Lighting a stage for a discussion group in a marquee

[TonyMitchell]

I need to light a small discussion group with up to five presenters whom will be sitting around a coffee table, on a 20'wide x 8' deep stage. I believe the stage will be raised about 2' off the ground.

 

Presenters will be powerpointing with rear projection onto an 8' x 6' screen placed to the back of the stage. The bottom of the screen will be lower than ideal, at around 3' off the stage, as the slanting marquee roof will dictate the maximum height, with the top of the screen touching the blackout drapes on the marquee roof.

 

The marquee is 80' x 50', with ten rows of seating going back from the stage and further seating either side angled circa 35deg. facing towards the stage. Total capacity of the marquee is circa 500 seats.

 

Previously for these type of events we have supplied power, sound and projection but not stage lighting, hence this post. Having done some research, my proposal is to use a mixture of Selecon Acclaim fresnels and Source Four Junior Zoom profiles, on a pair of Manfrotto stands, one either side of the stage.

 

I'm conscious of not wanting to wash out the Powerpoint screen, therefore am thinking barn doors on the fresnels for beam control, but would welcome advice on the mix of fresnels to profiles, for example should I allow one profile for every Presenter around the table, even though they will be sitting close together? How many fresnels to provide a bright, evenly covered stage of this size?

Because the stage is on the long aspect of the marquee, I'm unsure of the optimum placement for the Manfrottos, and the distance between them and the stage (will 30ft away either side be too far? …also height will be limited to 7ft at the marquee walls. Obviously this would be much simpler if the stage were at one the end on the shorter aspect of the marquee, but changing to that is unfortunately not an option.

 

Any comments & suggestions, tips & tricks welcomed & appreciated... thanks in anticipation.

[AndyJones]

Could you hire a competant person to bring some Kader clamps and some truss, that way you can hang on the apex of the marquee to get a nice bit of height, you should then just be able to soca up and light it with 6 source 4's or fresnels? Cables could be run up the inside of the lining to hide them and the truss could be wrapped to make it less obvious if needed...

[Roderick]

Let's leave the lighting for a moment, I think you have bigger problems.

 

Reading through the description, you have a 6' screen 3' above the deck of a 2' stage. That's 11 foot clearance, assuming it is free standing and doesn't need any rigging above.

Looking at your average 15 metre structure, starting at 7' with an apex at approx. 15', the screen will be about 15' from the wall.

Add the 8' deep stage, screen at the back, an you are left with roughly 25' for your 10 rows of seats. Not up to speed with UK regulations, but is Australia the minimum spacing (back to back) for rows of seats is 3'.

That would leave you with about 8 rows, but no cross-over which will make it difficult to get people to their seats, certainly the angled ones on the side.

 

Bonus is that you could rear project and not worry about a front projector which would take even more real estate.

 

Now back to lighting.

Keep it simple. Two winch-up stands at the DS corners will do the job fine.

Winch them up as high as possible and focus lights across the stage. Shouldn't be too hard to keep of the screen but be careful of reflective surfaces.

Put a dark coloured table cloth on the table. Have a small table behind the speakers for the water carafe. Etc.