Help newbie light with limited space

[silver]

Hi first off this is my first attempt at lighting. My wife's birthday is coming up in March and we rented a VFW hall. The main hall is roughly 48 feet long and 24 feet wide. Right against the wall, the ceiling is 8.5 feet tall but goes up to ten feet high a few feet off the wall. We are having a Rockband/Singstar party. Something we've done before in the backyard - which is drag out the DLP projector, point it at shower curtain and have singing battles all night long. Since it's my wife's birthday I thought I'd try to kick it up a notch and add some kickass lighting.

I have so far purchased 2 DMX RGB LED PAR64 cans and a fog machine and plan to use freestyler and a DMX-USB cable. But I'm not sure how to layout the space. Basically I want to have 2 microphone stands with mics and projection screen in the center. Maybe a small 1 foot high stage for each singer.

I was thinking of buying one of those LTS-30-T 9ft high - 10 ft wide trusses with a 5 foot extension for truss and put it on one side of room and shoot lights across the 24 foot room, but since I can only put the lights up 8.5 feet in the air, I don't think this will work with people in the room. So my next thought was to put that same truss either right in front of the roughly defined stage area or directly behind it with 2 par cans, fog machine, and a couple scanners positioned symetrically on each side.

Help! I dont know to do. I am in San Diego and we have a decent theatre lighting rental place locally. Any suggestions appreciated.

Here is a link to the local rental catalog
http://www.sdstagelighting.com/rentals.html
http://www.sdstagelighting.com/pdf/Full ... 202009.pdf

I want to really produce a night to remember but hopefully not break the bank.

[Tom]

Hi there,

Firstly we need to know a rough budget. I could spec you a rig, but it may just be too much in money!

Also, power requirements. You can't just load whatever you like off the hall. You need to know what power the hall have available and how it's distributed - IE is it all off the one ring main?

[silver]

Trying to stay as close to $500 as possible. As I have 3 months, I'm scouring ebay and craigslist for deals, I have some access to borrowing things from the tradeshow storeroom at the office, like DMX controller and some other stuff and hope to rent the more expensive stuff.

From what I understand there are 2 20A circuits in the hall portion. Might have to run extension chords to the back of hall for more power.

Thanks

[Tom]

20A Isn't a lot by any stretch of the imagination!

In this case LED's are your friend. You could also get a couple of heads or scanners but these would be expensive.

Definitely hiring would be the way to go. LED Par's are possibly the best way forward. A regular PAR 64 will draw a lot more power!! On 120V it will draw around 8A off the top of my head!!!

If you really feel like it, and have cash to spare, then maybe get a couple of heads or scanners. Depends how complex you want to get really.

[remco_k]

20A Isn't a lot by any stretch of the imagination!

In this case LED's are your friend. You could also get a couple of heads or scanners but these would be expensive.

Definitely hiring would be the way to go. LED Par's are possibly the best way forward. A regular PAR 64 will draw a lot more power!! On 120V it will draw around 8A off the top of my head!!!

If you really feel like it, and have cash to spare, then maybe get a couple of heads or scanners. Depends how complex you want to get really.

8A on 110V for a PAR?
Thats a 880 Watt PAR... Wow...
I think thats a little bit over the top.
PAR64 comes in various versions. I believe they are there from 250Watt.
So if there is a power supply for max 20A (P = U x I ---> 110 x 20 = 2200Watt) then you can easily connect 8 par64's having some headroom left...
Or do 4 par64's and 4x 250W scanners / moving heads. Is all in total about 2KW.
(Calculations based on network voltage of 110V, no idea if thats valid for you, here in NL we have 230V@50Hz network voltage -- So; if the network voltage is different than 110V then you need to recalculate!)
Edit: I looked it up, in the United States the network voltage is 110-130V@60Hz, so info in this post is good.

[silver]

Trying to use LEDs just to make sure I have enough power since I'm not exactly sure how much I'll have.

Here is what I have so far:

Entec USB to DMX (not pro)
Optima Par64 RGB LED Black http://www.bulbamerica.com/OPTIMA-LIGHT ... 0-prod.htm
Chauvet Precision 800 Fogger FX-800(with the optional DMX interface) http://www.filmandvideolighting.com/chpr800fofx.html

[Tom]

8A on 110V for a PAR?
Thats a 880 Watt PAR... Wow...
I think thats a little bit over the top.

In that case I underestimated. Most commonly used PAR 64s in the UK are 1000W (or 1Kw).

The bulbs for a PAR 64 are:

1000W
CP60 (Very Narrow Spot)
CP61 (Narrow Spot)
CP62 (Most common I would say - Medium Flood)

500W
CP86 (Very Narrow Spot)
CP87 (Narrow Spot)
CP88 (Medium Flood)

[Tom]

Just to add - using a 1000W PAR would come to around 9A.

[remco_k]

Wel, yes. I know there are 1KW PAR64's.
But considering the limited space of the topicstarter, such massive power is somewhat overdone. (And free heating)
That why I pointed to the 500 or 250W versions.

[djSupport]

Jeese your all getting complicated lol maths and stuff...

He wants a small show not a fully blown mathematical worked out lighting rig... lmao

[Tom]

Jeese your all getting complicated lol maths and stuff...

He wants a small show not a fully blown mathematical worked out lighting rig... lmao

Even if it's small you still need to do the maths. You can't just turn up with a load of lights and plug them in - so it may work, but on the other hand you risk tripping the ring main at the least, if not worse.

[silver]

Good point. I'll definitely consider the math. Not sure what lights to use though. Im a total newb so i figured no more that 8-12 lights total. if yu were going to light a 4' x 8' stage with 8-12 lights and a rock vibe, what would you do?

[Tom]

What positions are there for hanging lights?

Are there any bars already in place, or would the lights have to be on T-bars?

[Tom]

What I'd do is around 8 PAR 56's FOH (front of house - in front of the stage) with 4 different colours in so that you have the same colours on each side - a pair.

I would try something like 106, 119, 089 and 022. All of these are LEE colours.

I would then get 1 x 6 channel dimmer which can have 10A per channel and pair the colours up - requring a total of 4 channels.

Then I would maybe look into hiring a couple of intelligent bits - heads preferably but your budget may not allow so just a couple of scanners (moving mirrors). You may well want a mirror ball too if the budget allows.

If there is any budget left try and get 6 LED PAR cans and, if possible, have these on the stage so there is some colour washing from on the stage itself - which will make it look more 3D as if there is just FOH light everything can look a bit 2D.

Not sure how much that would come to but that's what I would do. Don't forget you are also going to need the required cables.