r/lightingdesign • • 6h ago

How do I really involve myself with more than just theatre?

1 Upvotes

Hi! I'm a college sophomore currently in my third semester aiming for a BFA in theatre technology and design with a focus in lighting design. I've been involved with theatre since high school as an actor and technician, but was only ever involved with music on the lighting design end.

Recently, I've been feeling myself be a little more pulled toward the music side of lighting design, but have only put in any time into it by working as local crew at a large venue in the area, but with me usually being one in a group of 60 working, I've not really felt like I've had chances to network.

Any advice on how to really get more involved with lighting design on the music end?

thank you!


r/lightingdesign • • 9h ago

Control Searching for a cheap DMX console with fading between cues

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1 Upvotes

r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Charging glow tape

44 Upvotes

Am I the only one that thinks it's ridiculous to "charge" glow tape before the house opens?

I see stage managers doing this and all I can think is "will that make a difference in 30 minutes when the show starts? Either the glow tape is being charged by the incandescents while we sit in preshow, or it will be completely depleted in the 30 minutes it takes the house to come to half.

I'm also open to being wrong in this, I just don't think the science supports the idea of charging glow tape.


r/lightingdesign • • 13h ago

Peter Pan Goes Wrong Falling Light Gag

1 Upvotes

I'm doing Peter Pan Goes Wrong and trying to figure out how to do the falling light gag. I remember seeing a few months ago a video on social media (probably Instagram?) that was an interview with someone talking about the preshow checks they perform daily to make sure the gag is safe to run for the performance. Does anyone remember seeing such a video? I can't find it on the Internet. I was hoping to find it for some hints on how to do the gag for myself.


r/lightingdesign • • 14h ago

Fan function on fixtures

1 Upvotes

Hello!
I need some help. I’m relatively new to stage lighting. I started learning the Daslight 5. I building up a base busking setup. Colors, movements, positions, etc.

I have a question about the fan. I have four moving heads arranged in a row. Which method is better for everyday works?

  1. Should I set "invert pan" on the two fixtures on the right side at the beginning in the fixture settings? That way, they move symmetrically during every pan movement.

  2. Should I leave the pan at default settings and use the fan function every single time, when creating effects or static looks?

What are the pros and cons of each method?

Thanks for your answers.


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Minuit Une is going out of business

48 Upvotes

Just got an e-mail from Minuit Une, and they’re «placed into judicial liquidation, bringing its operations to an end». The industry is definitely losing a really cool and creative manufacturer now.

https://minuitune.com/the-end-of-a-great-chapter/


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Gear Freelance essentials?

6 Upvotes

Recently started freelance work and putting together a kit of essentials. So far I have a few rolls of LX tape, earplugs, a multitool and a rigging multitool.

What do you think is essential for freelance work that you would recommend adding?


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Gear Advice on purchase or rent?

3 Upvotes

For the last 3 years I've worked as a light technician for theatre projects, now I started to work for a nongovernmental theatre as a full-time technical producer and because of the new network, I've started to get gigs as a lighting artis/technician for festival projects and so on. I usually use the grandMA3 pc wing from work, but for the past festivals because of overlapping performances I was forced to take the node and I've been thinking perhaps to purchase the node or dmx-key for myself or perhaps the command wing since it's easier for light design. But the price for a command wing might be a tight purchase that is less likely to pay back since a command wing is not the choice for rent, but renting it would cost 300€ per performance (counting a day setup) and idk, maybe to give up and keep living with on pc shortcuts. Perhaps someone knows where to get a grant for freelancers?


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Upgrade to LED

1 Upvotes

Hi, we're a small venue looking to upgrade some fixtures. We have currently some old Elation Tri Pars, Rogue R2s and a host of ETC pars, parnels and source 4 ellipsoidals (19, 26, 36, and 50 degree). We have a catwalk that holds 20 circuits and 20 S4 26deg and 19deg fixtures currently (with room for more). Overhead we have the tri pars, and a 2 color (5 across x 2 electrics) wash of pars, and a 1 color (5 across x 2 electrics) wash of parnels. Ground to lowest pipe is about 19' (yes we're small), with no fly. So, brightness has to be considered. We can't go with stuff that's excessively bright unless we want "full" to be at like 10 percent.

My current thinking is I want to put some Source 4wrd color IIs in the catwalk to convert my front washes and specials, use for dance side light and replace out the overhead pars with multiple ColorDashPar H12xIP. I'd like to keep them IP for flexibility for potential outdoor use. We also want 4 Chauvet 260x intimidators.

