Finding a portable lighting system

[Morganhuw]

Hey there

 

Iv'e been asked to find a kit for a small drama company and have sorted the sound, projector and fog machine but struggling on the lighting system as I was limited to £1000!!

 

Their 'Theater' is a small village hall with no stage - So its a floor stage.... The venue only holds 60 people so is small.

 

Anyway --- Can anyone suggest a lighting system that can be portable and hopefully be a T-Stand.

Ideally I would like to be able to control the lights on my laptop(I have QLab, and have separate Laptops running most of the WindowsOS) But this isnt a must (Trying to increase the budget by not having to buy a DMX Control Board)

 

This is the one that I have been looking at but don't really know if it would be what I'm looking for.. I am inexperienced at buying the kit so that why I'm asking!

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/kam-partybar-portable-led-stage-lighting-508673

 

Thanks

 

Morgan

[toby]

hi morganhuw,

 

few questions so we can hopefully point you in the right direction,

 

a) power wise does this need to run off a single 13amp (household) plug or are we larger?

b) what do you want the rig to do i.e. change colour? be made up of wash style lights or more focused or even doing specials for the performers to be lit on a particular spot?

c) by portable do you mean to tour? if so does it need to be able to fit into a car for example?

[TonyMitchell]

If you buy wisely, you should be able to pick up some secondhand Fresnels, Profiles, a couple of analogue dimmer packs and an old fader desk with 0-10v outs without breaking the bank, and still have some change for a couple of stands, tops, cabling & gel. The old fixtures you'll find will probably need cleaning up, but that can be quite satisfying and will greatly help your understanding of stage LX (an area still relatively new to me, coming from an audio background).

[timtheenchanteruk]

if you want to use your/a laptop chamsys do a basic dongle for £10 works for 5 (?) hrs at a time, then you have to relaunch chamsys, works fine for most shows though.

if you are stuck on power, a couple of Fresnels and Profiles, supplemented by some LEDs for colour

[kerry davies]

If you can wait until April there should be quite a few ex-hire bargains available, not to mention the kit from groups that have lost their funding. In your patch, North Wales, alone there are over 30 groups coming to the end of annual Wales Arts Council funding so there may be stuff available at others sad fate.

 

One thing I would try is a visit to the University theatre department which states; "The emphasis is on theatre as a collaborative and community activity", so make them put their money where their mouth is and ask them for help/advice???

 

I would go with Tony and avoid computer control and keep it simple, old-school stuff they can all make use of.

[Pattern123]

I would agree that secondhand is probably the way to go on that budget, keep it simple and buy well on Ebay and you should be fine. For small venues CCT Minuette Fresnels generally go for around £50 secondhand and you should be able to pick up a reasonable secondhand dimmer or two and a basic preset desk.

[Jivemaster]

AVOID DMX! it's fashionable so it makes things expensive.

 

NJD 8000 controller from ebay should be a 4x10a dimmer pack with faders attached for manual use -OK there is a chase sequencer thrown in too -all for less than £100

 

NJD 4 x 10a dimmer packs are new on ebay for under £80. You will meed an analog controller but the pack may output +10v if you want to make a ox of faders yourself if competent.

 

It's really important to get the power sorted!

 

Lighting is probably best started with some PAR cans even PAR56 300w. Fresnels and spots can come later. Probably the most expensive part will be good power leads, ideally rubber cable but this may hit the budget.

 

Go look at this lot too! http://www.terralec.co.uk/stage_lighting/stage_lighting_sets/213_20c.html Lots of CHEAP but low life kit which will need TLC in use but the price could be right.

 

LED cans are good for colour but need a DMX controller and may be poor in light output compared with big PAR cans.

[timsabre]

Lighting is probably best started with some PAR cans even PAR56 300w. Fresnels and spots can come later.

 

I agreed with your post until this, and this would be true also if he was lighting a band, but it's for a drama group.

 

For lighting drama, fresnels are much better than par cans, because you can control the size of area which is lit. Par cans are a pain because they always seem to be either too wide or too narrow for what you are trying to light. You end up with very bright hot spots and dark holes.

Look for 2nd hand CCT minuettes as the previous post suggested.

[kaareolai]

Lighting is probably best started with some PAR cans even PAR56 300w. Fresnels and spots can come later.

 

I agreed with your post until this, and this would be true also if he was lighting a band, but it's for a drama group.

 

For lighting drama, fresnels are much better than par cans, because you can control the size of area which is lit. Par cans are a pain because they always seem to be either too wide or too narrow for what you are trying to light. You end up with very bright hot spots and dark holes.

Look for 2nd hand CCT minuettes as the previous post suggested.

 

I second this, although I rather use the spot versions of CCT minuettes or alike. (If cleaned and maintaned propery though, but that's another story.) But pricewise you get more for the money with fresnels, and usually for drama it is necessary with more instruments to light uniformly/evenly.

 

PARs might well be used as backlighting, usually with blue filter, and maybe barndoors. I often also use LEDPARs here for effects, but be very aware of lousy dimmer curve at lower intensity, very noticable with cheap ones. So usually together with filtered ordinary PARs. I normally always use "clean" colours with the cheap LEDPARs, ie clean red or green or blue.

 

Regards Kåre Olai.

