Your event looks better with
STAGE LIGHTING HIRE
Written by Steven Thompson
An Easy Guide To Stage Lighting Hire
If you're organising an event, and you know that you'll need some light on the stage otherwise it'll be too dim, but you're not sure what's involved, then this short guide should help.
Start with the important question of can we see the presenter / performer?
Then think about what colours set the tone and vibe of the event. (For example, do we need to be keeping to certain colours for brand reasons?)
And then add some choice "eye candy" lights, to enhance the look!
Stage lighting hire, made simple.
Profile Lighting
STEP 1: So people can see what's on stage
Make sure there's enough light on the "stage", so that the presenter or performer are well lit.
Supposing that you don't want dim, grainy photos of your event, then a well lit "stage" has extra value way beyond the event day.
It means all those smart phone photos are going to look way better when people are posting about your event.
The lighting fixture most professionally used for making a stage well light, is called a "profile". An example of that light is the ETC Source 4 Profile.
This light can be positioned many meters away from a stage, usually high up on a tall stand, and is powerful enough from that distance to give a crisp looking stage.
Contact us about the venue and layout for your event, and we'll offer you some free of charge advice on where to place lights.
If you were keeping the house lights on, then perhaps you wouldn't need to light the stage. But what we're talking about here is when the house lights go down, to create that event or party vibe, then, we need to get something onto the stage or it's be super dim.
See below for example how just 2 x ETC Source 4 Profile make a 6m x 3m stage well enough lit in an otherwise pitch black Concorde hanger in Manchester.
For events in smaller spaces, a Fresnel Light can achieve the luminance needed on the person speaking or singing, such that they look great on camera.
Below, you see the way we were able to light the CEO of British Cycling for a presentation.
Colour Wash
STEP 2: Set the style and tone of your event
I would describe colour wash as the baseline colour which sets the tone of the space that our guests / audience are looking at. In this example it's a cool as ice looking DJ booth at Parklife.
The vibe is set by the whites and blues in the wash lights used. (You can't see in the photo, but there are also some LED Uplighters set to blue, on the ground.
Eye Candy Lighting
STEP 3: Bring out the eye candy.
Simply meaning, lighting effects which are good to look directly at. They really can effect the styling of the "stage" or front focal point in the room. Whether that be a retro look, (below with the sunset strip style battens) or modern LED strips (above).
In fact the example above is (relatively) low cost and easy to create behind a band. Featuring 4 x LED Battens on gravity square based lighting stands, and then 4 x moving head spots on top.
Moving Head Spots
Still part of what's broadly referred to as "eye candy" lights, are moving head spots. I've put them in a section of their own here because, well, they are cool right!?
The thing which make the beams really pop, is haze (more broadly referred to as atmosphere, because there are other effects like smoke or fog which also bring out that cutting beams effect).
I should note, that all the lighting effects shown here come from mid to low price point lighting fixtures that we hire out. So you too can create some cool looks, without needing to hire the biggest lighting company in Manchester.
If you want to enhance the control you've got over your lights, hire a lighting controller / desk
Moving Head Spots
