The Cheapest Possible Light Rig

[Rich newby]

Hi

I have been asked by my mums school( shes a teacher) to see what lighting rig I can supply them with basically no budget(£200-£300 at most). Hire is not an option as the accountant cannot see the point in wasting Money on hire for a couple of nights. So I am looking at budget Par 56's and Behringer Eurolight 2412 light desks. I am stuck getting the cheapest dimmers, Ideally they will run on 230v, otherwise it will get tricky. I can get it to about £600 with Par56's and some behringer dimmers so far, but it is still too expensive. It will run from 2 t-bars, again which will need to be supplied. The stage is relatively small. It will be controlled by me and another teacher. So basically as many Pars as possible in budget mounted on 2 T-Bars with a dimmer and controlled by a Behringer desk. Is this the cheapest light rig you can buy? I was looking at second hand, but im not sure she will like that either. So my main question is, is this the cheapest light rig possible to buy, including a desk to operate ( not a foot dimmer job)?

 

Cheers and Merry Christmas

Rich

[endorphin]

If you have a spare computer why not get an enntec dongle (£40) an then use magicq which is free.

As cheap dimmers go the showtec multidims work ok and can be got for around £70 for a 4 channel unit. (NB cpc will hopefully be getting some re-badged versions in mid Jan for £40+vat.) The par56 can be got for £20ish so its just DMX cable (use cat 5 patch cable as it works ok and is cheap) and power to the dimmers and your sorted.

 

hth

 

Edd

[electronicsuk]

Second hand? eBay? Otherwise perhaps you could get away with an analogue desk with the dimmer pack built in on bulgin outlets, then some budget 56s and ultra-cheap stands. Something like the Showtec LightPower will give you 4 channels for under £150, and negate the need for dimmer packs.

[Rich newby]

Yer I saw some 6 channel ones on thomann for about £150ish but I would still need 2 which adds up to £300 already

 

Rich

[electronicsuk]

I think you're asking a lot to get 12 channels of dimming on that budget, is pairing up channels not an option? I would have thought 6 channels would just about get you through a small school play, with that budget they can't be expecting a lot anyway.

[david.elsbury]

I really, really hate to say this.... but do they have to dim? What about connecting the cans to a switched power board? http://www.ausparc.com/shop/images/Cat%20No%20SWPB4RCD.jpg

Would certainly be cheaper.... and I agree with the pairing. Especially with PAR56's you should get away with no more than 6 channels. e.g 2 ch of white, 2 ch of another colour and 2x 1ch of another 2 colours.

[mac.calder]

Or what about buying a quadpack or six pack and a couple of switchable power boards? It limits you to 4 (6) independant channels at a time, but you can double patch for some things (ie have two or more switches on on the power board) or just use a single light (just the one switch) for each channel.

[paulears]

I suspect the school are trying to get this from their sundrys budget. They really do need some realism here. Many schools can't buy secondhand as their rules preclude it. also, they are asking for the impossible - £300 is a drop in the ocean, they spend that on a supply teacher for a day, and if they order paint for the caretakers, they'll spend more than that. The problem you really have is that of priority- Rich's mum is trying to buy capital equipment from the meager budget meant for paper, drawing pins and other small items. You're expecting an entire lighting system for practically no money. It is never going to be much use. You've forgotten all the cables, plugs, gel, stands, clamps etc that will also be needed - plus the test certificates for anything secondhand.

 

Best of luck! Why not get the parent teacher association to see if they can rasie funds to get something better?

[Rich newby]

Paul mate, you've done this before :blink: That is exactly the next option, the PTA. However they are raising money for biscuits for the kids at break, not for a lighting rig. The school has already started a small fund, hence the £300. They are a med size first school, who are not doing too well. Every school around them has been rebuilt except them,So they are a bit down about that, fantastic school, fantastic staff, just not fantastic funds.

 

Rich

[mac.calder]

Looking back at the OP and my previous post, I find I must agree with paulears. I just grabbed one of the LX catalogues and priced a T-bar of reasonable quality. $150 AU. Two is three hundred AU, so 120 pounds maybe (rough conversion). Add leads - you said twelve channels, so lets say 12x 10m black. AU$200, uk - 80 pounds. So we have 200 pounds already spent.

 

You need at LEAST double that for just 1 t-bar, 4 parcans w/lamps and gel frames, and a low quality quad pack (advertised in a package here in au for $1500)

 

HOWEVER - hope is not lost for them. I raised (for my old school) over $18k (Australian) for a sound and lighting rig in a year. We basically split it 1:2, 6k for sound, 12 for lights. What we got though was still only basic (48 channels of dimming, cue stack/scene master 12/48 desk, quad pack, 2 T-bars, some lanterns, cords, gels, spare bubbles)

 

So to quote the great australian film "the castle" - "tell 'im 'ees dreamin"

[Ekij]

I know hiring seems like a waste of money but it's better than buying kit that is so under spec'ed that it's useless.

 

Have you considered buy/hire?

Buy the lanterns this year but hire the dimmers and desk.

next year, but the dimmers and hire the desk

and so on slowly acquiring the kit rather than hiring it every year.

Trying to buy an entire system in one year on such a small budget just doesn't seem practical. :blink:

[Jivemaster]

Spend the first 50% on the infrastructure. Power supply, fixing points, and secure cupboards, Then spend half the rest on cable plugs and sockets, Then use what is left for PAR cans.

 

A simple "lighting Board" like a 12 array of MK/Crabtree(et al) switches would be an economy start and could be replaced by a 12 way wall mount dim pack later as funds allow.

 

Keep in mind that shiny things have legs and will vanish if not secured. Safety bonds can have locks as well as karabiners - stops people lifting the lights for their bedrooms.

 

 

Check also that the school will officially accept all this onto their establishment and insurance so that you dont have an ongoing exposure to risk of liability for an unapproved mod to the building.

[JohnPartridge]

Just a point.... Do you need to be able to dim the 56's ??? if not I would go for something like the "Easy show" from terralec uk. 4x 56 , 1x Stand/Tbar , 1x Basic Controller (4 gels and lamps and all leads) All for £146.00

Easy Show

 

Or If dimming is a must

 

Also From terralec "Stage Lighting System" 2400watts of light - 8x 56 , 2x Basic dimmer packs , Controller , Gels and cables All for £448.00

Stage Lighting System

 

Both are run from a single 13amp socket ( Perfect for Schools)

Follow the links I have given

 

Hope this helps

John Partridge

[Meduza]

terralec's Stage Lightning system with 8x56 is in my opinion as low as you can get and still have decent power to light something with so it wont be dark, and it is easy enough to be used in school...

 

4x56 on one stand is too small to get a good light I think, but if the price limit so...

 

the only possibility to get it cheaper is by replacing the desk with a USB-DMX dongle if you got a spare computer and then you can get it for around £400 straight.

[cdcarter]

Probably not sutable for what you want, but it still works :blink: http://www.northern.edu/wild/th241/homemade.htm