Lighting a Gym

[daniel.anderson]

Hi everyone,

 

I have recently been put the challenge to light a school gymnasium for a dinner event, as they don't want to use the standard "industrial" lights.

 

I have had a few ideas.

 

1. Using Par 64's on three or four circular pieces of truss hung from the roof. (Think of the house lights for the Pink Floyd concert)

2. One big pice of truss running the middle of the room lined with Par 64's and then Chroma Banks pointing towards the walls to change the colour of the room at different times.

 

Any indas that could be thrown my way would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Daniel.

[Tomo]

What kind of dinner event?

What happens before the dinner?

After the dinner?

Are there any speeches or awards?

 

For a 'formal' or 'semi-formal' dinner, it's often a good idea to have a tight, soft-focussed spot on the centrepieces of the tables - assuming the tables have centrepieces.

 

The lighting should be fairly dim - this is probably the reason they don't want to use the 'industrial' lights.

[paulears]

Don't forget to check power supply - most gyms have at best a couple of 13A sockets and they may already be in use for other things - lighting power is rarely available.

[Don Allen]

The best choice is a profile, vertical over each table, with a pinspot on the centrepice. If you have a tight budget try a Par56 to keep the power requirements down, or a pin spot. Try the ideas out beforehand. It is ideal to have a centrepiece on each table as a highlight. If you light from an angle you will get unwated shadows. Using some form of wall washing will give you the ambient light needed for atmosphere.

[mac.calder]

Angle isn't really that big a deal when table pin spotting, provided your centerpieces are well designed - flowers are notoriously bad centerpieces for table spotting, unless they are only lightly packed.

 

A few tricks when doing it though - focus the top of the beam just slightly above the top of the table - that way, the light will not be shining in half of the tables eyes, and if using a pin spot (par36), rotate the lamp so that the longest part of the beam (as par36s give off an oval pattern of light) is perpendicular to the tilt axis - you will get a more circular beam that way.

[Ynot]

One has to assume that you have full knowledge or contacts that do know what can be hung from the ceiling points in the gym....

[LXbydesign]

Good grief!! Whats all this chat about truss and PAR64's to light a gym for a dinner!!

 

Just hire a load of LED pars, with floor stands, and position them around the room. Thats it. Simple. Low power consumption, easy to install, easy to program. You can do it off a 12 channel manual desk.

 

Also, for simple but effective animation , get some of the Martin DC "water FX" units and point those at the ceiling and walls, again - they can be rigged on the floor plug them in , set the focus, decide on static colour or slow colour rotation and thats it.

 

For the tables , you can get some lit centerpieces - battery powered. which can have flowers etc put in them

 

Be simple but effective. We do so many of these dinner events in all types of venues - good and bad equipped, and the above mentioned is the easiest, most practical, most effective way to light somewhere for a dinner.

 

HTH

[Mexi]

Maybe worth considering something with a decent lamp life - you dont want to be putting a ladder over somebodys table to replace a blown lamp.

[Nick S]

Pinspots can last a fairly long time, especially if you're running them at 50, 60%. I guess this project isn't that long-term either.

 

Good grief!! Whats all this chat about truss and PAR64's to light a gym for a dinner!!

 

Just hire a load of LED pars, with floor stands, and position them around the room. Thats it. Simple. Low power consumption, easy to install, easy to program. You can do it off a 12 channel manual desk.

 

Well, actually, if it's a dinner and they don't wish to use the fixtures currently in the space, I would imagine LED pars on floor stands would not provide adequate coverage or decent enough light for the application, particularly if it's a large room. If you read the OP, you'll notice he actually talks about using LED fixtures in the rig, but also sensibly realizes that using no incancesdents for a dinner is going to look...well, a little odd.

[mac.calder]

Good grief!! Whats all this chat about truss and PAR64's to light a gym for a dinner!!

 

There is no need to sound so derogatory - whilst your solution is A solution, it is not the only solution. Sure, your solution is easy, and quite effective given the right sort of room, however the OP may want something different - they may not want the sort of light you get from uplights, instead preferring to have something over head etc.

 

BTW - if you ever work corporate events, you would be amazed at the sort of rigs that are put up just for room lighting - and you would be equally amazed at how much of a difference it makes.

[daniel.anderson]

Thanks for the replies, all fantastic.

 

The client does not want anything to be on the floor apart from the stage and the tables.

 

Therefore, everything has to be hung. (Sorry, I should have mentioned this in the OP)

 

The client also does not want any lighting for centre pieces on the tables, that would also require alot of rigging points and alot of Pin Spots. (Over 100 tables).

 

I have also just been informed that there will be an AV presentation and speeches, which is all easy stuff.

 

Any more ideas would be fantastic!

 

Cheers,

 

Dan.

[GridGirl]

For general room ambience, you may well find you get a better result by bouncing light off the ceiling (is it a white ceiling?!) rather than having your lanterns pointed at the floor. It'll be softer and less directional, and therefore easier on the eyes.

[LXbydesign]

Good grief!! Whats all this chat about truss and PAR64's to light a gym for a dinner!!

 

 

 

BTW - if you ever work corporate events, you would be amazed at the sort of rigs that are put up just for room lighting - and you would be equally amazed at how much of a difference it makes.

 

Yes Mac - most of our work is on corporate events. We found that most of our client base for this type of event - be it big or small, prefer to have effective lighting soulutions for a room without all the metalwork of truss and rigging for lighting, unless its particually required. They prefer fixtures to be discrete.

 

Maybe what I said came out wrong, but its a soulution which would make life easy for the OP as - as yet - he hasnt stated wether the roof has suitable hanging points or load bearing to hold such a structure of "a long truss with a load of PAR64's on it" - not forgetting all the socca, cabling etc. and runs back down to the dimmers and distro etc etc

[Ben Lawrance]

When I think of a school gym, I think big sports hall with a very high roof.

 

How about creating a "false roof" with some ivory marquee lining?

[daniel.anderson]

Good grief!! Whats all this chat about truss and PAR64's to light a gym for a dinner!!

BTW - if you ever work corporate events, you would be amazed at the sort of rigs that are put up just for room lighting - and you would be equally amazed at how much of a difference it makes.

Yes Mac - most of our work is on corporate events. We found that most of our client base for this type of event - be it big or small, prefer to have effective lighting soulutions for a room without all the metalwork of truss and rigging for lighting, unless its particually required. They prefer fixtures to be discrete.Maybe what I said came out wrong, but its a soulution which would make life easy for the OP as - as yet - he hasnt stated wether the roof has suitable hanging points or load bearing to hold such a structure of "a long truss with a load of PAR64's on it" - not forgetting all the socca, cabling etc. and runs back down to the dimmers and distro etc etc

The roof has been tested and weighted and is also suitable for hanging a large rig from it, it has been rated for > 750kg per rigging point and there are 12 of them in the roof, also the roof is quite ugly and wouldnt be suitable for bouncing light off the roof, it is covered in that silver insulation stuff.The cable runs are easy as there are clamps on the gurters' for this particular purpose. I'm from Australia and am not fimiliar with the term of 'socca', could you please inform me of what this means? B-) Is it possible that there is another type of lantern that would be suitable for this kind of event that would give a nice even wash over the room?Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming!Cheers,Dan.

When I think of a school gym, I think big sports hall with a very high roof.How about creating a "false roof" with some ivory marquee lining?

You are quite correct Ben, the roof is very high, however I have already aproached them with this topic of creating a 'false roof' and they have turned down the idea due to "lack of funding" (Their words).It would make the dinner much more classy, however as it happens only once per year, I dont think that they are going to be budging on this idea any time soon.