How to Calculate how many up lighting is needed for a room?

[eldjdelcaribe]

How do you guy's figure out how many lights you will need for a room. I have a room that is:

50' long on each of the four walls.

How many up lights will be needed to light up this room?

[djbadmash]

How do you guy's figure out how many lights you will need for a room. I have a room that is:

50' long on each of the four walls.

How many up lights will be needed to light up this room?

IT depends on what you are using for uplights.. and if you are going for a wash effect?

For good coverage, i suggest, placing one every 5 feet.

[RickRyan.com]

IT depends on what you are using for uplights.. and if you are going for a wash effect?

For good coverage, i suggest, placing one every 5 feet.

Doesn't that also depend on what type lights you're using? I spread the Deliyas I'm using (par64 led, 10mm bulbs) 8-10 feet and it's almost too much. They could be spread farther apart, IMHO.

[djbadmash]

Doesn't that also depend on what type lights you're using? I spread the Deliyas I'm using (par64 led, 10mm bulbs) 8-10 feet and it's almost too much. They could be spread farther apart, IMHO.

Absolutely... thats whym the first thing i said was.... it really depends on what you are using for uplights... and if you want a spot or a wash look....

I personally, go for a wash type look, and i spread my color strips 5 - 7 feet apart.


eldjdelcaribe, can you tell us what type of look you want and what type of lights you are using?

Also if you can try them out at a gig, or just at a hall on an off day, that would be ideal, so you can see for yourself what you like best.

[vwreddog]

1 million factors goes into this guys.

Are you selling your uplights as "each" or a package?

Part of it comes down to how much the B&G want to spend, maybe they only have $150 for "uplighting" and maybe they just want the head table uplight and maybe the cake or something?

Nothing says the whole room has to be done, again money plays a factor.

Also lets say along (1) of the 50ft walls he has 3 windows that are 12 feet long per window, this leaves him roughly (4) "gaps" to uplight.

Lets say he has a 50ft wall with columns or "sections" every 6 feet, this leaves him roughly 8 sections to uplight.

Lets say he has a 50ft wall with 3 doors along it and 3 windows, this might leave him with 2 spots to uplight.

Basically you have to walk the room ahead of time and see the exact layout, whats in the way, and whats not in the way.


Just because you have a 50ft room doesn't necessarily mean its a bare 50 ft wall with nothing impeding it.

[Johnny Dee]

The size of the room really has no bearing on the number of lights you need.

If a room has a lot of windows and doors, then you would be using less lights than a room with no windows and one or two doors. You really need to visit a room to get a light count.

[DWP1018]

When I do uplighting jobs I set the room/ job on flat rate. Here is my reason I might think the rooms need 60 lights to make it look right, well the client tells me they think they need only 50 if they were paying by light. Rather than getting into a discussion I would rather say $XXXX.XX would do the whole room and do it right. I want someone to walk into a room and say these guys did it right rather than someone walk in and say why didnt they uplight that wall and it was because the client wanted to save $XXX.XX and it makes it looks like I didnt do a complete job.
Now my formula will not work for everyone but when you own 80+ LED fixtures its easy for me to do it.
Dave Parks Spin Doctor DJ

[X-Laser]

I want to second the notion that Johnny put forward which is that the size of the room is largely irrelevant. I would go a step further to say that IMHO, washing a wall simply changes the color of the space. The point of uplighting is not to change the color, it is to accent adding drama to a space.

To use a sound metaphor I would choose the natural clarity of a 300W EV over the raw rough sound of a 1200W whatever any day.

Look for architectural features of the space. Doorways, mirrors, columns, alcoves, curtains, etc. and consider the overall layout. Uplighting, again IMHO, should be used to accent or call attention to something, not just randomly wash up a wall every five feet. You will use less fixtures, reduce your setup time, and make for a more professional presentation.

[topdogdj]

We always visit the venue a few weeks prior to the event and "draw out" a map to show the client. Most of the venues we've done, we use approx 20 fixtures. (Until we go all LED)...we use traditional Par38's, but will use a couple LED Colorpallets if necessary.
We currently charge by-the-fixture but may change to "packages".

[DJ_Double_A]

Do you have a picture of the room/hall?

[Daniel Lozada]

I want to second the notion that Johnny put forward which is that the size of the room is largely irrelevant. I would go a step further to say that IMHO, washing a wall simply changes the color of the space. The point of uplighting is not to change the color, it is to accent adding drama to a space.


Look for architectural features of the space. Doorways, mirrors, columns, alcoves, curtains, etc. and consider the overall layout. Uplighting, again IMHO, should be used to accent or call attention to something, not just randomly wash up a wall every five feet. You will use less fixtures, reduce your setup time, and make for a more professional presentation.

Dan, I think you hit the nail on the head.

[Alphabet]

Ditto to Dan & Johnny ...

Here's an example of what just six LED fixtures did for our event last night (a double Sweet 16).

The fixtures are Par 56 LEDs from Omnisistems that I was asked to demo.

The wall behind us & opposite short wall (behind us when we took the picture) couldn't be up-lit b/c of a stage area behind us & the short wall was the kitchen area & where the food was set up.

Cheers,

Joe

[hsp]

... but then you have the bride who wants to use pipe and drape to remove any & all architectural details and give her a blank slate.

I have one who's colors are ivory and Merlot and rather than starting w/ burgundy draping and use the lighting to highlight the room, she wants to go with cream draping and use the lighting to MAKE the draping burgundy.

Suggestions because I'm stumped.

[fujofly]

While it seems to be dependent on fixtures and rooms we've tried to take the few methods we've seen people put together and create formulas out of it to help clients determine around how many lights they might expect to need. http://www.goboprojectorrental.com/2...hts-do-i-need/

Nothing is a 100% without knowing the space but it seems to get people in the ballpark.

[eldjdelcaribe]

Wow I did not follow this thread you guy's have great responses.

I use the Slim Par 64 http://www.idjnow.com/StoreModules/P...--SRCH=slimpar

I am visiting tomorrow the venue to see how many it needs.