Mike85

Thank you. Much appreciated. Yup! Or do them in pairs.

Thanks Sleah, Thats actually really helpful seeing it phrased that way regarding the sockets. Given its 4 of them (lights), this would total 4000w. I assume that means one light would need another dimmer which would need to be plugged into another socket else where in the hall? If only for my own knowledge, I'd love to know if I've understood the above correctly. Whilst I'll still give it some more thought, the more I learn the LDS seem like the easier option. I'm just not sure if they will light the ring at all. If I purchase the LDS I can try them for around the ring and if it doesn't work I'd at least have plenty of lighting to make our entrance area look flashy instead so all would not be lost. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and helping my education on this. I did see someone light a ring using just led security flood lights, it looked terrible from a lighting perspective but probably still created more atmosphere than sports hall lights. I'm just hoping to do something a little less glarey. It could easily be an issue. You have a maximum of 13A from a standard UK socket, and you can only connect a dimmer to one plug, so a maximum of 3.1KW per dimmer, not per channel. That's a maximum of 3x1000W or 4x650W theatre halogens per 13A socket. You'll soon be running round looking for 13A outlets! Then there will be a maximum the circuit can supply. 3x13A sockets fully loaded takes you to the maximum many circuits can supply. To avoid any potential problems of not enough power, stick with LED.

The mains, although I'm sensing that that this may cause a problem? Another formum has suggested that while it won't be a professional standard of lighting a bunch of RGBW leds on our T-Bars may provide what we are looking form. I felt the theatre style floods would be a step up from that so am persuing / researching that presently but if the power / dimmer pack issues become impossible its another approach I may need to conisder. I've also seen some pictures of a boxing ring lit up at only 2 opposing corners, which may reduce the total wattage but I'd be worried about shaddows. And what are you going to power that off?

Thanks again for your help Sandall. I'm currently searching out to see if I can find a "Dimmer Pack.240v 20amp per Channel" as advised by the guy selling the lights.... I've gone back to him to ask for a little help as a google and ebay search has blown my non electrically savvy brain. Also a thank you to everyone who has offered their advice. I want to reassure that I will certainly be getting an electrician involved in our testing - possibly even a lighting person to help get us set up. The issue we have, and that prompted me to come cap in hand for help on forums for help is that most lighting companies want to do the work for you as a hire rather than help you set up on the cheap. They (rightfully so) will say you can't do it with anything less than the quality equipment they have. By helping us do a basic and far less impressive set up to fit our budget they are effectively cutting their service out the equation. They have spent years training and invested thousands in their equipment – I respect that and understand the outlook of putting value on their professional set up. We run about 30 events a year (when the world isn’t in lock down) but our profit margins – like a lot of the grass roots entertainment industry - simply don’t allow for a few hundred extra on lighting per event as a hire. If we get a basic lighting set up it may actually improve our business and help us grow in which case we may be able to invest in more equipment and even contract out for a more impressive set up on our bigger events. Obviously if what I end up with causes more problems than benefits then it may end up back on the second hand market. As everyone had been helpful enough to reply with their valuable advice I just wanted to let you all know how much its appreciated and add a bit of more background to this lighting project / hopefully reassure that I wouldn’t be blowing anyone up. Thanks again.

Hi Sandall, Sorry to pester with another question... I've been seriously considering investing in the set of theatre flood lights. This is probavly a really silly question but please keep in mind I'm a total novice at lighting.... what type of cabling would I need for these lights? Would it all link into a central controller? Looking at them they don't appear to have the channel setting facility that DMX compatable lights have on the back of them so I'm a bit confused as to what additional equipment we would need to factor in as I'm pricing it all up. Thank you so much for your suggestion and help so far. Any further knowledge on this would be appreciated. They may exist, but I am not aware of any LED floods which can give you an adjustable hard-edged pool of light without some form of mechanical beam-shaping. Basically you are looking for Theatre floodlights. Because I needed mine to be weatherproof I couldn't use off-the-shelf theatre floods, so they are modified 500W halogen security floodlights, but if you google "Theatre-Studio-Lighting-Set-of-4-units-Professional-IADI-FILL-MK-2-1000w" a set of 4 similar ones should appear on a well-known auction site.

Those look like they may be the answer. I've taken a screen shot so if someone snaps them up before I make a decision then I'll at least have an idea of what I'm looking for. Thank you! They may exist, but I am not aware of any LED floods which can give you an adjustable hard-edged pool of light without some form of mechanical beam-shaping. Basically you are looking for Theatre floodlights. Because I needed mine to be weatherproof I couldn't use off-the-shelf theatre floods, so they are modified 500W halogen security floodlights, but if you google "Theatre-Studio-Lighting-Set-of-4-units-Professional-IADI-FILL-MK-2-1000w" a set of 4 similar ones should appear on a well-known auction site.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Am I correct in saying the LED PARs (noted RGBW would be the desired spec, thank you) would be light that we would be able to programme for a variety of effects as well as lighting the ring? If you have a moment could you please advise what additional specs I would be looking for if we went this route? e.g. is there a wattage I should be looking for. How many would I require on each corner pointing at the ring? What measurement is considered a wide beam? If we went the "big white flood" route - what type of spec would I look for in this? I am assuming for the purpose I'm looking at we wouldn't be buying the same type as a building site. Also would these be LED floods? Sorry for all the questions.... I’m doing this research from scratch to try and find a workable solution. Thank you. Thank you for your reply. If we go the route of flood lights the specs you mentioned with barn doors etc will be very handy to note. Sorry this is probably a silly question, I see you saying that the LED floods wouldn't work.... can I confirm what the correct term for the non LED flood lights would be? I'd already thought of the sandbags so its good to know I'm on the right lines for safety there (we are going to baricade the stands as well. Thanks again! Thank you. It's helping seeing all the different suggestions and noting the specs.

Thanks for your reply. For RA we had planned on putting a security railing around each of the 4 stands. We do appreciate that there will be extra work involved but are effectively looking for an "inbetween" stage before investing in a more quality set up a few years down the line. Any advise on the most basic of lights we could use would be greatly appreciated. Someone suggested using regular flood lights, whilst I could imagine its the cheapest solution I think the glare off them for the audience and on any camera / pictures would be horrible. I've read that LED's would be the way to go, but then also read that they wouldn't be strong enough unless they where super expensive ones... I am just super confused as there seems to be hundreds of different styles of lights to choose from. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Mike

Hoping some kind person could help with a total lighting novice with a bit of advice. We run a small touring Wrestling show and are looking to add some very basic lighting to our presentation. The atmosphere with lights when we tour theatre style venues is much better than our set up in town halls and sports centres. Our smaller events attract around 200 people so we can’t invest a great amount, particularly at the moment due to lack of income due to the pandemic. We are going to set up high T-Bar stands pointing down from each corner of the ring. Please don’t think WWE when recommending a set up – we need something simple and basic. Not to be TV quality but to add a little more to our live experience. Although being able to film the events without the lighting making that impossible with glare is still a concern (perhaps I need advice on our camera lenses too!) Working on the assumption that we can get lighting that connects to a central controller (DMX ???) I’m looking to find out – What type of lights we should buy, and how many would be needed pointing down from each corner to cover our 15 foot sq ring? I’m also looking to establish if we could go a little fancier by being able to program them to change colour etc for wrestler entrances or if this would mean much more expensive light or an additional set as well as the white ones. Any advice would be massively appreciated. Thank you!