Forums › Life › Computers, Gadgets & Technology › Lighting….
Righty who knows there shit?
I have a bit of cash I want to spend on lights but I’m totally clueless as to what is worth the cash and what isn’t
At the moment we only have one light for the rig and we want lots more.
http://www.whybuynew.co.uk/ is a good place to go – we got a few of our lights here, and they’re excellent (it’s all 2nd hand, or ex display, but it’s also all guaranteed for a bit too…:love:)
Ebay is generally fairly good too (we got our laser there:weee::weee::weee:)
For value for money (ie best effect for the smallest outlay), I’d go for a set of scanners first if you can afford it, as they can be made to look like a really full on light show when in reality it’s only 4 scanners working on DMX. Lasers are good too (and have really come down in price recently – the one we got looks like it could almost cut you in half, and is a fantastic effect when the mist comes down in the hills – you would be well advised to get a fog machine with the laser too though, to get the best effect).
Hope that helps…:weee:
We got allsorts, some crap some good! At the moment were using 2 moonflowers, 2 uv strips & a smoke machine. That works for us at the moment.
Lazers in the woods :love:
I’m gona ditch the lazer idea to expencive for good uns.
well, here is my tuppence worth.
UV cannons are an obvious one, the fixture itself is fairly cheap (maybe £30/40 second hand), but the bulbs are expensive (bout as same as the lamp!). It depends how much cash, and maybe how many uv drapes you have, as cannons can be quite powerful (depends on the wattage) and also directional, ie you can point them at stuff. Note that cannons have to be rigged far enough away from the punters, so that it doesn’t burn them! I often see powerful UV cannons within a few feet of clubbers. scary!
The other (cheaper) route to uv, that i know about, is to use a flouresent neon tube, which are basically the same fixtures u see in factories an offices. The fixtures and the tubes are cheap as chips (maybe £5 each). However, they look a bit cheap (they are usually nasty white), so they can look a bit crap unless you can mask the units cleverly.
The tubes are more efficient, power wise, if you plan to go outdoors a lot, in which case it might be worth thinkin about how u would rig them (either a cannon or tubes), to give them cover from the weather.
Cannons can probably take a little bit of rain, especially once they are actually on, but the tubes are vulnerable.
Other tips, moving mirror fixtures (noname calls em scanners, i think) are the cheapest in terms of bangs for your buck, so i’d go for them. they definately don’t like water tho.
Whilst these generally come with primitive sound to light, and maybe some standard repeating patterns, a simple control unit and DMX is a far better idea, as noname sez.
I’ve not got much idea in terms of purchasing, i remember helping buy a load of stuff from this lot once, they do have some ex-rental and bargains, but i think e-bay is your best bet.
http://www.aclighting.com/index.htm
Try and research the kit thoroughly b4 buying it via e-bay, tho.
Gotta go now, hope that helps.
What type of lights do you want? There’s a few good companies on the net
Well basically we have about £500 to spend now and more later and we ewant it to look wicked in a marquee.
I have no idea about lighting at all I only usually deal with rig.
I’d go with what noname and marcusblanc said and say that moving mirror lights and a DMX controller (or maybe a laptop with USB>DMX control and suitable software) are very effective for the outlay.
Its been a couple of years since I played around with any such kit but K32 obtained some fairly cheaply in 2005, I think it was from a company that was closing down or upgrading.
There were a number of these under different brand names, I can’t unfortunately remember what they were called now. They all worked on the same principle – there was a colour filter, a spinning prism and a gobo wheel (the things that make the pretty shapes) and the different DMX codes would change the position of each element as well as the rudimentary sound to light control the others have mentioned.
I was just about to try and decipher the intricacies of DMX and how to make these things work but then I had to move out of the area and away from all my old friends, and I’ve virtually retired from the rave scene anyway.
That said I expect £500 would buy a fair few of these and the controller kit, if you got a good deal second hand. If I ever catch up with 34all and dabble again I will try and find out where they got them from.
too fucking right man!!!, i love lasers in woods
it might be useful to know about power availability, because it would narrow down the possibilities. Are you wanting to run this stuff ‘in the woods’? If so, that implies a generator, and a fairly limited power supply.
20kva 3phase genny.Plenty of spare power on that.
basically one 32A feed at 20kva.
kva…hmm:hopeless:… to make this simple for me (i’m no sparky!), is your 32 amps at 415v or 230v?
I’m jus tryin to get to watts here, thats what lights are rated in, generally.
It’s LASER (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation)…
Sorry – the americanisation of so many of our words does my head in (burglarisation FFS… it’s Burglary…:rant::rant::rant:)
Pedantic of me, I know – playing countdown too much probably…:wink:
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Forums › Life › Computers, Gadgets & Technology › Lighting….