steadlands Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Hi folks, I am in the middle of researching what is expected from a good festival lighting rig. Biggest issue is daylight. Everybody has a budget but am not worrying about that just yet. So here’s what am thinking…. I am assuming the venue/marquee has no rigging, 6m of truss along the back with lifts, floor standing truss for a splash of side lighting. Equipment wise, ProLights- 4 beams & 4 washes in the Movers department. 20 ProLights LED pars and Battens, Avolites quartz for control. Keeping all fixtures within the LED range if possible but lamps could be considered for movers. Any further thoughts about what is expected these days? What makes this sort of rig attractive for hire? Are people even hiring festival rigs as a package? Many thanks in advance! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurzweil_dude Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Molefay Blinders, Sunstrips. All good for day time even outdoors works. A fezzy stage isnt a stage without a copious amount of blinders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 A fezzy stage isnt a stage without a copious amount of blinders. That does depend rather a lot on the style of music... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peza2010 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Any "named" acts? Or rather any specced rigs?? The best lighting rig for the job, is the one that overlaps/merges your headliners requirements as well as possible, along with anything you think you need for daytime/pre headliners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurzweil_dude Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 A fezzy stage isnt a stage without a copious amount of blinders. That does depend rather a lot on the style of music... True. But as the OP dictates, for someone making a generic lighting package, blinders should consist heavily, id say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBoomal Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 A fezzy stage isnt a stage without a copious amount of blinders. That does depend rather a lot on the style of music... True. But as the OP dictates, for someone making a generic lighting package, blinders should consist heavily, id say. Probably best not to try that at the Cambridge folk festival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurzweil_dude Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Probably best not to try that at the Cambridge folk festival. And yet... a quick google, one of the first images returned: http://www.forfolkssake.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Cambridge_Folk_Festival-2.jpg Going back to the OP. Regardless of blinders, the more in the air the better. Festival stages can get tight with bands performing, more loading in, more setting up etc. Sometimes floor packages can get in the way - especially if your looking at 6m span. Consider flying options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Something to consider (and before anyone says anything there are a handful of exceptions, but they are very much exceptions) any festival that's using a stage that /doesn't/ have rigging capacity built in to it and who want one company to provide them with lighting and freestanding rigging in one turnkey package is likely to be at the budget end of the market so your primary considerations should probably be for cheapness to operate, low crewing requirements, low capital outlay, all fits in one van - elements that impact your cost price and thus dictate whether you can afford to take this £1000 job or not. Jobs at that end of the market don't tend to have expensive headliners with exacting LX requirements. (yes, some festivals use a bigtop and put the stage at one end so that the structures own rigging isn't any use and thus needing to install a ground-support stage, but in these instances they almost always have an existing supplier to take care of their stage builds. Thinking back over the last 5 years I'm struggling to come up with more than 2 or 3 festivals we have put structures in where the LX provider and the rigging/stage provider were the same company) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peza2010 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Also consider height of your lowest fixtures, ive operated a fair few festival rigs that have a 3rd of the fixtures blocked by backline etc because they were rigged too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyMitchell Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 @David - Having had a look at your site http://www.steadland...st-approaching/, the first question that comes to mind is, what/where do you feel your current packages are lacking? Being a noise boy with a little LX knowledge, I'm happy to be corrected on this point, but even in 2014/15 I don't think you'll find many festival rigs that are "ALL LED" and fewer still where the brand of choice is prolights. Typically it's Clay Paky, Robe & Martin stuff (plus other big names), lots of "bar of six" tungsten 64s, Atomics, etc. What are the other hire companies within an hour's drive of you using? If you want another 12 movers for a job, you want to hire more of the same and locally. Opportunities to hire your kit will work the same way, if you have the right kit that other companies want. Just my 2p. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steadlands Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Hi all, Thanks for all the responses. Some handy information included in all your replies. From website stats I can see that some of you have jumped over to our website for a nosey around. What are your feelings about the site and the services we provide? Our business Steadlands Lighting & Sound is a relatively new/small adventure and we have just started gathering pace. A small family business and we do have budget limits which we are already working tightly to, but also looking to progress positively. Investing in a festival rig would be a big step compared to what we currently offer in our lx hire department. But we would like the step to be positive and worth it, after all the equipment has to pay for itself. Starting with a small but “nice” intelligent rig is a good place to start I feel. Testing the water is difficult without the equipment. But with the same stick we don’t