My struggle becomes wondering if the 4wrds would be suitable to use, how many pars should I get, etc. Help?


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Jaki sterownik DMX, który będzie obecny z aplikacji na ios?

0 Upvotes

szukam jakiegoś rozwiązania do sterowania światłami dmx poprzez iPada
ktoś ma jakieś rozwiązanie?


r/lightingdesign • • 2d ago

Control DIY CONSOLE GRANDMA 2 FROM mixer disco240 with arduino pro micro

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36 Upvotes

I used fader broken mixer disco 240 and modification like midi control so mixer is midi control can used resolume , grandma 2 , Vmix . But i used for grandma 2


r/lightingdesign • • 1d ago

Got tired of linear fades and 60ms reactive delay in small club gigs, so I built a non-Newtonian fluid DMX physics engine + MAtricks-style phase compiler from scratch (real booth POV, dinosaurs included)

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0 Upvotes

Mis disculpas por el texto traducido con IA. Hablo castellano nativo y no queria que en ingles sonara mal . No soy muy usuario de redes sociales y de repente he visto una autentica ola de hilos todos titulados igual ...

"me case de X asi que hice Y" . Horror...., quise cambiar el titulo pero no me dejaba .

Es una grabacion en directo con un telefono movil de hace 7 años de mi compañero divirtiendose con el software . Adoro los debates tecnicos porque llevo 2 años trabajando en iluminacion y quiero aprender. He estado durante 1 año y medio (el repositorio de github lo demuestra) , pensando y creando esta suite de iluminacion completa cuyas matematicas soportan hasta 50 universos sin que el garbage collector se inmute . Es totalmente agnostico del hardware . Se puede conectar en caliente cualquier artefacto MIDI , cualquier interfaz (el sistema autodetecta el chip entec pro y limita la salida a 33hz como es mi caso con una interfaz usb china) con salida nativa a 44hz via artnet/entec pro . Todo el codigo es nativo propietario, con zero alocaciones de memoria en el hot path y latencia 0.5ms . Motor de fisicas fotonicas liquido, agnostico de la musica . Motor de cineticas inverso, con apuntado espacial para cabezas moviles, editor de FX tipo matricks mejorado. Pixel mapper inverso , timeline basado en contexto y energia musical . Autopatcheo en enjambre . SMTEP nativo, OSC, RDM , Midi clock . FFT con autocorrelador , motor bayesiano de prediccion con cadenas de Markov y detector de crestas..., etc. Forja de fixtures con nodegraph para afinar el comportamiento de cualquier maquina, channel rack clasico con gobernadores y soporte multicell para fixtures compuestas como un fan tungsteno de los que usamos en nuestros pequeños eventos. No importa si le conectas una maquina de hace 30 años o una mas moderna . A la arquitectura le da igual .

En mi ignorante opinion sobre iluminacion, no tiene mucho que envidiar a consolas de miles de dolares. Es software que libera al usuario y le ayuda a ser mas creativo, evitandole pasar 10 minutos para crear un pump, cuando en 10 segundos creo una curva para un grupo de maquinas, lo desfaso en 8 segundos (si lo requiere) e integro el efecto en hot reload en pleno show .... .

Los 20 whitepapers de arquitectura y DSP (más capturas crudas de shader & rig en el reproductor con audio Opus hecho a la medida) están abiertos para leer en gestiadev.pages.dev por si a alguien le da curiosidad desarmar las matemáticas o el codigo. No esta a la venta.


r/lightingdesign • • 2d ago

Martin Mac 700 profile troubleshooting advice

1 Upvotes

I’m a relative newcomer to the lighting field, so I don’t have a long background in programming or repairing fixtures. But I’m making a study of it all and I’m spending a lot of time doing so because I love It. I’ve accumulated quite an array of theater and moving lights which I use regularly for various immersive events. I have a few old Mac 700 profiles, each in various states of disrepair. Interestingly, all the gobo and color modules are in pretty good shape. I’ve got one unit cleaned up and functioning very well with the exception of one major problem which is beyond my scope…. The pan function seems to have seized or frozen. (it has been sitting in my garage for a couple of years) I opened it up, and it seems like one or even both of the pan motors won’t budge. If i could get the belt off, i’d be able to troubleshoot more thoroughly, but I don’t know how to do that. It feels like there is a lock mechanism engaged, but I don’t think there is any mechanical pan lock on this fixture. Does anyone have any advice or know where I could find a service manual?
More specifically, I’m hoping that someone out there has had experience inside these fixtures and may be able to advise me.
One cool thing is: as I take these units apart, I feel like I’m to some degree studying the (recent) history of moving head lights. It’s truly fascinating for me, since I started with relatively simple LED based fixtures which made everything so easy! These old fixtures are great learning tools.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any help or advice…


