Help me turn my home into a nightclub...

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Apr 8, 2019
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Hey all,

Sorry for the long post. This is probably going to be the weirdest thread on the forum, but I hope anyone with ideas or suggestions will chime in. I was going to post all my questions in ways that would hide what I'm really doing, but I figured some people might get a kick out of this, so I'll just be a bit vulnerable here and fill you all in.

What started out as a joke has turned into a full-blown project. I'm turning the upstairs of my home into a nightclub. I've put about $2500 into this. I'm willing to spend about $10-12k on the whole thing, which I think would be pretty tough to do, so really the sky is the limit here.

Right now I've got a bunch of Chauvet light fixtures, and I've just been putting them on "auto" or "sound active" mode. If my wife is gone for the evening, I set the lights to "sound active" and put the music on over the Sonos system. If my wife is home, I wait for her to go to bed, put headphones on, and set the lights to "auto". (She thinks I'm crazy but she's not talking divorce yet!) I basically just party by myself or with a couple friends - listen to EDM and dance the night away in the privacy of my own home!

So far I've just been controlling the light show with the handheld remote from Chauvet (for compatible fixtures) or unplugging and plugging in lights as the mood dictates. I just ordered some "smart outlets" that would allow me to turn lights on/off with an app on my phone.

I'm wanting to take things to the next level. I'm not entirely sure what that entails and how to get there, and that's where I'd like all of your help. I'm most likely going to order the X-Laser Aurora Caliente, and that will be my first device that can't operate as a stand-alone unit - it needs a DMX controller to activate either the "auto" or "sound active" modes. I don't yet own a DMX controller and I don't know anything about DMX.

A few requirements for the "club":
1) Anything that stays put or is permanently or semi-permanently installed needs to be fairly small or inconspicuous. So far my wife is OK with all this weirdness but it still needs to look like a living room/kitchen.

2) Things that aren't permanently or semi-permanently installed should be easy enough to set up in around 15-20 minutes.

3) The more wireless capabilities the better. The more wires my wife sees the more annoyed I'm sure she will get.

4) I'm willing to hire an electrician to install plugs/cable routing through the walls if need be. I'd want to wait to do this until I'm sure of the final setup.

5) The setup should ideally work in both "stealth" mode (me with headphones on) and with music playing out the sound system in the house.


Current Gear (mostly Chauvet at this point):
Swarm 5 FX
Shocker 2
Wash FX2
FX Array q5
Mini Kinta IRC (2)
Shocker Panel 180 (2)
4Play (arriving tomorrow)
Scorpion Dual RGB (arriving tomorrow, may return for X-Laser Aurora Caliente)
Hurricane Haze 1DX haze machine
Blacklight strips (Amazon)

I'll post photos of the current setup in a few minutes.
 
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The light fixtures up on the cupboards stay there all the time. My wife doesn't mind those. The cupboards have that crown moulding on the top, so there is a decent little storage space above each one. I have the power cords wrapped up and hidden up there. When it's time to convert to the club I just grab a chair and pull them down and plug them into the plugs above the counter. Eventually I may have an electrician install plugs right above the cupboards - I doubt a future homeowner would notice them, and even if they did, you could plug wireless speakers in up there.

The LED liquor display shelf is usually on the counter far to the right wall. I just move it and put it on top of the stove for club nights.

Everything you see on the floor (Shocker 2, haze machine, Mini Kinta, black lights, and the Chauvet Shocker panel strobes) are stored inside the brown ottoman. As I have everything configured now, it only takes around 5 minutes to set everything up.

The Chauvet 4Play is going to go above the cupboard directly above the oven/microwave. That fixture is pretty big and bulky - I'll put it up and see if my wife is OK with that one staying put. I was planning on putting the laser either up next to the Swarm fixture on the far left of the photo or next to the Mini Kinta on the far right.

Right now I'm able to point the Chauvet remote at all three fixtures on the floor by the TV and control them. I can also point the remote up to the Mini Kinta, Wash FX2 and Fx Array Q5 and control those.

