Stage lighting - Turn your gig into a show!

Stage lighting is not just for theatre or arena concerts. With a little bit of thought your stage area can be transformed making YOU the focal point of the room.

As a busy gigging musician I am still surprised to see solo artists, duos and bands working without any stage lighting. Let’s face it, most pubs and small venues don’t have in-house lighting and it doesn’t take much effort to transform a room into a proper venue.
So you’ve been rehearsing for the past six months. You’ve got a great set together and invested a small fortune in backline and P.A. You’ve thought carefully about what your hair will look like and what clothing you are going to wear for your gigs. You’ve done all this and spent a lot of time and effort doing it – so imagine turning up at your local pub and playing under cold-faceless strip-lights (like the ones your gran has in her kitchen) or even under ornate wall lights that give off just enough of a glow to stop you tripping and dropping your pint… The band might sound fantastic but it all looks a bit crap really – especially with the pub menu behind you as a back drop or even worse the football on a 50” flat-screen.
Panic not. Help is as hand. In the words of AC/DC, “Let there be rock!”.

Transform you gig from this:

 to this:

OK so you might not be playing at the Millennium Stadium but similar principles apply to lighting a band or solo artist. There are a few things you need to bear in mind;

Power requirements
Most small venues will only supply 2 or 3 13amp electrical sockets (I have turned up to find just one!!!). If there is anything else plugged into the socket such as a TV or game machine you need to point out the venue manager that they will have to be unplugged before you can connect to the mains since you will have to power your P.A., backline and lighting from this power supply. Each 13amp socket can provide up to 3000watts of power so it is important that you think ahead before you go plugging everything in. Some single unit stage lights can draw up to 2000watts if they are powered to the max. Trying to fire two units along with your P.A. and backline could result in everything going very dark and very quiet. You also need to bear in mind that the ring mains of some venues are also supplying coolers, fridges, pumps etc. With this in mind some better prepared venues provide a 32Amp ring main which can be tapped into using 16Amp ring main to 3pin plug adaptors. These kick out around 7000watts each which should be more than enough for even the brightest loudest pub band. Stage lighting can draw a lot of power and generate a lot of heat so one consideration is L.E.D. lighting that has low power consumption and generates little or no heat.

Lighting equipment options
As a solo singer and band member I look after all my own lighting. That includes all requirement considerations, setting up and controlling during performances. Therefore the K.I.S.S. principle (“Keep it simple stupid!”) is certainly the way to go if you are new to the world of bright pretty colors. If this is your first foray into lighting you are better off keeping it cheap and simple…

Conventional Par Cans

The SM58’s of the lighting world. Everyone from ‘Rush’ to pub-bands uses these standard work-horses. By far the most common form of stage lighting, PAR cans come in a number of different sizes making them versatile for all kinds of lighting applications. The lamp case includes a bracket that allows the lamp to be bolted to a T-Bar mounted on lighting stand or an individual lighting bracket that will allow you to fix the lamp to almost any supporting structure, light stand, or even speaker stand. Some PAR Cans are also supplied with a floor mounted bracket which does exactly what it says on the tin. Floor mounted PARs can also be mounted on stands.

There are many different sizes and applications of PAR Cans but the most common lamp sizes used in a small gig situation is the Par56s. The diameter of the lamp is measured in 8ths of an inch – therefore a PAR64 is 8 inches across. For bigger gigs and larger stages a band would be better off with Par64s. Par cans are usually supplied without bulbs and in the case of PAR 64s the user can determine the power (a PAR64 is capable of taking a 500watt or even a 1000watt bulb giving some great versatility for larger stage coverage) and beam-spread of bulb they need. For the pub circuit I wouldn’t recommend PAR 64s as they are simply too bright and draw too much power for your needs. You want to add ambience to the stage area – not cook the band! Therefore if you’re heading down the PAR Can route I suggest PAR 56s are the boys for the job.

