The lighting thread

The Lounge
#21

I’m actually not…

This has apparently been confusing me. I had this impression I’d be limited to a single colour at a time by moving to cv tape and away from pixel tape. I should have realized moving to cv led tape limits a fixture to both one colour and one dimming state across the whole strip. This is undesirable for sure because the opz is capable of some basic patterns. I might be an idiot for not putting this all together by now.

Anyway,

this issue, combined with 128 leds being a bit of an underwhelming sight, you make a decent case to pivot to either

or, since

pivot to something cooler. Like

! That just sounds cool. I will do a little dig. Thank you.

#22

Think of a single RGB strip as 3 circuits in one. You essentially need 3 channels of dmx, and a decoder that is essentially 3 channels. For example, the enttec decoder you mentioned is a 3 channel device which can run a single led strip and give control over rg+b.

If you run the strips in series, its all on the same 3 channel circuit.

If you run say 2 strips in parralel, i.e on seperate outputs from a decoder, this then gives you 6 channels of control.

Some decoders are wired for rgb, some are not. The ones that are not tend to have lots of + connections, and one common negative. The boards generally do low side switching on this type.

1 Like
#23

My current lighting setup is scalable to a certain point. Beyond that point for a larger venue or event, I would depend on the venue or production company to provide the main lighting.

I currently have about 8 LED Par lights for washes, mood lighting, etc.
I can mount these on stands at any level, or set them up on the floor.

I also have a professional 3-in-1 with lasers, LED washes and LED moving patterns.
I typically mount this high above the dance floor to give a real disco/dance show feel.

I have a smaller, more portable 4-in-1 with bit less power, but similar fx
I typically use this one for smaller gigs, or as a supplement to the larger one

I also have pro LED bar lighting for front-of-stage if needed, typically placed on the floor, angled facing up to wash/color the performer(s).

All of these are DMX controllable, but for the most part, I’ll link them together as needed (like the Pars) and then set them on an auto-program. Typically slow color crossfades for the pars, something more lively for the rest of the lights, sometimes with lasers off if not appropriate. And I ALWAYS leave any strobes off. Those are just annoying over time, and can also be a hazard for epileptics.

Speaking of lasers, I do have a fog machine, but when I use it, its output is typically EXTREMELY low, just enough to give some atmosphere for the lighting.

Finally, I also have miscellaneous lighting such as programable LED strips, a couple of colorful LED glow bars to light the DJ/Synth booth and a few other accessories.

All this stuff together ran me maybe around $1,000 total, but it’s worth it, especially for paid gigs when I can charge a bit more to provide both PA and lighting. It’s enough for small to large-ish private parties and even to light up or supplement small to medium venues with a real party atmosphere. Being able to provide more of a “complete” party feel experience is something that gets around through word of mouth leading to more performances.

#24

Hmm, current setup… Well, we’ve got a small venue, ten profiles, fourteen pars, four bars, and ten pins/accent lights, plus a hazer and a few fans and a couple of mirrorballs. We need one more profile to fill out our current rig, a few more deco lights, and I’m planning on replacing two of the pars with four more bars, in part to fix some sight-line issues — it’s a weird-shaped space. Next up after that is a new console and swapping six of the pars for 15 movers, plus a few strobes and a fog machine. We run house lights on Hues right now, and I need to get an artnet to hue bridge set up so I can trigger them from the board (just blackouts and scene recall).

#25

yeh them hue lights are annoying without control. So much nicer to fade up and down for the punters.

#26

I’ve been suffering with a phone sitting next to the console for years now, but yeah. Some day, I’d love to replace all the lights in public spaces with the Astera Nyx bulb plus DMX-controlled LED strips, but I’d need a GU10-format bulb to be able to do all of them, and I don’t really want to spend another €5k on house lights.

#27

Depending on the size of the phillips hue lamps, a low cost temporary solution could be some dmx motor iris’s, like the large ones that fit on followspots. Bit of a faf to rig no doubt, but it could work if you have a spare dimmer channel.

#28

Plenty of channels, but it really wouldn’t work — we’re talking about a dozen standard A19 bulbs in fixtures, plus twenty or thirty MR16s, plus a bunch of long LED strips. I’m not sure how you’d reasonably make a douser for the strips, and for the rest of them, I don’t think I can even get a DMX douser or a motor iris for as cheap as I can get one of the Astera Nyx bulbs that support CRMX and give me full color control, etc. The Artnet-Hue bridge is actually relatively straight forward — you just get a token from the bridge and set up a bunch of Open Lighting Architecture commands on a raspberry pie to hit the bridge when they get the command. I’m probably going to put HomeAssistant in the middle to get a bit more flexibility, and it’s all pretty cheap — I’ve already got a spare raspberry Pi sitting around. It’s just a few days of time, which is the hard bit.