Questions:
1) If I get the X-Laser Aurora Caliente (which requires a DMX controller), can I just put that controller up there next to the laser and "set it and forget it"?
2) If I got a second Aurora Caliente for the other side of the wall and wanted to do a master/slave setup, is there any way to do that wirelessly? Running a DMX cable across the whole cupboard setup would look pretty lame, and would increase the setup/takedown time.
3) I've got my eye on the Chauvet Intimidator Scan 110 - I could put up to 4 of those on different cupboards and do a master/slave setup with pan reverse and/or tilt reverse. (Would I need a DMX controller for that? Or could I do that just with DMX cables?)
4) Can anyone think of a way that I could use the brown ottoman as a "control station" where I could put an iPad or something and control this whole production wirelessly?
 
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Hey Lightingnewbie I for some reason I had to approve your post I'm guessing the length made it look like spam to the filters. Anyway it's all good I'm sure someone will be along soon with some advice
 
Welome! I would recommend hanging some ADJ Rotobeam helicopter lights from the ceiling!

Also, my advice is to clutter up your house a bit. That looks WAY too clean and tidy! :)
 
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I will be honest that I was not expecting your home to look like that as I was reading. I drew this mental image in my head as I was reading your OP and then as I scrolled down my jaw pretty much dropped. You have a very nice home!
I'm shocked you can stand to see anything with all those just playing on auto mode. The wash f/x is extremely bright in a gym let alone a kitchen. I always dim mine, sometimes down to 25%.
 
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That is a very small room for so much lighting. Lighting does need some distance to throw. Your wife must be a saint because mine would kill me if I even talked about bring my DJ equipment into our living space. For any reason. Personally I’d spend the money on turning the area into a well Integrated media room with projection and/or LED TV with a killer multi channel sound system, seating with shakers. Media rooms increase the value of a house and can be used by both you & your wife & kids regularly. Before I got married and was in my parents house I did put some lighting up even turned the Xmas tree into a disco tree for a few years in the 80’s . But that turned into a media room with a 10ft screen & surround sound. When I moved out my father wanted everything to stay and wrote me a nice sized check.
 
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My only question, what's the point?
There's no point really, other than having fun! It started out as my friends coming over, having a few drinks, and dancing. It's evolving into some pretty awesome house parties. Once you get several shots of vodka in you, the place really does start to turn into a club. It's creating an illusion - that's all.

As far as it being such a small room for so much lighting, I usually don't have more than 3 fixtures going at a time - which ones get turned on and when depend on the mood of the song.
 
This is something simple you could do if you wanted (and not in your face, so your wife would absolutely approve), but would actually have a pretty impressive effect. You could buy phillips (or similar style) LED bulbs to replace the ones in your cieling. Many of them have full color spectrum capabilities and come with a hub to control each light individually. There are actual apps that have built in programs (chases, strobing, pulsing, color combinations, fades, etc) and shows for these bulbs now creating a really cool atmosphere in the room.
 
Your wife is definitely a saint so far... i think your biggest need is control rather than more fixtures.... if u really want to spend money though....i think i would sell almost everything u have there so far...sans the lasers and wash fx... run the power to the top of the cabinets and put 2 to 4 moving heads... something mid level like chauvet intimidator 255s... and then do some form of hidden up lighting everywhere u can.... get yourself a nice program u can fire up on your phone or tablet...like the adj airstream bridge or the mydmx go... and have easy handheld control of everything.... the mydmx go has some amazing pixel mapping options for the wash fx that i think u would enjoy!

cc
 
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Where are the giant PA speakers and the DJ controller? lol
Hey you may as well be your own DJ and have even more fun. Who knows, you might get good at it.
Being your home, you wouldn't want to repaint with a darker color to help the lighting situation. I see you don't have any pictures decorating the walls. You might think about getting some posters to hang temporarily for your party's, or whats a club without a neon beer light hanging up somewhere. You need a small portable PA with a sub. If your gonna make it look like a club, you need to make it sound like one to. lol
The wife needs to lighten up and let you have some fun. All work and no play make for a crappy day.
 
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