fixed position lighting

[IA76]

Hi

We have no experience with lighting so would appreciate some advice please.

We have a scenario where someone stands at a lectern and delivers a presentation( no PowerPoint etc with it). When streaming this the lighting is poor especially on the face. We have space to mount some lighting about 5 meters in front of the lectern at a height of about 3 meters.

What sort of lighting should we purchase? We want something that will just improve the general lighting level of where the standing person without having to adjust for different height people. The lighting should not be so bright that it blinds them so some sort of brightness level adjustment would be good.

[alistermorton]

You  could just put a halogen fresnel or profile on a dimmer, but you've got heat to consider, plus will the lamps continue to be available?

If you just want some more light to see the presenter, we've used elumen8 MP60 WW fresnels as rehearsal lights and they'd probably work well for that. Can be set up to use a single DMX channel for dimming. Small and neat, zoomable and come with barn doors to control the spill if need be.

[Don Allen]

Watch this video The Lighting Design Process by Matt Kizer https://scenicandlighting.com/article/the-lighting-design-process/ as it will give you an idea of basic stage lighting.

A fresnel mounted in front of the stage, in the centre, facing outwards towards the lecturn will light the speaker for everyone to see. Using that angle will keep the light from splilling onto the screen, if there is one. If possible get a fresnel with remote zoom so you can adjust the size of the beam. If your budget is small, the fresnel used by alistermorton will do the job. If you only want to one light, get a small six channel DMX controller https://www.essentialsupplies.co.uk/basic-DMX-controller-6-channel.html .

[sandall]

I tend to use a fresnel for this sort of scenario, but my TV colleagues would always use a profile (fresnel barn-doors only have an effect if the lamp is flooded, so much of the light output gets wasted).

[James Remo]

A tungsten Profile with quarter hampshire frost and half CTB would be my go to for a cool white, soft-edge lectern light.

[IA76]

Are there any LED options that would so the same as what is being suggested? Looking at the area again the lights would mount 3 meters away from the lectern at a height of 4 meters

[sandall]

Assuming you want to light someone from say 5' to 6'6" high, head & shoulders, a quick sketch suggests you need around 15-20 degrees beam angle (best checked on site). Thomann offer at least 2 cheap LED profile spots. The Eurolite LED-PF20 is dimmable, but has a max beam angle of 19 degrees https://www.thomann.de/gb/eurolite_led_pfe_20_ww_profile_spot_bk.htm. The Varytec Mini offers a 15-30 degree zoom, but isn't dimmable (which may or may not be a problem, but saves the need to also buy a DMX controller) https://www.thomann.de/gb/varytec_led_profile_mini_ip65_3200k_bk.htm. Both are "warm white" (tungsten-ish) colour temperature &, importantly, don't have cooling fans. If you move up a price bracket there is obviously more choice.