Sound & lighting equipment rentals Wellington, Event hire company

How to set up your own lighting effects

For most smaller parties and house parties it’s not always practical to pay someone to set up and operate your lighting rig so here’s a few pointers on how to create a safe and effective set up yourself.

There are a couple of important things to remember...

When setting up lighting yourself.

Generally domestic properties will have single phase power supply, there will be 3 separate circuits with approximately 20 Amps available on each (depending on fuse rating). This is important to know as some individual lights (or multiples of lights) can draw a lot of power.
Always keep safety in mind when setting up lights and dealing with electricity. Make sure power cords are in good condition and don’t overload multi boxes and plug sockets. Make sure there is ventilation (breathing space) around each light or smoke machine etc to prevent overheating and possible fire.
When mounting and positioning lights make sure they are secure and have a safety wire attached if mounted off the ground. Ensure cables and wiring are taped up and tidy so they can’t be tripped over or caught up.

An easy way to work out how much power the lights are going to use is to check the wattage of the lamp, i.e. a 250w lamp (common in most lights) will draw 1 Amp of currant, a 2000w colour mixing light may draw as much as 8 Amps and a 700w Hazer will draw about 3 Amps. Lasers use very little power. Most audio equipment will only draw a couple of Amps. It is best to spread the current load over more than one circuit where possible.

Hazers are usually more suitable for house parties and small to medium venues as they produce more of an even haze/smoke as oppose to a thick burst of smoke from a smoke machine. Lasers are more effective with haze rather than thick smoke.

Choosing the right lights and where to put them

You can spend as little as $20-30 to have some effect lighting for your party but realistically you need to be spending a minimum of about $100, from there the sky’s the limit. Generally a budget of $300 will get a good basic rig with a couple beat activated lights, a hazer, a mirror ball, light stand and a small laser.

Lights can project in many different ways from Moving heads where the light will pan and tilt around the room on its axis to Scanners where a fixed mirror will pan and tilt the light beam side to side and up and down. Some lights like the Martin Ego, Punisher or Destroyer put out a rotating cone shape pattern that gets bigger the further away from the light the floor is, there are various patterns and colours etc that move around inside the cone. Other lights have a 4 facet mirror or rolling barrel of mirrors to move the light pattern around the room, i.e. the Martin T-Rex or Acrobat.

Some lights like the Martin Acrobat, MX-4s and icolour mixing lights can have their own mini controllers, which allow you to have control over the light to black it out or change patterns/colors and to strobe the light etc, these function options give you the flexibility to have easier hands on control of your own lighting show.

To get the best effect from your lights and for your money you need to position the lights to get the best out of them, for instance lights like the T-Rex and Acrobat should at the front of the room in the middle or to the sides whereas lights like the Ego or Punisher should go in a corner at the front of room to get the largest coverage. Lasers should generally be at front of room as far back as possible to get the widest coverage area. Moving head lights go well in the centre of the room but need more head height and obviously something secure to hang them off of. Generally the higher up the lights can be positioned the largest coverage you will get from them.

During the party it’s important to have some variance in the lighting otherwise it’s likely to become stagnant and boring. Lights lose their effect when they’re all going at once, often less is more, for instance you will get the best effects from a Laser in a dark or dim room with a light haze, changing between 2 different types of effect lights changes the scene and remember in most situations you’ll have unhappy party goers if the room is full of thick smoke so keep and eye on the level of haze.

Happy partying!

Andrew Laing
XCITE Lighting & Sound