300 a pop, so that kind of eliminates it from the equation. PARs are cheap, effective, and, well, cheap and effective.

 

[nalange]

Yes, they are expensive new, but you can find used Source Fours on ebay for around $180 plus about $25 for shipping. They are a good investment if you plan on doing a lot of lighting because they are so versatile and durable.

 

[soundlight]

The amazing features of the S4 are unbeatable, yes, when you have the budget. But sometimes twenty dollar parcans really do fit the bill.

And the LED parcans are less new than a used S4, and they can do any color.

 

[Edrick]

i know this is a bit late but you can get your self some new source four jrs from this site.

http://stagelightingstore.com/tab1/store/category/aykg/Lighting/System_Packages_Specials.html

 

[soundlight]

Ehh...coffee house. For a coffee house, you can easily get by with parcans. Pop an NSP bulb in one for a spotlight, or get a used 360Q or 3.5Q MT if you need a spotlight.