8 x PAR56 Cans will draw 300Watts each leaving plenty of juice in a standard 32AMP ring main for the rest of the band’s gear and gives more than enough lighting for a pub / hotel type gig. Some PAR Cans are supplied with ‘barn doors’ which can be angled to allow the user greater control over the direction of the lamp spread. In addition some PAR Cans are supplied with or can be fitted with a transformer to allow the use of low voltage bulbs. It is always worth double checking before you make your purchase so you know exactly what type of bulb it has been rated for.

Most PAR Cans come with a gel-frame which allows the user to insert different colored heat resistant gels in-front of the bulb which effectively changes the color of the lamp. This versatility allows you to have a different color for every lamp however you can’t really go wrong with the three primary colors of Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). By mixing these four colors you can get literally millions of color combinations.


LED PAR Cans

These are not the cheapest option at the moment since they haven’t been around that long and I suspect we are still paying ‘development costs’ rather than material and production costs however LED PAR Can lighting has some great advantages over conventional PAR Cans…

I have a number of different lighting set ups that I use regularly as a solo entertainer and with a band. Initially I was using a cut down version of the band lighting for my solo gigs but this still meant carrying a large-ish flight case with lighting and stands into even the smallest of venues. This often means that the lighting is very close to me as a performer (owing to the tiny areas that some pubs expect you to perform in) so I then had to take an industrial fan just to keep me from melting down. In addition to all that, some venues electrical supplies couldn’t even cope with my lighting and switching on 8 x 300Watt lamps would not quite give me the lighted ambiance of the ‘stage’ area that I required. More like the darkness of Wookey Hole as the electrical system tripped! On discovering LED PAR Cans my prayers were answered.

Imagine a single unit that generates hardly any heat, is half the weight of a conventional PAR Can and is capable of RGB (Red, Green & Blue) color mixing, dimming control and even ‘sound-to-light’ all for around 85 quid? Well that’s more or less what todays LED PAR Cans are capable of.

How does it work?
Light emitting diodes (just like the one in the key-ring torch you were given for Christmas) have come a long way since the Sinclair digital watch. LED technology has improved greatly over the past few years allowing them to be used as a replacement for conventional bulbs.

Instead of one single massive colored LED the lamp is made up of hundreds of small red, green, and blue LEDs allowing you to change the color of each lamp without the use of colored gels. LEDs use a fraction of the power of a normal light bulb resulting in a greatly reduced heat output. This allows you to use many more units without putting a strain on the power supply of the venue you are working at. The reduced power draw also means that the lamps have a much longer working life. You might get 30 or so hours of use from a conventional PAR bulb before it blows (which can also trip an electrical supply) but literally hundreds of thousands of hours from LEDs and, unlike your Christmas tree lights, if one of the tiny bulbs fails the rest keep on working! The hardware that the LEDs are built within requires no transformers making them much lighter than conventional lighting units.

However there is one slight disadvantage; LEDs are still not as bright as conventional lighting. When working as a solo singer I use a single PAR 64 LED which is about as powerful as a single conventional PAR 56. BUT and it’s a big BUTT momma, the advantages far outweigh the restrictions of their conventional predecessors.

Controlling LED PAR Can lighting.
Most LED PAR Cans are supplied with a DMX connector and a series of dip switches that allow you to set the color, fade time and sound-to-light settings. For 90% of my solo gigs I just set a single unit sound-to-light or on a slow color fade cycle and let it do its thing. However it possible to link up many lamps using a DMX controller but we’ll talk more of this later.

The ability to get the same amount of color as using 3 separate PAR Cans means saving on space, lugging gear and heat. I find that a single floor mounted PAR64 LED is sufficient for my solo gigs where space is a premium.

Aubrey performing with a single floor mounted LED Par Can.

Floodlights & color mixers
An alternative to using an array of PAR Cans to light up the stage area is by using a compact floodlight or color mixer.
These are not much bigger than a single PAR64 but house 3 or four 300Watt or 500Watt bulbs. Each bulb sits behind a dichroic filter (heat resistant colored glass). By controlling which bulbs are lit you can mix almost any color required. These units are great for lighting small to really large stage areas as they are so bright – but very compact. A pair either side of the stage is ideal for a solo performer or even small to medium sized band.

