Do I Need Lights?

[uhhehhahh]

How small do you want to start at?

small start, use some colored par 38 lights, they are cheap and robust, compact so usefull in small venues.

medium start, buy some par 56s, and use color filters, some stands could be added.

or even led based 56s.

larger start, 500w washs or 1000w washs, such as par 64s, how ever power supply could be an issue in smaller venues

 

whats your choice?

 

 

Can a par64 also function as a wash? What is the standard, usual watt for par64?

[david.elsbury]

I would suggest some light reading, probably starting in the Blue Room wiki.

[uhhehhahh]

I would suggest some light reading, probably starting in the Blue Room wiki.

 

 

Ok, thank you, will check it out.

[prolightdesigner]

How small do you want to start at?

small start, use some colored par 38 lights, they are cheap and robust, compact so usefull in small venues.

medium start, buy some par 56s, and use color filters, some stands could be added.

or even led based 56s.

larger start, 500w washs or 1000w washs, such as par 64s, how ever power supply could be an issue in smaller venues

 

whats your choice?

 

 

Can a par64 also function as a wash? What is the standard, usual watt for par64?

 

 

PAR 64s are pretty much an industry standard multi use light. They're known for their robust and rugged construction as well as their brightness. You could use them to make washes or more focused areas of light, depending on the flood style of the lamp. PAR 64 lamps come in 4 different flood patters, from very narrow to wide. Wattage is typically 500w or 1000w, though I think there are a few other wattages available.

 

-Jeff

[heinz57]

heinz, they mean most venues have 1 or 2 sockets (once you have unplugged the fruit machine...) in total for everything including sound AND light!

 

Well yeah you have a very good point. But like I said we only ran them off the two sockets like that for the pure easyness of not having cables trailing everywhere.

 

But yeah, running both the lighting and sound off one socket isn't the best of ideas.

 

Sureley there must be more than just a few sockets in the venues.

 

But like with what was mentiond earlyer in the topic. In the venues with sockets in short supply you would be fine just taking one in, I mean these things can light you up pretty easy.

[david.elsbury]

Sureley there must be more than just a few sockets in the venues.

 

Have you ever done a gig in a pub? No, thought not... :blink:

[uhhehhahh]

PAR 64s are pretty much an industry standard multi use light.

Thank you for that answer, as I understand there are basically 4 different types of lamps that you can put in a PAR64, and that lamp will dictate the function of the PAR64?

[prolightdesigner]

PAR 64s are pretty much an industry standard multi use light.

Thank you for that answer, as I understand there are basically 4 different types of lamps that you can put in a PAR64, and that lamp will dictate the function of the PAR64?

 

Yes, to an extent. For instance if I need to wash a stage but can only hang lights, say 15ft back, I'd want to use a wide flood lamp so I can fill the stage with the fewest lights. If I can put my lights back a ways then I might use medium flood lamps to minimize spillover while maintaining brightness. If for instance I'm lighting a band and each performer wants a light focused on them I might use a narrow flood PAR to maximize the desired effect. This gets to the point where it's more of the lighting designers tastes and what's available versus function. In the case of 'if I could only have one flood pattern what would it be?', I would choose Medium or Wide because, though not the most professional solution, you can narrow a beam with home made cardboard shutters whereas you can't easily widen a beam that's too narrow.

 

Hope this helps

[david.elsbury]

Home made cardboard shutters on a par64? Watch them go up in smoke fairly rapidly...

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Widening a beam is easy, just use frost.

[prolightdesigner]

Home made cardboard shutters on a par64? Watch them go up in smoke fairly rapidly...

 

I'm not necessarily saying it's a good idea, and yes, you do have to use caution so you don't start a fire, but I've gotten away with it though.

 

-Jeff

[Andrew C]

Why not use black-wrap which does the same job, but is safe?

[prolightdesigner]

Why not use black-wrap which does the same job, but is safe?

 

I didn't have any, and needed to make a quick fix for one night thanks to a clumsy light tech. Precautions were taken to make sure the modification didn't burst into flames. The point I was trying to make, in response to uhhehhahh's post, was that the beam spread of a PAR can sometimes be modified to fit certain needs.

 

-Jeff

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

and what precautions might that be?