Lighting Tubes

[kikabyte]

I know it's a bit random, but I play in a pub / club wedding band and am building up our light show. I had an idea and I wondered if anyone has any experience with such lighting idea's.

 

Ok so I've found some £500 2 meter tall LED towers, which look great, just a little out of my budget. Now I know it's a bit tac, but would the idea of placing an led par can / colour changer, shining directly up a clear/frosted 6inch diameter tube possibly around 3 meters tall work? I would be looking for the effect of two lighted posts, that I can control by DMX and place them at either side in front of the stage.....

 

Would the frosting on the tube draw the light through and shine all the way up, or would the light just travel straight to the top of the tube and give no effect on the way up?? ld box the par can or colour changer in at the bottom and make it all look as neat as possible.

 

What do people think???

[Andrew C]

I think (after a few glasses of wine) that it could work quite well. Worth an experinent at least.

[Jivemaster]

The simple answer is to look at the inflatables that exist for the purpose. Terralec (.com) do some inflatable cones and columns, and separate cones, Lots of gadget shops sell inflatable snowmen/santas. Rip the santa off and fit a cone or column til its santa time again.

 

Some of the terralec fan bases have DMX lighting but that makes them expensive.

 

Fans pick up dirt from the floor so the fabrics will need detatching for cleaning.

 

Must be easier than trying to keep a perspex tube from getting scratched/broken in use or transit.

 

http://www.terralec.com/cat.asp?c=204&1=Air_Tubes is one starting point

[mikienorth]

A perspex tube is a viable option, I did similar in a show a few years ago with claer perspex, open at the bottom and tracked into place over a floor mounted scroller can, IIRC. Before spending too much experiment somehow, but I'm pretty sure the idea will work, and a solid tube will look better than a bit of canvas...

[saturnx21]

I have seen the same sort of thing in a nightclub down in Hastings although they had the tubes full of water with bubbles passing up through the water which looked very good but I wouldn't suggest going that far for a mobile setup!!!

 

So for what your looking at I would suggest opaque plastic which I think would work better and won't show up scratches as much either

 

if you try it and get some reasonable results let me know as I have often wondered about doing something similar myself!

 

:)

[kikabyte]

The canvas is a really good idea, but I don't think the quality of the effect would be as impressive as the plastic. I will have a play with some small scale household object over the weekend, I hope it will look as good as I imagine. If controllable, I think it would really look very impressive!

 

Not sure how to make the frosted effect yet, maybe spray some small clear tubing with that corrosive spray boy races spray on their number plate to deflect the flash of speed camera's.... I'll test with some small coloured lights and see how it looks.

 

Photos and idea's will follow I assure you!

[saturnx21]

You can buy opaque plastic sheet quite easily and cheaply so I would guess you could buy tube as well and I'm confidant that without the plastic being opaque it wont really work

 

if you really are struggling with suppliers of opaque tube let me know as I might be able to find some!

 

:)

[mikienorth]

I seem to recall that aromatic oils, of the sorts of 'patchouli, ylangylang, lavender and tea tree' had a disastorous effect on CD cases, turning them a lovely frost from clear

(Thanks Mum, knew it'd come in useful someday, your ruining my CD cases with that stuff)

If all else, and possibly a little more reliable than treating the tubes, make a sleeve from some frost filter sheet - and also some sleeves that can contain names/adverts/contact details, a way to advertise/take money from othersfor displaying things perhaps?

[lightsource]

What do people think???

 

Honest answer, look at your budget, and see what's available for the price - but -

 

Before you can get a realistic reply to your post, a few more questions need answering.

 

1: what is your actual budget

2: What would you like your lighting / fx to actually do

3: For your frosting effect, what lights do you intend to use.

 

I think these questions may help us reply to your original post better.

[kikabyte]

1: what is your actual budget

If I had to put a figure on it, maybe £300 max for the pair, shouldn't imagine I would need that much tho.

2: What would you like your lighting / fx to actually do

I'm hoping it would give me two tall (3 meter?) tubes on each side of the stage, that I can control via DMX, to change colour, and I don't know how the different in brightness would affect it, but I would image if I was to use a dimmer pack, it might make the light pulsate higher, or lower up the tube, dependant on how bright the light was??

3: For your frosting effect, what lights do you intend to use.

Well the frosting effect will, I think, be created on the tubing, and it should draw the light out from the inside. I don't think I lighting effect with a frosted gobo would do the same job.

 

Whilst looking for a colour changer on Thomann I found the following Truss Light, but it's only 50 watts a bulb, so when shining on one colour, it may not be bright enough. It does however allow me to change the colour, and has in integrated dimmer pack.....

http://www.thomann.de/gb/showtec_rgb_trusslight_mkii.htm

 

 

 

 

and also some sleeves that can contain names/adverts/contact details, a way to advertise/take money from othersfor displaying things perhaps?

Brilliant idea, advertising the band name......!

if you really are struggling with suppliers of opaque tube let me know as I might be able to find some!

I shall have a look around this weekend, see what I can find, but I may be in touch!

[LDODD]

Have done this plenty of times with LED.

 

I would probably avoid using LED Pars due to the size of them.

I would opt for using multiple high brightness units.

 

We manufacture these, (not an advert) so if you'd like any info or pics of LED lighting tubes - please PM me.

 

3 x MR16 (type) rgb at top and bottom of tubes will be far brighter than any LED pars in your budget.

You can then go for a single RGB LED driver (possibly an RF version if not DMX, so that you can recall "scenes" easily) should be appropriate and come in at around £400-500 for 12 qty (2 tubes) from most Manufacturers.

 

I would avoid using the aromatic oils concept, as LED is particularly adept at showing off poor surface uniformity. If you're looking for a uniform spread of colour - I would sugest going with a roll of adhesive frosted sheet (available from most glass/signage installers). Then you need not worry about the frosting becoming damaged over time - you can simply replace it at low cost. Use a poly-carb tube (which I know you can get from MCI water concepts, but they may not be the best or cheapest supplier) rather than Perspex as this will cover any H&S issues with exploding plastic in case of fire etc...

 

Hope this helps, but let me know if it needs more clarification.