r/lightingdesign

Ran 4x ADJ Inno Pocket Spot Twins for the better part of 3 years. They were fine for the brewery I started in but I outgrew the venue and the venue outgrew the lights.

Just installed 4x 200W spot/beam/wash combos. ~$$345 each on the May sale, $$459 MSRP. (Kept the Innos, they're still earning their keep at smaller events.)

What changed:

• Output: massive jump. Went from 2x 12W LED per fixture (24W total inside the Twin housing) to a single 200W LED source. Haze response went from "kinda visible" to "real beam", no lumens math needed
• Channels: 19ch → 23ch (BSW200 ships as 23ch only on mine). The extra channels are mostly motorized zoom, prism rotation, color macros, frost, and independent P/T fade time which I never had before
• Weight per fixture: 17 lb → 15.4 lb so each unit is actually slightly lighter, didn't have to upgrade clamps or re-rate the truss, which was a nice surprise given everything else got bigger

Things that surprised me:

• Fan noise is louder than the Innos. Fine for live music, would not run these for a wedding ceremony
• The wash function inside a "spot/beam/wash combo" is OK, not great. If the brief is true wash work I'd still bring dedicated wash cans
• Gobo wheel is interchangeable on these. Innos didn't have that. I now own 6 custom gobos.

What would you change about the layout?

A friend of mine had an emergency trip abroad and the club he is running needed an LD for this weekend only and since it was a techno and edm weekend I decided to help him out. BUT I’m a MA3 user and I m going to be busking in a hog4 for the first time ever without the original programmer there, and I really don’t know how or what to do. I need you gurus to help me out cause I’m starting to stress tf out, please leave any advice you have below. Thank you in advance <3

Hello, I'm Walter, 22y/o, with experience in live events logistics ,

I've worked with big productions in Europe, and I want to do the switch to rigging.

what steps can I take in order to get into this area of work, how should I start?

Hi all, I'm an audio guy with a bit of experience in the field, but I recently discovered the lighting world. I've been experimenting with stuff at home with some demo rigs and in the visualizer. I'm mostly using Onyx and Chamsys.

I recently landed my first gig. I'd have to run and design the lights for a local act play. They are friends and it's very low level stuff (school-like), so there's not any pressure on my end.

The fixtures at my disposal are either 9 Robe Robin washled 300 or 8 washled 300 and a Robin Viva.

I've yet to see the place where the play is gonna be performed, but who's been there told me the stage is around 6x4m, so rather small, and there's only gonna be a front truss. My plan was to put 5 fixtures on the front truss, try to use 2 as sidelights (if there's space) and put the remaining two on the floor in the upstage corners.

The theatrical performance is set mainly in an outdoor garden and a bedroom, with relatively static scenes. However, there will also be two more “musical-style” scenes featuring music and choreography that will be a bit more complex.

My plan was to build a cue list and run through it during the show, while also keeping some FXs on some overrides for the musical parts. What scares me is to have to modify some palette and mess later cues.

What do you guys think? And of course if you have any advice, especially related to the design side of things, it's very welcome.

I have a project that has white fixtures and customer requests white cables. I can not readily available premade True1 cables that are white and the ones I did locate are very pricey. I can buy spools of cable and the True1 connectors and do it myself but that can cause UL issues since I am not recognized shop. I have seen installations that had white fixtures/black cables. What do others do?

Question for people doing EDM / DnB shows.
I’ve been watching a lot of live sets lately and started wondering about something. DnB especially can mean 60-min sets: similar BPM ranges, lots of build-ups, fake drops, unfamiliar tracks and constant busking.
After 2–4 hours, does fatigue actually become a thing? Physically or mentally.
Do you ever get moments where after hours of reacting and predicting music it becomes harder to stay locked in? Or do you eventually enter some kind of flow and stop thinking about it?
How do people working lights actually experience this?
If anyone wants to share more - happy to have a quick chat. DM me.

I’ve been very much focusing on incandescents lately, as I heard their color rendering is still better than LEDs. Then I found an article that claimed that the difference is negligible. That said, I’ve seen side by sides of tungsten and LED’s effects on skin tones, and I was frankly able to notice the difference. Am I just abnormal, or is there really a noticeable difference?

Hi!

Sorry if it deforms, I’m on my mobile phone.

Since childhood I’ve been a huge Eurofan and when I became a Lighting Tech and then Designer I’ve always managed to get the plot once everything ended.
This year I can’t find it so… Is there anybody willing to share the plot with me? 🥹

Thank you!

Hi friends, I'm still trying to understand some things when it comes to charging rates. I'm getting if I should just charge one rate or different rates based on role. The main thing that I'm getting confused is that some people will tell me the what the rate is but at the same time, the same people will sometimes ask me what my rate is. How different do you guys charge for different venue sizes? Premiun rates or overtime? So far, I've been asked to do all these different roles:

Hired by design firm:

- Touring LD for club and stadium

- Previz Programmer for some club size one offs

- Technical Drafting

- One off Busking

- Filling in for a tour

Hired by Vendor:

- FOH Tech

- Programmer

- Operator

Would love some input! Apprieate it!

I originally built this because I got tired of walking between FOH and stage all the time during focus 😅

Been refining it for quite a while now and figured I’d share the current version here since a lot of MA users still haven’t come across it.

The goal is simple:
fast on-stage access to the things you actually need.

Not a full console replacement.
More of a workflow companion for focus/setup/rehearsal.

Would genuinely love feedback from other MA operators.

https://preview.redd.it/w3bh17419v1h1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=0060537baebce9d32acff2e3ba7b34275ce2d629

g3link.app/download

Looking to invest in a nice hazer to improve the production values of our shows, especially the musicals. Probably shouldn't have taken them to Hamilton since they fell in love with those beautiful beams--as did I. I am looking at the MDG Atmosphere APS, but open to more budget friendly versions too. Stage is 55' wide by 38' deep. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone!

English isn't my first language, so I hope this text conveys my dilemma well enough.

In the near future I want to get my own console for programming at home and taking on tour with some smaller bands (that could grow into selling out larger venues) and I can't decide between Avolites and MA3. On one hand, I already have somewhat of a starter showfile I programmed myself on MA3 and I know this is the most well known console and makes arriving at a new venue and just having to update some palettes a breeze. It can also do some amazing things for sure and I know that if I want to be able to do festivals getting this console would be the wiser choice.

On the other hand, I seem to be more comfortable with Avolites as it is quite intuitive to me and MA3 really overwhelms me with all the options and different ways to do everything. I also have a little more experience with Avo. After using both for a while I have also found I am more of a designer than a programmer, and the Avolites is a way better console for my programming style. But I also don't want to limit my future self just because I am more comfortable on Avolites at the moment.

I'd love it if people had some tips, insights or experiences to share that could help me ​​make this decision, as I keep weighing the pro's and cons and can't seem to get anywhere as both appeal to me for different reasons. Thanks in advance :)