Lighting the Environment around your stage can be one of the best ways to make an event truly remarkable. Here are my top (2) tips to get it done easily!
Lighting the areas around your venue is an important part of putting on a great show because it creates the perfect environment to draw your audience in from the very beginning of their arrival.
Up-lights
With larger venues who have bigger budgets such as Disney or other such places it is a lot easier to go all out with lighting and really make a huge impact. However, even if you are a smaller venue with a set budget to work with you can still take pieces from what a larger venue might do and use them to make an absolutely stunning light display. One such piece to put into play for your venue no matter what size are up-lights.
There are so many different up-lights out there! Creating a change with even some super basic up-lights really unifies the space you are using. There are a lot of up-lights on the market to suit any budget and venue size, one such being the GAMMA Econ Par.
What Makes a Good Up-Lighting Unit
There are a few things that good up-lighting units do well. One great feature is that they are battery powered. If you are a band, church, or DJ and you just need something quick to set up and mobile these units can be the perfect match for you, often lasting 10 hours or more when running.
Another fantastic option with these types of lights is that they often work wirelessly. Most units on the market today have wireless DMX built into it. This enables you to either use a stand alone transmitter box at your console or you can even often use one of the lights as the transmitter and the rest as receivers. As long as you are 2.4 GHz they will typically work quite well.
Using an Up-Light
The simplest way to use an up-light in your show is to spread out the yolk, point it up, choose the color that best suits the look you want, and you are good to go. Not only can you set the color manually, but most even have a small remote so that you can easily make any adjustments as you go along.
These types of lights are great for events because there is almost no labor cost, they don’t take up much space and are easy to transport, and allow you to give a great ambiance to the room.
Where To Put Them
These lights are easy to put right into the room or venue. Another great option is to put them in coming into the lobby to create an ambiance that draws people into the venue. Even something as simple as two lights outside of the main doors to build anticipation as people enter is an excellent use of these lights.
Backlights
Another great tip to add some pop to your show is to make use of back lights and gobos. Making use of these is a great way to add anticipation for your show or event. Using these also gives you more to work with when the show actually starts to bring focus and attention to the stage by bringing down the lights around the room.
Closing
Making use of the lights throughout the entire venue rather than only on the stage gives you a lot more diversity to your show. It creates a dynamic impact for your audience and allows you to have more control over where the focus is set throughout your show so that you can put on the very best performance no matter where your venue is!
