Crowd Wash lighting

[david.elsbury]

Hi

For the rig I'm speccing for my church's auditoriums, I'd like to include some crowd wash lights so that I can throw say a blue wash over the crowd and involve them more in the worship, etc. And I know that this is done on lots of concerts too.

Ideally I'd use moving wash heads or LED fixtures. But I seriously doubt that the budget will stretch to those, and I don't think that they need to move anyway.

 

So I'm considering scrollers and conventional lanterns.

1) Parcans or Fresnels (or PC's) ?

- PAR 64's or 56's? (nice deep blues won't work well with the 56's)

- Parcans are a much narrower beam, but would be same lamp stock as the rest of the rig.

- Fresnels (or PCs) also same lamp stock as some of rig, but would that look silly?

 

2) All the scrollers I've used in the past (Rainbow, ChromaQ) have had quite a lot of spill from where the unit attatches to the lantern. Are there any products or techniques that stop this happening? The last thing I want is a blue wash, with white edges....

 

I think that just about covers it, thanks.

I'll probably double up the units per 'area' as it were. So that you can preset a colour and then X-fade the lanterns to avoid the lovely scrolling-thru effect of gelstrings....

 

And in the main audiorium (700people-ish) would you light the front area (say the front third) only? Or the whole lot? I don't think that the main auditorium will get used much in that way anyway, but I'd like to include the option, plus it gives me scrollers to borrow for either room if I need to.

 

Thanks

Regards

David

[Andrew C]

So I'm considering scrollers and conventional lanterns.

1) Parcans or Fresnels (or PC's) ?

For my money I'd go for Fresnel, you get a more even coverage. Particularly useful if your "punters" are trying to read a hymn sheet. Depends a bit on rigging positions though; if you can get really high, pars might be better. I'm thinking European cathedral high!

2) All the scrollers I've used in the past (Rainbow, ChromaQ) have had quite a lot of spill from where the unit attaches to the lantern. Are there any products or techniques that stop this happening? The last thing I want is a blue wash, with white edges....

Black Tac. Not the sticky gum stuff, but a black aluminium foil. Picture & description here.

And in the main auditorium (700people-ish) would you light the front area (say the front third) only? Or the whole lot? I don't think that the main auditorium will get used much in that way anyway, but I'd like to include the option, plus it gives me scrollers to borrow for either room if I need to.

If you've got the cash, go for it. It helps to keep as flexible for the future as you can!

[david.elsbury]

For my money I'd go for Fresnel, you get a more even coverage. Particularly useful if your "punters" are trying to read a hymn sheet. Depends a bit on rigging positions though; if you can get really high, pars might be better. I'm thinking European cathedral high!

Fair enough. Guess I should have clarified, this is for a pentecostal-type church, so no hymn sheets. And I'm taking care of the ambient lighting in other ways. It's just that I feel that there is too much of a seperation between stage and audience at the moment. I want to remove the boundaries, as it were.

 

Thanks for the lead on the tape.

 

Others advice welcomed

 

Thanks

David