Comments on: Stage Lighting Stands – Easy Rigging Equipment

By: John Litchfield

John Litchfield — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:05:06 +0000

I am looking at setting up a ceiling mounted rig for the Primary school that I work at. We have a good sized hall and it has metal box section beams at about 10 to 15 meters above the hall floor. I am sure that we could attach a rig to these beams but am interested to have any advice. The system will be used by our older pupils to set up lighting for the various shows the school puts on over the year. I would like it ceiling mounted as i am having a light and sound desk fitted into the hall.

would remote control lights work?

LED’s or normal lights?

where can i purchase the winching system for a rig to enable me to drop the lights so the children can position them?

Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

John

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:22:31 +0000

Thanks for the tip

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:02:45 +0000

Chris,

If you don’t have much room in the ceiling, I would look up hardware called Unistrut. It’s used in the building industry and is a discreet way of mounting lighting equipment in smaller venues.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:28:35 +0000

Hi, been trying to research stage lighting and your site seems to be the most useful I’ve found. I’m looking at taking over a pub (with my wife) which has a stage, the lighting set-up seems rather inadequate. 2 tripods with lights on at the BACK of the stage so the performers backs get lit up nicely… I’ve found some budget equipment to upgrade a couple of bits, but i am looking to have lights at the front of the stage, any ideas where i could find the required equipment for mounting the lights? it will be a permanent install so i don’t want any tripods taking up space and everyone seems to sell those or full on rigging which seems a little over the top, where could i find something that will fit my needs? a simple bar i can fix to a wall so i can mount lights on it… before i start thinking about raiding a scaffolders yard…

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Hello again, Craig I agree with you about the professional grade lighting stands. In the UK, we usually use the standard Manfrotto wind-up stand. They are good quality , stable and lift about 30KG to 13 feet - but they aren't cheap. I have seen some decent quality copies around though. The Strata from Doughty Engineering is a favourite for heavy duty lifts. Thanks and glad to see your blog back again. (p.s - Did you notice that I do that unique Brit thing and use metric measurements and feet in the same sentence - lol)

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:41:01 +0000

If I were to build a “minimal” lighting package for a small band, theater troop, or portable church, good lighting stands would be one of my my first purchases. I would also recommend staying away from any equipment marketed to mobile DJ’s–unless, of course you ARE a mobile DJ. Buy two pro-grade stands capable of holding a T bar with at least six, preferably twelve, par cans per stand. You don’t need to buy all the par cans right away. Get a stand with a hand crank that lets you get the lights well above the head of the crowd–8 feet minimum, 12 if you have the headroom. If money is tight, don’t buy a dimming system right away–you can just plug the par cans into wall outlets or a power strip, and use a switch to turn them on and off. Be careful not to exceed the current capacity of your extension cord, power strip, or wall outlet. Do not place lights close to automatic fire sprinkler heads. One disadvantage of stands is that they often have to be placed away from the stage, in the crowd, where the is a possibility that some drunk will mess with them. This could be an issue for bands playing in bars…hopefully not an issue in a church.