simple lighting rig needed

[crox]

we need to get two simple rigs of LED lights, probably par56, connected to a simple controller.

 

We require very basic functions, with ideally, the lights being on throughout the duration of the service.

 

Our thoughts were, to have 4 on each side, with them all daisy chained together, so just two leads going through to a controller.

 

Any thoughts on cheap, cheerful sources for the par56's as well as a recommendation on a desk?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

/end

[benweblight]

Probably the cheapest option is to buy a package such as this:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/varytec_led_par_56_bundle.htm

 

Any basic DMX controller (with faders) should be able to do what you need.

 

However, LED pars don't tend to have much light ouput therefore aren't ideal for simple illumination such as this....you may be better off with regular pars and a simple dimmer/controller. I.e http://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_lichts...plus_silber.htm

[Guest lightnix]

Out of interest, what are you planning to do with the lights, apart from having them "on throughout the duration of the service"?

 

Are they to provide illumination to see by, coloured washes & splashes up walls, aerial beams over the stage...???

 

It always helps to know these things :D

[crox]

we are in a cinema, with the overhead lights not being particuarly bright.

 

We will have a projector providing some light, but the lights will be used for lighting up the stage (band / speaker) and for providing some ambinent lighting.

 

The main issue for us is power consumption. We don't have an abundance of power, so the lower the consumption the better!

[pritch]

How big an area do you need to light? How far from the stage will the lights be hung?

 

When you say you don't have much power available, what do you mean by "not much"? Can you dedicate 13A to lighting? More? Less?

[crox]

We have in total in the whole cinema, four 13a sockets, to run a 6k sound powered rif (HK Contour Array) which normally use one each, but we will be running both of one socket, the whole stage, which will be a couple of powered monitors, plus various instruments and amps, the lights of course, and the sound desk rig, lighting desk, projector and media centre.

 

The last four will be running of one socket, the rest shared amonst three 13a sockets.

 

The stands will be about 6 metres from the centre of what needs to be lit up (in terms of stage), the ceiling is probably 10m?

[johnhuson]

Something to think about is that if your looking for 'white' light at any point, which I would guess as a church might be a requirement then LED fixtures (particularly budget ones) aren't very good in white. If you don't need lots of colours then consider that a standard PAR56 is only 300w and a handful of these will give you more output in open white and a nicer white than an LED version.

 

If you need lots of colours then LED fixtures could be the way to go but if your expecting them to compete with existing house lights, be them particularly bright or not you may well find the results disappointing and be out of pocket.

[J Pearce]

In a dark cinema 4 PAR 56s should easily provide a half decent white 'face light' wash. Perhaps then top up with LED pars for sidelight colour and architectural lighting.

[Blaize110]

I have juts bought 4 PAR 56es. In the end I think I found www.djsoundkit.co.uk to be one of the cheapest (their SoundLab ones) as they also supply the gel holders (a mistake I made when buyong some without and now have to buy them separately for more). I have also looked at thomann. They have some very cheap B grade ones and some more expensive new ones. Lastly I found http://www.avbits.com/ which also stock cheap parcans with all the gubbins (these have IEC plugs as opposed to the unterminated leads of the other sites).

 

Hope these 3 can be of help. You can also sometimes find some 2nd hand ones on ebay. However these may be misisng things like gel holders (you can guess what mine were missing) :D so may cost you more than new ones in the long run. There is also no guarantee of bulbs being provided or working.

[crox]

just to resurrect, as we are so short on power options, we would need all the lights to run of one 13a socket.

 

How many par56's would run at once, and how many LED versions equate to one par56?

[pritch]

just to resurrect, as we are so short on power options, we would need all the lights to run of one 13a socket.

 

When you say "one 13A socket", do you mean a 13A socket on a 32A ring main shared with all the other things, or do you actually have the full 13A available to draw power from? I'd worry that the sockets in a cinema may only have been put there so that the cleaners have somewhere to plug the hoover in, without considering that someone might want to come in and plug in a lot of other gear with a hefty current draw.

[crox]

to be honest, we are not sure.

 

That is why, it needs to be as minimum as possible. We are hoping that considering the sound rigs that cinema's normally have, there will something substantial, but we don't know, hence the requirement to keep everything as low as possible.

[david.elsbury]

Off one 13A socket you will comfortably get 8 PAR56 lamps to run, allowing a little room for headroom, other devices etc.

(IE, 2 stands of 4 lamps each)

 

HTH

[J Pearce]

Assuming that they are lamped with 300W lamps.

 

You can get 500W raylights for PAR56 cans and showtec make 500W Par lamps for 56 cans.

[crox]

Off one 13A socket you will comfortably get 8 PAR56 lamps to run, allowing a little room for headroom, other devices etc.

(IE, 2 stands of 4 lamps each)

 

HTH

 

David, as in "normal" par 56 as opposed to LED?

 

see, you can tell lighting isn't my thing ...