BillFitzmaurice.info

With the big post a couple of weeks ago about lights, I finally purchase a couple of Chauvet ColorStrip Mini's. We used them at a show and I liked them, but having them on the floor in front of the band was kinda blinding. If you looked at your setlist at the wrong moment you would be dazed. I thought about mounting them sideways on the speaker stands as suggested here, but that seemed like it would be worse, putting them right at eye level.

So since I didn't want to add extra stands right now, that left mounting them on top of my OmniTop12s.

Here is what I came up with, in case anyone else is interested.

5/16 18 threaded rod, some aluminum bar stock, aluminum L channel and a couple of t-knobs.



Mounted on the OTs.





Haven't tried them out for real yet. We don't have any shows coming up soon where we will be using my system. I'm sure they will work fine, they are pretty solid up there.

Which light bar is that?
I've been thinking that I may want to go with light bars vs. some other lighting, as it could serve as flood lighting and lighting for the music.
Also really like the bracket!

J_Dunavin wrote:Which light bar is that?
I've been thinking that I may want to go with light bars vs. some other lighting, as it could serve as flood lighting and lighting for the music.
Also really like the bracket!

Its a Chauvet Colorstrip Mini. It throws A LOT of light for such a small device.

Uplighting is still IMO the best for the front of the band.
Have you tried some kind of diffuser for the strip? I think Chauvet makes one. If not the lighting section over to Harmony Central talked of one a while back.

All though nice fabrication idea.

I have read that a lot of people think the Colorstrips and the ADJ Megapixels are too bright. You could add some window tinting film to shade then a bit. I may do that to mine. I hear it works great. You should be able to pick some up at any car parts store.

BTW, nice bracket!

Thanks, guys. I may add more for uplighting and tone them back as you suggested. I think I like the idea of some bright lighting coming in from above, but I guess we will have to see how it works out. Four linked together across the front, all running the same program with two dimmed back on the floor and two up high going full blast might be cool.

They're pretty bright, but as far as "too bright" - that's just an adjustment of where you're aiming them. I wouldn't suggest tinting them, instead use diffuser paper. You can get it at photography shops, or look online. Or use the "frosted" gels and cut them appropriately.

bzb wrote:They're pretty bright, but as far as "too bright" - that's just an adjustment of where you're aiming them.

That's true, but if we are using them as our only front lighting, I pretty much have to aim them up to blinding level.

bzb wrote:I wouldn't suggest tinting them, instead use diffuser paper. You can get it at photography shops, or look online. Or use the "frosted" gels and cut them appropriately.

Thanks, I will check into that if I end up moving them back to the floor.

I cut strips from ceiling light diffuser lens to replace the stock clear lens. It was tough and I cracked a couple getting them to slide in, but I can stand to look at my colorstrips now, though they are still very bright.

Gauss wrote:I cut strips from ceiling light diffuser lens to replace the stock clear lens. It was tough and I cracked a couple getting them to slide in, but I can stand to look at my colorstrips now, though they are still very bright.

You mean the hard plastic that is in the florescent lights above my cubicle at work right now?

Yep, those are the ones. About four dollars at Home Depot. I had to sand down the edges to make it fit. They're quite brittle, so cut carefully. There was a video on youtube of how to do it with a utility knife, but that didn't work for me. I ended up using a dremel.

If you want to get ghetto with it for one night... Glad Press-and-Seal works.

bzb wrote:If you want to get ghetto with it for one night... Glad Press-and-Seal works.

Or go even more ghetto and do what I did and just slide a piece of wax paper between the LEDs and the glass. It's definitely cut down on the pain when you look into it, and doesn't look terribly ghetto fabulous.

I actually do that same thing with the full Chauvet light bars, the bracket that comes with it just fits over the top of the OT12 with less than an inch to spare, so the bars actually sit on top of the speakers with the brackets hanging on either side. At some point here I'll have to find a more secure way of doing it, but so far it's worked great with no additional equipment.

pro lighting tip to all of you people complaining that they're too bright:

you could always just run DMX to them and use a controller to...


Turn Them DOWN!!!!

If I were running a single color, then it's no problem to turn down the brightness in DMX. I'm using the built-in programs and sequences for motion and color change. Unfortunately, there isn't a channel for brightness on the Chauvet Colorstrips. LED's are typically very narrow in dispersion, so adding a diffusing gel is a good way to take advantage of that extra brightness.