want to end up dead in the water… hence my research. The ProLights range is starting to show its head I many different forum discussions on and off here, and with positive reviews! With the reviews in mind and of course the cost the ProLights range we feel its a good starting point. We have used a selection of the ProLights fixtures including Ruby, Moonstone, Diamond7 and the Reflex. All have good optics and performed well during our demo in our warehouse during the day! Yes Robe would be great but for the price difference… Is it all about the name or the performance? Time for a brew! Cheers, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 To test the water, you can always subhire from other suppliers. That way you'd learn what your clients are expecting, without the capital overlay of an untried rig. You'd very quickly realise what stuff you need every time, but it would also be an opportunity to link up with other local companies to get access to specials / extra kit that individually you don't own as needed. The ProLights range is starting to show its head I many different forum discussions on and off here, and with positive reviews! With the reviews in mind and of course the cost the ProLights range we feel its a good starting point. We have used a selection of the ProLights fixtures including Ruby, Moonstone, Diamond7 and the Reflex. All have good optics and performed well during our demo in our warehouse during the day! Yes Robe would be great but for the price difference… Is it all about the name or the performance? If you're talking about doing festivals, their performance in your warehouse is of no concern - a dry, dark, flat, warm indoor space, being put up by people who know the kit is on demo is about as far from festival life as you can get. How do they handle being trucked? How do they cope in torrential rain (even if covered from direct exposure, some water *will* get to them)? How do they cope with grumpy local crew chucking them around stage during a change over? How do they cope when you've got the sun directly in front (or behind) your stage? Do they have remote reset capability? How much regular maintenance do they need? How many different tools do you need to change a gobo / lamp / main board fuse? Robe, Martin, Clay Paky and the other big names didn't get there just by having a good marketing department. The fixtures you see all the time are there because they work out well on the <reliable> - <looks good> - <price> equation. They're known for being workhorses, with a wide range of expertise available to solve any issues that arise, and are easy to sub-hire in for a big event, or in the event of a crisis with on site kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norty303 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 If you can get enough work in that sector to cover supplying the name brands then all power to you. I've found that budgets are limited but they want the 'look' of the bigger stages, without the kit overheads of the big brands.6 each of beam, spot, wash movers (take your pick of LED or regular lamps, but 2r/5r heads from China are hard to ignore at the price and seem to fair pretty well for the money for the beams). Don't forget Atomics/3K strobes into the package. A unique effect thats hard to replicate with other technologies. As for what makes this sort of rig attractive - price. A lot of budgets seem to be enough to cover crew, transport, consumables and then not have anything available for kit. I run a rig not to dissimilar to what is being described to go alongside my primary thing of laser displays. The LED thing is certainly attractive - I was toying with Moles but went the 30W COB route to combine some eye candy backlight and blinder functionality. They do a pretty good tungsten. Anecdotally, my best ever kit was 8 Robe 250XT scans, all bought used, out to festivals for some years, soakings, mud, etc and sold for nearly what I paid some years later, in not far off the same condition as when they started. I'm yet to have an encounter where any specific brand has been requested. Stuff thats been useless over time? Cheap haze/fog. Now running Smoke Factory Tour Hazer, Haze Base and Look solutions Viper kit and its a revelation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 In that case your first question should probably be "is this even a business" as if you become the most popular and in demand lighting provider for mini festivals in your region you would still only be looking at 10-12 jobs per year per rig (and even that would be an exceptionally good level of work that would take years to build up) which at this budget end of the market is only going to translate to £12-15k of revenue so certainly isn't going to become anything approaching a stand alone business. Thus if you really are keen to move in to this field of business you should probably be looking at a good marketing stratergy, then ensuring you have the experienced crew and logistics needed to service festivals, then calculate the scale of rig you can realistically pack in to a van you can afford to operate (and which would survive being driven across a muddy field every week) and THEN start thinking about equipment purchases but actually looking at items which are in-demand viable hire items for the 300+ days per year that you aren't using them at festivals and only then be troubling yourself with trying to decide on the precise light source or brand name purchases to make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norty303 Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Agreed with Tom, I'm a part timer, but I run it to make profit, not just for a hobby. The limit now is basically how much time I have available from the day job to do the work. Summers are plenty eventful, from May to September.Its taken some years to get to this point. I rent vans, its not worth owning one, but I have a big people carrier with 800kg+ payload so it covers a lot of work. I don't dry hire, its not worth the grief of theft/damage, especially on kit that may not be quite up to the beatings other brands might be. I can 'care' my kit through the years if I just don't let other people get their hands on them! This immediately removes the issues of deciding if its dry/cross hireable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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