Some of the older units like the NJD Quartet (£142.00) do not have DMX control which would mean the use of an additional dimmer pack along with a lighting desk. However the ‘more recent’ versions such as the NJD Spectre and Stairville HM40 DMX

have full DMX control allowing dimming from a simple DMX lighting controller. The HM40 DMX can also operate via built in sound-to-light or with an optional controller with built in patters.
For me these compact units have been a blessing from above. They are small, and easy to maintain and in the case of the HM40 they take standard halogen bulbs just like the ones in outdoor security lighting which are very cheap to replace at around £1.50 per bulb. In addition they are very quick to transport and rig. The floods can fit in to a small flight case and will sit happily on the floor or mounted on lighting stands taking just a few minutes to set up.

Scanners & Moving Heads
If you want to add a little movement to your lighting there are plenty of units out there that will do the trick…

Scanners
A scanner is a lighting unit with a mirror mounted on a servo motor. A halogen bulb or a cluster of LED bulbs are contained within the unit and reflected out across the room by the mirror allowing a light pattern to be quickly moved around the performance area. By sending DMX signals to the unit it is possible to change the color of the lamp, shape and size of the beam or even project patterns by moving the internal ‘gobo’ wheel inside the unit.
The Martin Roboscan 812 (now discontinued) was a workhorse for a number of years and second hand units can be picked up quite cheaply. If you are looking to purchase a new unit (such as the Martin Mania SCX 500)  a search on the internet will give you a host of goodies. There are also LED based scanners which may not be as bright as a conventional bulb but their low power consumption means the bulbs will last considerably longer unlike conventional scanner halogen bulbs which can be expensive to replace.
Most scanners will work as stand-alone units making them ideal to mount alongside PAR Cans or floods to add movement across the stage and out into the audience. They need to be mounted on lighting stands for the best effect.

Moving Heads 
As the name implies these units have a moving head that can spin horizontally and vertically.

The example you can see in the picture uses has 14 different gobos (patterns), 11 different colors and is capable of a strobe effect. I’m a big fan of moving head scanners because I think they look cool and will work either as a floor mounted unit, on top of a speaker stack, or fixed to a lighting stand or rig.
The units will work stand alone but you can link two or more units together with a DMX cable (Standard Microphone XLR will do the trick). Units linked together give a synchronized show which looks fantastic. Not just from a lighting perspective, but the movement of unit itself looks really cool. With this in mind it’s best to use the units in multiples of two to get the best effect. Most of these units come with a number of pre programmed light shows for use in stand-alone mode. They also work sound-to-light or can be connected to DMX lighting controller which can be worked by a roadie or sound engineer. However in most instances I set the units to sound-to-light and let them get on with their job!


Lighting Control
Most bands cannot afford the luxury of a lighting controller (or even a sound engineer) so it’s usual to control all your lighting on stage. Again you need to keep this as simple as possible – screwing up that Darkness solo just because you were trying to change the pattern on the lighting controller with your foot will not go down well with the rest of the band. You have a number of options:

Plug all the lights in and leave them on - Simple but effective.

Use an non DMX automated lighting chaser.
Depending on the type of lighting you are using will depend on the type of light controller you use. Older conventional PAR Cans can be plugged in and switched on at the beginning of a gig – simple but effective. However if you want to make the light flash then you will need an automated lighting chaser. These come as rack mounted or floor mounted units that allow you to plug in your stage lights and flash away with either a pre-set pattern or by synching with a sound input from the P.A. or in-built microphone. A simple sequencing sound-light- controller is the NJD  SC400e which will power up to 8 x 500 Watt Par64 lamps. It sends 240v power via a connector and 13amp cable to the lamps.

If you want to be able to adjust the brightness of conventional lamps then you will need a powered dimmer unit such as the NJD NJ202A. This unit has 4 x IEC connectors that will deliver a maximum inductive load of 1150W running at 5A per channel. This would allow you to power up to 8 PAR 64 lamps per channel.


Control your lighting using DMX.
If you are using DMX lighting all the units can be linked together and controlled via a DMX lighting controller which will give you dimming capabilities and individual control of each lighting unit – including PAR Cans, Floods and Scanners. Again you have the option of sound-to-light sequencing or if you are lucky enough to have a partner who can manipulate the controller during the gig – all the better (but not really necessary).

