Advice on full lighting system

[JCC1996]

Hi,

 

I'm hoping to draw on the knowledge of some of you lighting folk out there! I am involved in putting on an annual charity variety concert. In previous years we have used a small church hall with minimal lighting and I have supplemented it with my own LEDs, however this year we have outgrown the church and are moving to a slightly larger community hall. Unfortunately, this hall has no theatre lighting at all, so I will be looking for quotes to hire in a full lighting system. I'm looking for some advice on what sort of system we should be looking at hiring, so that I can at least look at the hire companies' advice with a degree of prior knowledge!

 

I've put an image of the stage with rough dimensions at the end of this post. The limiting factor as I see it is the power supply; there is no dedicated LX power supply so I think we will be limited to the number of conventional lanterns we use. We only require basic lighting, so a few pars/floods for illumination, plus a few LEDs for some colour will be sufficient. The main problem is the rigging. There are no existing rigging points, so I think the best option would be some sort of ground supported truss, perhaps built in a square around the stage to allow for top, side and backlight? Is this a good idea or am I barking up completely the wrong tree?

 

The next problem is frontlight: Where should I be looking at locating FoH lighting? I'm finding it hard to see a suitable place for T-bars in the auditorium, but I can't think or any other way to get lighting from FoH?

 

Would anyone like to give me a rough idea of what sort of cost we are looking at for this kind of system? Its far bigger than anything I have hired in the past, so I'm looking for a ballpark figure to report back to the committee. We do have a budget, we just need to have an idea of how much of it will be eaten by lighting!

 

The event is in the Glasgow area, so if any companies based near there would like to contact me to tender a quote they are more than welcome to get in touch.

 

Thank in advance,

 

Joe

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/2iw7if5.png

[Wol]

"I think the best option would be some sort of ground supported truss"

 

How *tall* is the venue? Also how big is the auditorium? Your picture shows the stage, but not what it's like in comparison to where you're likely to be frontlighting from.

 

"We do have a budget"

 

What is the ballpark of your budget? Are we talking £300, £1000, £5000?

[Dave m]

Not really my area but if you don't have much power, the lighting will be pretty limited

Be careful that you don't blo the budget on truss with one 60w bulb on it.

Some big power stands or genies might be all you need

[JCC1996]

Sorry, I should have included that information: The stage height is approx. 3.5m. I don't have auditorium dimensions, but it seats 200, so that might give you a rough idea of scale.

 

We really have no idea how much to budget for; we will fundraise a much as necessary to get what we need, but I'd say that around £500-£1000 would be our ballpark. Like I say, this is new territory for myself and the club, so if that is totally unreasonable, then please say so!

 

Stands could well be an acceptable solution, my only concern is that the footprint may eat up our wingspace where a truss with a baseplate wouldn't.

[dosxuk]

What sort of things are you lighting? Singers / Dancers / Drama / Poetry? £500 would be a struggle even with suitable rigging in the venue. How have people previously done events in this space? If they've got a stage, someone must have wanted to light it before, so I'd be talking to the venue.

 

Stands could well be an acceptable solution, my only concern is that the footprint may eat up our wingspace where a truss with a baseplate wouldn't.

 

I'd be more concerned about the truss eating up your entire budget.

[paulears]

When I taught at college, the most useful thing I ever bought was a pile of Astralite truss - enough for 6 legs with a square top, and cross trusses, and this could be used in many different configurations and sizes. We had a floor to ceiling height that allowed us to have 4m uprights. It was safe, stable and low enough to climb quite safely - well, safely enough for me to be happy and a Zarges ladder easily let you populate it!

 

Modern LED kit should not raise the current required too high, so you should be able to do something quite nice on a reasonable budget.

 

On the actual lighting front, it seems that most lighting designs now fall into two camps. Those that use lots of front light for excellent visibility, or those that use lots of backlight for effects.

 

T Bars and stands are a pain. Plus, you have a very small amount of places to actually 'plant' the kit. A truss system lets you put lights where they are best located, and keeps the floor clear and is much, much safer.

 

The configuration we used the most at college, 6 legs, with 3 left-right trusses from the front/back trusses 4m high, 6m wide took a group of students 30 minutes to erect with practice - and that was with bolts, not quick release pins.

[JCC1996]

Thanks Paul, that's pretty much the system I was imagining. I've just had a quote for around £1500 which from the comments above and a read through the breakdown seems pretty realistic. Unfortunately that will be above our budget, so I guess the new question is how is best to get some lighting in this venue for <£1000?

 

Its mainly singing and dancing with some drama and speeches thrown in.

[Junior8]

Surely it might be cheaper to change the venue?

[Jivemaster]

Getting power put into a building is extremely expensive so first check what power is available and how it is available. You will not get far with 3K of lights.

[paulears]

You have to be realistic about lighting. The budget you have is not remotely enough to do a good job - it may be all you have, but changing venue with no proper money to spend is going to seriously compromise what you can do. Have you seen the cost of safe wind up stands? A couple of stands and a handful of lights will eat up your budget, and be distinctly average. You are going to be working for illumination, and artistic or effects contribution will be very limited. A grand isn't going to interest many retailers to do much other than spec a couple of stands and whatever is in the stock room.

 

I guess you need to choose between doing the job properly, and getting something good, or something very basic and not really very good?

[JCC1996]

Surely it might be cheaper to change the venue?

 

It's certainly looking that way! But I'm still willing to look into this bit further and see what can be done as the venue is great in all other respects.

 

I'm not sure if I have made it clear that this is a hire and will not become a permanent install. I'm waiting on a few more quotes to come back to me; once I have a better idea of cost then we can start to look at what compromises we can make to get this within budget. Thanks for the help so far, if anyone has any other suggestions, please suggest away!

[paulears]

I realise the budget problems, but the purse string holders have got to realise that it's the wrong way around. Getting a quote for a workable system, then trying to chop bits out is a recipe for disaster. If budget is limited, then it becomes the key to the design. I've been involved in far too many projects where they try to save 10% on the cheapest quote. It never works.

[JCC1996]

I realise the budget problems, but the purse string holders have got to realise that it's the wrong way around. Getting a quote for a workable system, then trying to chop bits out is a recipe for disaster. If budget is limited, then it becomes the key to the design. I've been involved in far too many projects where they try to save 10% on the cheapest quote. It never works.

 

Perhaps this is too much of a 'how long is a piece of string question', but I'll give it a shot anyway! What would you say is a realistic budget to get something workable hired in to this space? It seems that £500-1000 is too little, but are we talking £1500 might work, or are we talking closer to £5000?!

[paulears]

I'd have thought that most of the usual hire firms local to you could do something quite nice for the 1500 quid figure, especially if you let them spec it out so they can use what they have in stock.If you have people who can set up and rig from a pile of bits, so they only have to deliver and collect, then the £1000 might get you a decent amount of stuff. If you need them to rig it, and it takes two people a total of maybe a day to get it in and out, then this is where there's not much left for the actual kit. Dry hire can work better. Is this what you had in mind, or a full turnkey hire?

[JCC1996]

We have the knowledge and skills to build and rig the system ourselves, so dry hire would be our preferred option. We would probably be able to collect and return ourselves too. Looking at the quote breakdown I already have, it looks like £500 of it can be knocked off by building it ourselves and collecting, so £1000 looks to be about right.