Their name in lights on dancefloor?

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Bill Kexel

Well-Known DJ
Dec 5, 2006
2,097
59
65
Phoenix, AZ
I have a wedding coming up in a few months where the bride has requested their names in lights on the dancefloor.

This is new to me.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
 
Gobos

Kat can order one for you at NLFX it'll be around $75 with shipping which is the standard if you go through NLFX or any of the gobo clearing houses.

Side note we had a very horrible experience with gobosource.com

Really Kat is the best one to call all the gobos no matter where you buy them seem to get cleared at Rosco Labs in Texas.
 
Two choices, get a gobo projector, and a custom gobo made or use a data projector and create an image in Photoshop or something like that, then project it on the dance floor readable to the crowd.

Examples below.
 

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What equipment do you presently have?

Intelligent fixture?
Leko/Ellipsoidal?


Depending on what you presently have is going to affect the cost and the type of gobo that can be manufactures. Call Ben! I already have discussed gobo creation with him. If your a photoshop/illustrator guy it will help too, as you can do the design work in the font needed and he will cut it out!

Projector option sounds promising, may not be as bright, at least you can keystone with the projector. always a big Plus!
 
I have always wondered why it is the DJ who always provides this service... why not the hall or photographer? Many DJs don't even offer lights....
 
I'm working on a project now where I will raise my Optima EP1690 projector up in the air on a tripod and use a mirror assembly to deflect the image onto the dance floor. I plan to make my own gobo's This gives me vitually unlimited graphical display options. I will upload my image (gobo) to my video iPod and then hook that to my projector. Similar to Kevin Nichols set-up.
 
I'm working on a project now where I will raise my Optima EP1690 projector up in the air on a tripod and use a mirror assembly to deflect the image onto the dance floor. I plan to make my own gobo's This gives me vitually unlimited graphical display options. I will upload my image (gobo) to my video iPod and then hook that to my projector. Similar to Kevin Nichols set-up.

Wes that sounds like a really good idea but playing ces i mean devils advocate here, wouldnt it be more cost effective to add a commission for yourself and get real custom gobos than expose your projector bulb to all that extra work? Out of everything we own the projector bulbs are by far the most expensive and hardest to replace.

not saying your wrong but i thought about how awesome that would be to do something like that and have ultimate freedom to be as creative as you'd like but then the bulbs for our NEC projectors are like $200+ dollars
 
What equipment do you presently have?

Intelligent fixture?
Leko/Ellipsoidal?


Depending on what you presently have is going to affect the cost and the type of gobo that can be manufactures. Call Ben! I already have discussed gobo creation with him. If your a photoshop/illustrator guy it will help too, as you can do the design work in the font needed and he will cut it out!

Projector option sounds promising, may not be as bright, at least you can keystone with the projector. always a big Plus!


Presently I do not use DMX lighting.
I'd like to do this as simple as possible. Is there a way to do this without a lot of hassle? What is the most basic way to do this? and the cost to do it?
 
Kyle,

That's a very good point. If the bulb is good for 2000 hours and the bulb costs $200, the usage is $10 per hour! A typical 4 hour reception would be $40!

I do plan to charge more than that and maybe even turn the projector off once the dance floor fills up. I was thinking about a $95 upcharge, but the net profit would only be $55 if it stayed on all night. I may charge $145 (for 4 hours).
 
I have a gobo and a projector. The projector is great because you can use different programs to do different things. Once I used my screen saver program and it was great. The advantage to the gobo is the longer life of the bulb.
 
Bill,

Give Ben or Kat a call to discuss your gobo projection needs. They'll fix you up.
 
I use an ellipsoidal light with gobos from Apollo, which also has about 1 week turnaround. One thing I like about Apollo gobos is that they have a large file of patterns & fonts, I usually email a bride the templates and let them decide which one they like best. It makes thing so much simpler.

A plain metal one color gobo is around $75. Multi-color glass gobos can easily run into the hundreds of $$
 
I have a Chauvet SX gobo light. I don't recommend this. I can never get it in focus. I want a PR1 but for now, I use my projector. I understand everyone's concern about the bulb, but what I do is run ambients during dancing and sometimes video. It works just like lighting. It looks cool too. My charge is $200 for a monogram light. If you call it that, it sounds more upscale than "gobo".
 
Kevin I like the "monogram light" idea and im going to steal it now. Thanks
 
I have a Chauvet SX gobo light. I don't recommend this. I can never get it in focus. I want a PR1 but for now, I use my projector. I understand everyone's concern about the bulb, but what I do is run ambients during dancing and sometimes video. It works just like lighting. It looks cool too. My charge is $200 for a monogram light. If you call it that, it sounds more upscale than "gobo".


Kevin, do you leave the projector on all night?