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Topic: Outside Mirror Ball

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Hey all,

I am setting up a 2 or 3 foot diameter mirror ball on 12 foot trussing for an outdoor event this Saturday night. I know, sounds kinda weak for a light show, but it's a 70s disco-themed event, and the mirror ball is more for aesthetic purposes.

What is the best way to light the mirror ball? It is not within the client's budget to use my preferred method of using moving heads. I'd like the lights to DMXable so I can color change,effect, etc. LED washes? LED pin spots? Suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Posted Wed 29 Jun 11 @ 8:43 am
LED washes / par cans don't give a good effect on mirror balls because they're made up of lots of separate LEDs. What you need (in each unit) is a single, bright light source. The brighter and more directional the better.

As you said, moving heads would have been good, but LED pinspots are also OK. Or good old-fashioned filament or discharge based spot lights.
 
Thanks for the input! I've seen single LED pin spots, 3 or 4 watts. Are these preferred over an LED Par-34 (which I believe is used as a pin spot)?

Sorry for the amateur questions. I'm much more proficient in moving heads and scanners as I am with old school mirror balls!
 
Are you renting these lights?
What do you have now?

I ask becuase the best and brightest effect (yet dmxable) is two 250 watt colorchangers pointed on either side of the mirrorball.. The LED colorchangers would work as well but wont be as bright..
I've never tried it with an LED par so cant comment on it.. but I dont see why it would not work? (probably the dots just wouldnt be as bright or as numerous??)

as was mentioned, the light has to be focused and only cover the ball itself. since most pars are enherently diffused light thats your worst option.. Scanners, colorchangers, pinspots all have 'focused' output..
 
Good suggestion hippydog. Is there a particular model of color changer you recommend? Currently I use colorblast 12s for uplighting, http://www.colorkinetics.com/ls/rgb/colorblast12/ and was wondering if these would do the trick.

It was also suggested for me to use led par 36 fixtures.

Thoughts?
 
djkizzle wrote :
Is there a particular model of color changer you recommend? Currently I use colorblast 12s for uplighting, http://www.colorkinetics.com/ls/rgb/colorblast12/ and was wondering if these would do the trick.


sorry I should have said colorwheel type effect.. I forgot that with LED, now all those colorstrips and bars can be considered 'colorchangers' as well..
I would recommend something like
http://www.americandj.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ItemNumber=1905&MainId=2&Category=Intelligent_Lighting
or
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/intimidator-color-led.html

Even better are the older versions that use regular halogen bulbs..

It basically comes down to I think having a single source of light.. (one super bright LED or regular halogen)
it only makes sense right? :-)
the mirror ball replicates the image pointed at it 100 times.. with a single focused light source this looks great,
but I have to wonder what an LED par or panel would do? heres 30 points of light thats now getting replicated 100 times.. I'm thinking at that point you wouldnt even see dots? just a 'haze' of diffused light..
 
Yep, that's exactly what you get. I've tried it :)
 
You are very correct! I went to GC yesterday to experiment with a few different configurations and found out the following: LED washes do in fact produce a diffused look, with little to no recognition of any beams of reflected light. I did however try an LED par can made up of 5 LEDs and have to say the effect was interesting...there were individual beams reflected off the ball, yet they were in the shape of a flower ( thanks to the configuration of the LEDs in the fixture. Not a bad result, a little different, but not bad.

I'll do a little more research and see what I come up with. Thank you all for your support!
 
djkizzle wrote :
there were individual beams reflected off the ball, yet they were in the shape of a flower ( thanks to the configuration of the LEDs in the fixture. Not a bad result, a little different, but not bad.

They now have LED gobo projectors with (i think?) 10 watt LED's in them..
I wonder how those would work.. You might get a cool effect with a gobo's projected at the mirrorball.. Also if your purchasing new, at least a couple of gobo projectors will be used again.. (get your company name put on a gobo, etc)
 
OK, Lighting a Mirror ball hasn't changed since the concept first came out.

Use a SPOT light - a spot light focuses the light into a nice compact sound spot. They are designed to light a single spot on the stage, dance floor or mirror ball.
Spot light examples:
Pin spots
Moving head scanners
Moving mirror scanners
Follow spots
Leko lights

Wash lights are use to diffuse light over a large area and provide general lighting on a stage, room, or wall.
Examples:
Fresnel - lens lights
Par cans
chandeliers
wall sconces
colourstrips, colourbars, LED Panels

Effects such as moon flowers, mushrooms, & Derby's are unsuitable for mirror ball lighting.


For DMX, Colour changing spotlights; These are your choices:
http://www.americandj.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ItemNumber=1905&MainId=2&Category=L.E.D.
or
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/intimidator-color-led.html

Both are the same thing, Colour changing Spotlights. Perfect for lighting a Single spot on a stage, dancer floor, or mirror ball.
 
Maybe not what you are looking for but I have found I get a great effect by pointing design changing lasers at a mirror ball. The laser light is very focused and the changing designs makes sure the light comes from multiple angles and keeps it interesting. Only problem is the lack of color choices.

My mirror ball is only 1ft but I use 2 each red and green set about 2ft from the ball at 90' .
 
thats one of the sillyest ideas ive ever heard, lazers? at a mirror ball? at a gig? im not sure if you knew this, but lazers burn the retina of the eye if you are exposed to it too long, hence why lazer pens were banned from schools and are illegal to be sold to annyone under 18 (or is it 16).

risking such a thing is a massive "DOH". play 4 hours, then pay thousands to punters that have bad eyes the morning due to your total disregard of health and safety.

do not point lazers at a mirror ball.
 
The laws are very restrictive in the US for this exact reason.
You can't even buy a lazer that will do this kind of damage here (under normal retail terms).

The difference here is licensing.
If you want pro light show lazers, you pay somebody who is licensed to display.

I totally agree with you on open use with redirect on a mirror ball, but under normal use here the millisecond of flash would be less than a normal pattern panning or otherwise.

imo..
 
Exactly - in the US we are restricted to very low power lasers. As far as I can tell what i am doing is no different than using a microgalaxian which many people point at the dance floor. The lasers are 4.9mW or .0049 watts

To get stronger lasers that would be similar to what a lot of European DJ's use you have to get a waiver from the FDA
 
Great comments here on the thread. I ended up using 2 Lekos, but really could have used a 3rd or 4th. The setup wars pretty dope, 2 ft stage, 12 ft vertical truss, 16 ft wide, and 12 ft deep. 16 color kinetics on the top of the rig, a few truss warmers, and a 36\" mirror ball.. The pic is from my phone, I\'ll try and upload a better qwuality later for what it\'s worth.

I still agree that a moving head or scanner would have a better look, but as stated before, no in the clients budget.

It was a pretty phat party...2000 of Montauk\'s finest. Movie stars, celebrities, and most importantly, Victoria Secrets models! Unfortunately, I was just the production company, not the DJ!



By the way, I have seen lasers hit mirror balls, lasers that are beyond 4.9 mW. So sick
 


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