Strip Lights

[ademhayyu1]

Hello everyone!

For this coming Spring Musical (In The Heights) I’m working at my high school as the lighting designer, I thought it would be a good idea to have some strip lights.

I looked into some nice basic strip lights for a reasonable price and of course I wanted to see if there were any DMX controllable strip lights. Apparently, you need this some kind of LED DMX Encoder and it looks like some sort of weird contraption that came from another dimension.

If anyone can prob help me out w this encoder thingymajig and help me decide if it’s worth spending some bucks on these. Or should I just figure out how to manually control them with their remotes during a show. Thanks!

 

[theatricalmatt]

You may not be looking at the correct product. It sounds like you're looking at LED tape, which is usually sold as a reel of LED tape plus a separate encoder. The light it'll put out is often fine for architectural purposes, accent lighting, props, and similar uses, but not what we typically use strip lights for in the theater -- lighting up a cyc.

For that, you want something like a ColorForce or ColorBlaze, or perhaps ETC's new ColorSource Cyc fixture. It's probably best to talk to a local lighting rental shop -- PNTA's out your way, and there are plenty of smaller shops as well -- and ask for a chance to demo a few of their fixtures in their warehouse.

 

[porkchop]

You are correct about needed a DMX decoder. First off look at this thread. It covers the basics pretty exhaustively. If you have any additional questions we'll be happy to answer them.

 

[ship]

Most LED replacements for strip lights or cyc lights will have power in and feed thru, and data in and feed thru as a complete lighting fitxture without the need of anything else. Huge amount of LED product on the market in doing this. They are as called in the industry "turn key". These LED versions of strip lights will act just like a filament strip light; except that most will have a little more options and better color blending.