lighting for a gymnasium

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In a gym, you'd need to mount the lights up a good 25' or so in the trussing .. so you need brighter than normal, as well as narrower than normal to get the effects on the floor. I think a combination of moving spots and maybe washes is good .. and a small group of pars, focused on a single area (either in front of the benches or at the entrance doors) might also help. My guess is the answer is probably a combination .. and will need to take in consideration basketball and volleyball (typically) needs, as well as general purpose use (maybe dances, graduations, pep rallies, and such).

Most DJ effects aren't bright enough when set that high .. plus the Swarms have those stupid lasers that you're not supposed to point at people, but then you lose the effect of the effect.
 
steve149 said:
the Swarms have those stupid lasers that you're not supposed to point at people, but then you lose the effect of the effect.
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...always bringing me down Steve.:cry: Good point though. I guess I was thinking more about the other effects that are built in. I currently use them in the auto program that doesn't use the lasers. You are correct about the height and the loss of intensity at the floor level. MOvers are probably the way to go.
 
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NickC said:
...always bringing me down Steve.:cry: Good point though. I guess I was thinking more about the other effects that are built in. I currently use them in the auto program that doesn't use the lasers. You are correct about the height and the loss of intensity at the floor level. MOvers are probably the way to go.
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Don't get me wrong .. (and I'm not putting you down) .. I love those effect lights .. especially that new Swarm Wash FX. It's just at the distance they need to be mounted, the internal LEDs aren't bright enough to do much unless it's pitch black .. and we have been preaching to keep lasers above people's eyes and not sure how you do that with a Swarm unless you aim it at a ceiling or wall .. then the strobes and such are pretty useless. In DMX you can turn off the laser, but it would have been nice to make it externally aimable like on the Chauvet GigBar.
 
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What size gym is it? How many people will it seat? The Chauvet moving heads are great, but any standard basketball gym will need more than a Intimidator Spot LED 150. DMX and computer software will definitely be required especially if you want the lights to follow a pattern and then to hit on a spot as a player enters the room from the locker room. For $99 ADJ's MyDMX 2.0 will do anything you need for this purpose. A local PBL team has recently done just this. They hung a single truss from the center of the room and added two moving heads with gobos and two moving wash heads. They continuously sweep the crowd. When a player enters, an operator using a spotlight focuses it on the doorway.
A fog machine such as this can be used and angled upward with a slim par at the entrance. It's a more efficient way for the effect instead maybe purchasing a geyser effect.
Chauvet DJ Hurricane 1800 Flex DMX Controllable Fog Machine | IDJNOW
 
It will be completely dark for the entrance other than ambient light from the doorways, as I stated, the room lighting is LED so it is quick on and off and very bright it is doubtful however that the effects lighting will be used without the room lighting off, but you never know, if I could project the school logo and make it visible at center court in a fully lit room that would be cool may a separate fixture for that with a colored glass gobo that rotates
 
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tunes4046 said:
It will be completely dark for the entrance other than ambient light from the doorways, as I stated, the room lighting is LED so it is quick on and off and very bright it is doubtful however that the effects lighting will be used without the room lighting off, but you never know, if I could project the school logo and make it visible at center court in a fully lit room that would be cool may a separate fixture for that with a colored glass gobo that rotates
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That's not a bad idea. Would it be possible that you could use DMX to dim the lights a bit, before the game, project the monogram, then bring the house lights up full for the game(s)? That might be cool. In high school, I played b-ball for a couple of seasons. Probably the best memory I ever had was a school where they killed the house lights and introduced each player, individually, and used a follow-spot on them. That was an incredible memory for me. Looks like you have the same opportunity to do this for others now. Good on ya.
 
rickryan.com said:
That's not a bad idea. Would it be possible that you could use DMX to dim the lights a bit, before the game, project the monogram, then bring the house lights up full for the game(s)? That might be cool. In high school, I played b-ball for a couple of seasons. Probably the best memory I ever had was a school where they killed the house lights and introduced each player, individually, and used a follow-spot on them. That was an incredible memory for me. Looks like you have the same opportunity to do this for others now. Good on ya.
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I have to find out whether the house light LED's are dimmable, I do the intro's for varsity sports most of the time, I will need to work on some lighting designs for the Pep band know as the mean machine too. as of right know they have do a few things with the theatrical lighting on the stage but a lot more could be done
 
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Tyrone Blue said:
I haven't posted for awhile, and thought I'd respond to this... I regularly do this opening for one of my hockey teams. Making it as spectacular as possible creates a "MOOD" in the crowd, as well as the team members. Go Big Or Go Home! M<y wife took this and posted it on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10208672178070924
View: https://www.facebook.com/xMarieWilliamsx/videos/10208672178070924/
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Larry .. for comparison, what gear did you end up installing (I think the last time you were discussing the arena was quite a while ago)?
 
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Tyrone Blue said:
I haven't posted for awhile, and thought I'd respond to this... I regularly do this opening for one of my hockey teams. Making it as spectacular as possible creates a "MOOD" in the crowd, as well as the team members. Go Big Or Go Home! M<y wife took this and posted it on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10208672178070924
View: https://www.facebook.com/xMarieWilliamsx/videos/10208672178070924/
Click to expand...

Tyrone, that's really good. Great job. Thanks for posting.
 
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I'm using 32 LED flat pars on the wall, and 8 various moving heads on the ceiling. The heads are in groups of two and there are 3 different brands. As I get a new budget, I'll start ordering the same heads. The last two are from NLFX and are Chauvet Intimidator Spot 250 16 channel. I have two LED 90s that are reserve fixtures (one is in for repair).
The show is run with ShowXpress, using about 350 channels.
 
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