Using DMX to control conventional PAR cans requires the use of an additional dimmer pack for the lamps such as the Prolight DMX Digital Dimmer Pack with 8 IEC Outputs. This can be fitted to the T-Bar that the lamps are mounted on and will convert a DMX signal into a power signal to control the brightness of the lamp. However, if you are using LED Par Cans, they can be controlled via DMX without the need of additional dimmer packs making them an even tastier option.

The cost of DMX controllers has now reached an acceptable level for solo entertainers and small bands. A few years ago the desks were complicated and expensive and designed for people with a degree in lighting technology. These days things have become a lot simpler and a damn site cheaper BUT without the compromise on technology. I tend to use a small DMX color mixer such as the Acme ISolution IColour CA32 Mix Controller  for my stage floods which can work sound to light or scroll through different patterns at different speeds. However if I’m feeling adventurous I link all my DMX lighting together and control it all using a Stairville DMX Master. This particular controller can be found hiding under various names as it is a pretty generic unit that has been re-branded by a number of manufacturers. It allows control of PAR Cans, Scanners, Moving Heads and many other types DMX controlled lighting.
It is possible to control all your DMX lighting using software and a laptop with a DMX dongle – however this is a subject on its own that would fill this magazine so we’ll come back to that in another issue.
As a solo entertainer and with my band I use a combination of all of the above controllers. I set my moving head units to sound-to-light. The two units are linked and therefore their lighting patters are synchronized. The stage floods are then controlled via a small DMX lighting controller which I use to adjust the brightness of the lights at the beginning of the gig. I then let the controller work in either a slow color mix fade which slowly changes the color of the lighting on stage (great for the slower songs) or I  punch it into sound-to-light mode and let it flash away for the rockier numbers – Simple but effective.

Rigging Lighting Equipment 
How you rig your lighting will depend on the size of venue you are performing in. I generally set my moving head scanners either side of the stage on the floor underneath the speaker stands. This keeps them from being kicked by any un-suspecting audience member. PAR Cans and floods wherever possible should be mounted on lighting stands. Lighting stands come in various shapes and sizes ranging from a lifting height of 3m up to 6m – however 3m pair of stands should suffice.

Push up stands have a locking pin and tightening system and are not unlike speaker stands in their construction and will lift to around 3m. If you are looking for something more substantial to carry the weight of a few floods and a scanner or two then you will be better off with a Wind up stand. These have a built in winch and cog system that will allow you to get your lighting up to 3m or more by winding the winch this makes the effort of lifting the lighting easier and allows a single person to rig the lights.

If you are rigging more than one light per stand then you will probably need a T-Bar. This is fitted to the top of the stand using a bolt or spigot. They can be square or round and come pre-drilled to allow you hang your lighting using bolts or lighting hook clamps.

You always need to make sure that the stands are on even ground and NEVER exceed the recommended loading limit for each stand.

It is not always possible to mount lighting on stands. A classic example is if you are performing in a marquee. The nature of the sloping room often means there is simply not enough height for stands and in these instances it’s best to mount lights either on the top of speaker stacks or directly on the floor. Not an ideal solution and you need to make sure they are away from party-goers feet, but it’s better than having no lighting at all.
Dressing the stage.
It is quite often the case that the area you will be performing in has the pub menu behind you or even a massive plasma screen. I combat the local décor by using a ‘star cloth’. This is not as you might think a piece of material covered in pictures of rock-stars but a black cloth containing an array of white LEDs. The cloth can be hung directly onto the wall with the aid of some strong gaffer-tape or hooks but most of the time I use a set of goal posts - basically two lighting stands with a cross bar that is set up behind the band.

You don’t have to use a star cloth simple black draping or a giant printed logo of the band will do just as well. It makes the stage area look more like a …erm stage!
Once your backdrop, P.A. and backline are rigged you can set the lighting up and play around with height and angle of lamps until you are happy that the audience can see you as well as hear you. Now you’ve made it all look pretty – the performance is up to you.