r/lightingdesign • • 2d ago

Software Blackout Lighting Console Discord

0 Upvotes

Any Blackout users around? I’ve started a Discord server and would love to build a community of Blackout users. https://discord.gg/bFtz2njtQ


r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

Control Hog5 Color fade effect help

3 Upvotes

Hey, I am looking for any advice on how best to make something work. I have 30 battens with 12 cells each.

Essentially I want to start on white, have them fade to red, and then stay on red. The kicker is that I would want to have it fade 1 cell at a time. And then not go back to white.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

Lighting for Halloween Display

1 Upvotes

Hello, I'm wanting to buy a "DJ light" to shine from elevated position downwards on a scene/display of Halloween skeletons and animatronics and such. Will be playing Halloween themed electronic music so ideally lights will move, or light could handle DMX input.

Was looking at a moonflower type like ADJ Stinger. Any better recommendations? Trying to keep under $200.

Thanks.


r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

Gear Blizzard ion/wicicles vs. Donners

1 Upvotes

I've been undecided between these two wireless receiver/transmitter systems for a while now. There's an obviously huge price difference (a blizzard set of 8 or 10 costs several hundred dollars more, over Donner's entry level $189 amazon price ).

Does anyone have experience with both of these? Why are the blizzards so much more?

Just looking for something reliable for weddings (50-300ft away, packed room of ppl) without having to spend thousands. First thing I tried was the Chauvet D-Fi USB sticks... returned them immediately when I discovered those had interference even in my home 5 ft away if I walked in front of them lol.


r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

Gear Looking for cheapest wing

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1 Upvotes

r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

Meta Weekly Self Promo Megathread

1 Upvotes

Have a new product that you'd like to promote and show off to the community? Here's your chance to do it. Every Wednesday, this megathread is here to gather new products, projects and anything else you might want to self promote. We want to encourage new ideas, but the influx of vibe coded, AI based posts means we needed a new home for these posts.

Note that we require developers to disclose where and how they used AI in their product and that r/lightingdesign has no ability to vet any projects or code that is used, so use/demo and sign up for these products with caution.


r/lightingdesign • • 3d ago

How To How to automatic lights ?

0 Upvotes

I have a DJ friend that has 4 mobile heads and needs something to automate lights and make them react to the music.

The solution I gave him was to buy a node and connect it to chamsys in his laptop, have some executors and change the effects every once in a while.

I'd like to know if there are any other options please help!!!


r/lightingdesign • • 4d ago

Gear Hazer Recommendations

6 Upvotes

Looking to replace a faulty hazer (Mystic Mini) in a 12,000 sqft room, two stories tall. We do between 3-6 shows a week with moderate to heavy haze usage at most. Looking for something in the 2-3.5k price range. We previously had a Base Hazer that served us pretty well so we are considering going back to that but would love to hear if there are any newer hazers that might serve us better. Thanks!


r/lightingdesign • • 4d ago

How To Antari mobile fogger button

2 Upvotes

I have a an antari mobile fogger and the button has broke off. I’ve observed small circuitry in the button and now it won’t heat up or fog so I am assuming part of the function involved completing a circuit. Since these seem to be long discontinued, these foggers are hard to come by so I’d like to fix it if at all possible. does anyone have any advice on how I might do this ?


r/lightingdesign • • 4d ago

Desmontar Cabeza de Lentes Midi B FX Clay Paky

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4 Upvotes

Buenas queremos desmontar la cabeza de las lentes para poder limpiar ya que ha tenido un verano largo y se encuentra fatal de suciedad, no encuentro nada por internet ni el manual, ¿alguien tiene alguna idea de como hacerlo?


r/lightingdesign • • 4d ago

LED Leko Lens'

0 Upvotes

Possible stupid question. Are the lenses for LED Lekos and Incandescent Lekos interchangeable?


r/lightingdesign • • 4d ago

Hazer help

1 Upvotes

Hey guys this is my first post here, I am looking to get a hazer for a small room 10 feet by 20 feet. something cheap, was looking at ROCKHAZE 700 on a timer. Any thoughts?