Who on here uses High end Lighting?

[HeadlineDJ]

Hey guys,

Just wondering who on here uses expensive lighting.

By this I mean things like Discharge units, moving heads.. etc..

Minimum price per unit of about $1000

[Johnny Dee]

We do.

Clay Paky and Martin.

[HeadlineDJ]

Cool,

Do you think the price is justified?

I see them as an investment to better things, for example corporate functions that can easily specify you project their logo in this colour at that wall, etc...

Also the ability to project clear images with the full house lighting on is a bonus.

For normal DJ work they are eye candy, people don't often see these types of fixtures in front of them and some people simply watch them doing their thing, regardless of what they are actually doing. LOL

It all helps the overall presentation of my services.

[Jim Casey]

Not here...

There really hasn't been a demand for it...

[HeadlineDJ]

In the UK a DJ with no lighting is like a DJ with no Music.

[Johnny Dee]

Investing the money in high end Intells is a waste of money unless you (or have someone else) do custom DMX programming for your light show.

We use Light Jockey and program all our shows ourselves.

This way you are making use of the capabilities of these lights. You can create great color washes for slow songs, track a followspot for the B&G entrance and first dance, set up sequences to create a club atmosphere, project logos, etc. etc.

I see too many DJ's buying Intell's and running them on auto-pilot or using a couple of programs in a simple controller.

To learn how to program a program like Light Jockey takes some time but it's worth the effort. What's also great about it is that it has a "Visualizer" so you can see what your light show will look like on screen as you are programming it without hooking up a single light. You can download a free working copy of Martin Light Jockey at their site. You can actually do all of your programming on this free copy, however, in order for it to run your actual lights you need to purchase the "Dongle" from Martin. I'm not sure what you can get it for now, but my guess is between $900. and $1100. It is well worth the money if you want to offer a serious light show to clients.

If anyone who is going to the convention in AC wants some free lessons in programming Light Jockey let me know and we can get together for a couple of hours in my room and I will show you how to do it. Just download the free copy at the Martin site and bring your laptop with you.

[HeadlineDJ]

I use a Lite-Puter CX5 controller for my lighting, which includes moving heads, intel scanners, barrels etc.

I create 306 individual scenes which can be accessed individually as well as being put together in any order I chose to create chases upto 60 steps each.

I can then create Macros which can include any scene or chase, so in effect a single Macro of which I can store 50 of these, can have as many as 60 chases each chase being 60 scenes in length.

So a single Macro would effectively go through 3000 steps before repeating itself.

Of course these are all based upon the original 306 scenes. However with enough imagination you can create some very effective routines.

I myself have some hot keys programmed to access any chase or macro with a single button press, and I can go straight into sequences for slow dances, first dances, fast dances, slow-fast, fast-slow, even special ones I created to enhance the laser show.

Of course all these intels are only so good unless you have the correct amount of smoke/fog or Haze present. This is where my Martin Jem ZR-22DMX comes in.

Dual heaters, dual pumps and fully adjustable from 0% - 100% output (30,000c ft/min)

So it's ideal for very small rooms or very large rooms.

I'm doing a freebie gig for the kids school on Wednesday, if I have time I'll try to grab some photos of the freebie setup. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

:tup

[Johnny Dee]

Sounds good HeadlineDJ. That's the way to do it. You are programming your shows rather than just setting the dip switches to run the auto programs.

Before I bought Light Jockey I used a CP-10 as my controller and programmed the way you have done it.

The great thing about Light Jockey is the visualizer. You never have to hook up a light to do your programming. You can sit home watching TV and program your light shows.

[HeadlineDJ]

I do that now, sit at home and watch TV, ok the frnot room also has a tri-lite truss with winch stands in there at the same time, LOL but it works.

I only do it when I know I have an awkward room to cater for, so I make some adjustments to certain scenes.

[Johnny Dee]

With Light Jockey you can put in a "Global" command to change all of your programs at once to match the size of your room. This way when you have a smaller dance floor area, you can change all your programs to the smaller dance floor and you are not blinding Grandma over on table 2...LOL