[Tom Baldwin]

I don't really agree with much of what Jivemaster wrote at all.

 

Fresnels and profiles are the essential basics, and DMX does not really command any significant premium these days. It also opens up more possibilities. PARs are unnecessarily rough and ready, especially for the main area lighting.

If you're lucky, you might score barn doors with the fresnels as well.

 

Assuming you're happy to use your laptop for lighting control (and that's the route I'd go these days), then for £1000 you could get (all new, except the Minuettes):

- two stands with T-bars

- six Minuette fresnels

- two Minuette profiles

- dimmers for the above

- two basic LED PARs, for a bit of colour

- cabling, safeties, lamps

 

That's not a bad starter package for that size hall.

 

From	Code	        Qty	Item	                                        Unit	Line
s/hand	-	        6	Minuette Fresnel	                        £50.00	£300.00
s/hand	-	        2	Minuette Profile	                        £50.00	£100.00
Thomann	-	        2	Showtec MultiDim MKII DMX UK Vers	        £62.57	£125.14
Thomann	-	        2	Stairville LED PAR64 36x1 PRO Bla B-Stock	£72.00	£144.00
Thomann	-	        2	Millenium LST-310 Lighting Stand B-Stock	£28.00	£56.00
CPC	PL12970 	2	20m extension lead	                        £18.64	£37.28
CPC	AV07002 	2	1.5m DMX cable (3 pin)	                        £3.73	£7.46
CPC	AV07007	        4	20m DMX cable (3 pin)	                        £17.45	£69.80
Thomann	-	        12	Stairville Safety 60cm/3mm 5kg	                £3.13	£37.56
CPC	PL09635 	8	IEC plug	                                £1.63	£13.04
CPC	PL10206 	2	13A plug, 3A fuse (for LED PARs)	        £0.88	£1.75
Thomann	-	        8	Philips 6820PT 500W/240V GY9,5	                £10.08	£80.64

 

That lot comes to £972.67, and should allow enough flexibility to plug it all in, and daisy-chain the DMX.

 

I think the only things that you might outgrow are the stands, and they're pretty cheap to start with.

 

It might be possible to get some of this cheaper by buying on eBay - but unless you're very lucky you'll not make massive savings, and I wouldn't buy the stands, lamps, LED PARs or safeties second-hand anyway - not unless I already trusted the seller.

[patakskrause]

I don't really agree with much of what Jivemaster wrote at all.

 

Fresnels and profiles are the essential basics, and DMX does not really command any significant premium these days. It also opens up more possibilities. PARs are unnecessarily rough and ready, especially for the main area lighting.

If you're lucky, you might score barn doors with the fresnels as well.

 

Assuming you're happy to use your laptop for lighting control (and that's the route I'd go these days), then for £1000 you could get (all new, except the Minuettes):

- two stands with T-bars

- six Minuette fresnels

- two Minuette profiles

- dimmers for the above

- two basic LED PARs, for a bit of colour

- cabling, safeties, lamps

 

That's not a bad starter package for that size hall.

 

From	Code        	Qty	Item                                        	Unit	Line
s/hand	-        	6	Minuette Fresnel                        	£50.00	£300.00
s/hand	-        	2	Minuette Profile                        	£50.00	£100.00
Thomann	-        	2	Showtec MultiDim MKII DMX UK Vers        	£62.57	£125.14
Thomann	-        	2	Stairville LED PAR64 36x1 PRO Bla B-Stock	£72.00	£144.00
Thomann	-        	2	Millenium LST-310 Lighting Stand B-Stock	£28.00	£56.00
CPC	PL12970 	2	20m extension lead                        	£18.64	£37.28
CPC	AV07002 	2	1.5m DMX cable (3 pin)                        	£3.73	£7.46
CPC	AV07007        	4	20m DMX cable (3 pin)                        	£17.45	£69.80
Thomann	-        	12	Stairville Safety 60cm/3mm 5kg                	£3.13	£37.56
CPC	PL09635 	8	IEC plug                                	£1.63	£13.04
CPC	PL10206 	2	13A plug, 3A fuse (for LED PARs)        	£0.88	£1.75
Thomann	-        	8	Philips 6820PT 500W/240V GY9,5                	£10.08	£80.64

 

That lot comes to £972.67, and should allow enough flexibility to plug it all in, and daisy-chain the DMX.

 

I think the only things that you might outgrow are the stands, and they're pretty cheap to start with.

 

It might be possible to get some of this cheaper by buying on eBay - but unless you're very lucky you'll not make massive savings, and I wouldn't buy the stands, lamps, LED PARs or safeties second-hand anyway - not unless I already trusted the seller.

 

Good stuff, I'd use that in combination with the Chamsys magicDMX full: that would take you over your budget by approx. £30, but you will get a very functional system. MagicQ rocks.

[Modge]

I, of course, would recommend one of our verse dongles as the means of getting DMX out of the laptop, though that is down to which software you prefer - ours is freely available from our website and MagicQ is also a free download.

Beyond that I tend to agree with the above - Minuette fresnels are a handy tool when there isn't any budget available, if only because there's a lot of them available reasonably priced and they don't break easily. They're also physical small enough and take low enough powered lamps to be sane in small venues with limited power.