Using Inexpensive DJ LED Lights to Jazz Up Video Productions

Good-quality light fixtures are well worth the money spent as they will provide years, 甚至几十年的忠诚服务. But a single, good fresnel light head, stand, doors, etc. 能轻松跑几百美元吗. 然后, 要有创意, 你还需要一个外部调光器, and several colored gels to craft the light into something more creative.

另外, LED panels have been gaining popularity for their energy efficiency and cool running features. Looking beyond the small set of white and bi-color LEDs specifically made for video production, you can find a whole other world of LED fixtures made for other markets--including "disc jockey" LED lights and controllers. For the cost of one good fresnel light, you can have a multi-light, expandable LED lighting package.

一个被置于“烫手山芋”中的话题

我的led照明系统

I selected a low-end system with the premise of keeping the total cost of the system to just a few hundred dollars. I ended up with a four-light/controller package that was under $300. For this, I acquired four 86-LED light heads, small floor stands, and the controller.

The controller and the light heads all use the DMX-512 control standard for lighting. This standard uses 3-pin microphone cable with XLR jacks at either end to pass the digital control signals from the controller to all the light heads. There is another DMX standard that uses a 5-pin cable, but I wanted to stay with something that used the mic cables I already had on hand. This saves cost and is convenient on location when one cable can be used for either microphones or lighting, as opposed to having to bring two different sets of cable.

The small metal light heads I chose are among dozens and dozens of DMX-controllable light fixtures available. I wanted something small so I could fit several into a single Pelican case, 还有控制器和麦克风线. I also wanted many small LEDs in each head as opposed to some of the newer fixtures that use fewer, 但更强大的led. 如果我需要控制光线, I wanted any edge to be "softer" as opposed to seeing 2 big red shadows on the wall. 这也是最便宜的灯.

未来添加到我的照明套件

在未来, 我可以给我的系统添加一些特殊的灯, like a long bar of LED lights which would work well for a hair light/backlight, 而不是一个小小的灯头. 我可以为特定用途添加“仅限白色”灯头. I can add larger panels and uses several of them to equate a "softbox" effect.

It's like using lego pieces for lights--you can build what you want.

控制和设置灯头

The light heads have a row of DIP switches to set the lights to different features by themselves, 没有外部控制. 所以，如果你需要一个简单的绿色清洗周期, you could do that 没有外部控制ler and then just put all the LED heads on one AC circuit you enable with one light switch.

每个头上有两个XLR插孔, 一个是DMX in, and a second to daisy-chain the DMX on to the next head. These light heads also have an AC outlet on them to daisychain power. If the power cords were longer than just a couple of feet, this would be more useful. 最后，还有保险丝.

设置每个灯的小DMX控制器, 控制每种颜色的强度, and saves scenes to be recalled with the push of a button.

初始设置非常简单. You adjust the DIP switches to either tell the light what to do directly, 或者设置为DMX控制. 设置DMX时, 然后给每个头分配一个数字, so you can "talk" directly to that light head from the controller. On the controller I have, I can talk to up to 12 different lights.

但实际上还有更多的灵活性. You can set any amount of light heads to the same number so you can control 4 heads as if they were one. So you are by no means limited to 12 when you can "gang" multiple light heads together and control them as if they were one head.

Make your settings, turn on the DMX控制器 and start your programming. My light heads use 7 channels for control: 1--green; 2--red; 3--blue; 4, 5, 6, I didn't use; and 7--master dimmer of all colors. I entered Program Mode on the controller, set up my scene, and saved it.

There are more complex heads that use up more channels. 例如, an "intelligent" light head that will need the same basic 7 channels I use, 然后再加上旋转, 海拔高度, 焦点, 内部旗板, 旋转的内部效果, 和更多的. 用圆形或星形图案的, 焦距不清, with a very slow rotation would be a great way to get a soft, mottled background that actually moves or undulates the whole time.

There are eight scene-push buttons across the top of my board. 然后 there are two "pages" per "bank" and there are 30 banks. Even though this is one of the smallest boards made, I could save 480 different scenes. This is useful for a stage show or a concert, but way more than I need for some talking heads.