Need help starting a setup. Budget is currently around $400

[Atomisk]

Hey guys, I'm looking to start a setup that has a lot of potential to expand. most gigs (where I need lights) are 200-300 people, rarely more than 400. Can anyone recommend a decent setup to get started with? I'm not really sure what I want, I just know I want a quality setup that is well balanced and can fill a room of 400-500 people easily, and has a lot of points of expansion.

[DYM]

I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!

[fueledbymusic]

This may give you an idea.This light set up cost $700, but that includes the truss. These are led based. 2 ADJ triled mushrooms $100 each, 2 chauvet led par cans $50 each, mini laser $30, Chauvet mini strobe $20, Chauvet Colorbank $60, moonflower $70 and the light switch system $85. I dont think this would cover that many people. I guess theres single lights to cover a large areas, but costs a pretty penny and are energy hogs

[DJ BONES]

I just ordered a 4bar+4play for a little over 400.. pm me for the source..
I dont think theres a better choice for a dj who doesnt want to get to heavily into lighting and needs a quick setup and breakdown, but still wants something nice..

[Atomisk]

I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!

So the colorbandTRI, this would be considered wash lighting? Will this give me a nice base to build off of? And for the truss, do you have any recommendations? I'm also looking for recommendations on lasers/fog machines/strobes/other lights. I'm looking for quality pieces of equipment that will last me, but I'm certainly not looking for anything "top of the line", just something between consumer and pro lines... Kinda like the cdj-400 of lights, I guess.

[DYM]

So the colorbandTRI, this would be considered wash lighting? Will this give me a nice base to build off of? And for the truss, do you have any recommendations? I'm also looking for recommendations on lasers/fog machines/strobes/other lights. I'm looking for quality pieces of equipment that will last me, but I'm certainly not looking for anything "top of the line", just something between consumer and pro lines... Kinda like the cdj-400 of lights, I guess.

Yep I would recomend that! Don't go for a cheap truss, go for a CRANK T-BAR... get the ColorbandTRI and maybe look for a LED derby/kinta/multi moon flower effect.. my advice is stay with Chavet.

Will post pictures of an example later tonight.

[Atomisk]

Yep I would recomend that! Don't go for a cheap truss, go for a CRANK T-BAR... get the ColorbandTRI and maybe look for a LED derby/kinta/multi moon flower effect.. my advice is stay with Chavet.

Will post pictures of an example later tonight.

Yeah, I've been looking at a lot of chauvet stuff. Besides the ColorbandTRI, do you have any recommendations for lasers/other lights? And I was looking at some pictures of the ColorBandTRI, is it possible to mount it on top of the CRANK T-BAR? I saw some pictures of that, and I just want to make sure everything works together. Also, what's the deal with DMX? Do I have to worry about that now or is that something I should wait to expand into?

[DYM]

Alright.. you get a T-Bar... you attatch it to the top of a tripod, perferably a crank up speaker stand. Next you het some sort of light fixture, in this case the TRI... it comes with 2 brackets. With these 2 brackets you get 2 O-Clamps... these will attatch to the t-bar without any damage to your gear, then they attatch to the brackets.. the brackets will attatch to the light, bam everything is succure.

That will take up the entire t-bar... I would suggest another Chavet effect light and mount that with an additional O-Clamp to the actual extendable tripod... it looks super clean and nice when you velcro down your wires...


DMX... I don't use it right now but I'm looking into it.. Bassically it gives you total control of your lights and exaxtly every thing they do. It costs a bit more though.

[fueledbymusic]

DMX... I don't use it right now but I'm looking into it.. Basically it gives you total control of your lights and exaxtly every thing they do. It costs a bit more though.

Its mostly with lights like led par cans that you have total control. The others only lets you control things like the speed only. Thats what I read somewhere. But I dont know if todays effects light have more fuller control like the par cans or not. DMX does require a cable ran from the controller to each light. Except if the par cans (for example) are linked to one another. In other words controlling several led par cans with one channel.

[Synaxis]

I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!

I going to disagree with DYM here for a minute. Forget about the Colorband Tri, and get the Colorband PIX:

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/colorband-pix.html

It's significantly brighter, and has more features, for around the same price. If $300 is too expensive, get the ColorRail;

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/colorrail-irc.html

It's also brighter then the Colorband Tri, and you can get one for $200.

Start with either one of those, and then choose choose two effect lights to compliment it.

Maybe something like this: http://www.americandj.com/ProductDet...temNumber=1899

Or this: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/cubix.html

And maybe a mirror ball type effect: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/hemisphere-5.html

You don't have to worry about DMX right now if you don't want to. That's going to add at least $150 to buy a decent controller. But essentially, DMX allows you to control your lights. If you want to make everything blue, you program a button on your controller, when pressed, will change all your lights to blue, green, yellow, cyan, ect...
Or if you have a scanner, DMX allows you to put a spotlight on someone, or something like a cake, but giving you total control of the mirror.

Your budget is pretty small for 300, people. I would be looking at around $2000 at least, to buy some uplighting and at least 2 cheaper moving heads.