A sleeker, more elegant solution is the ETC Smartbar 2, giving you the same function in a bar-style solution that you can also mount your lights to if you choose. A variety of manufacturers make 4 channel dimmer packs, such as American DJ's DP-DMX-20L, which you would generally hang from your lighting pipe with a standard lighting clamp.
DIMMER FOR LED LIGHTS STAGE LIGHTING PORTABLE
Portable and distributed dimmers come in a variety of shapes, sizes and price points. Newer portable dimmers are generally DMX controlled, so if you address your standard portable dimmer to DMX address 1, it will receive DMX and control intensities for channels 1-4. Now you just need something to control the dimmer pack. With the dimmer near the fixtures, you only need to run a heavy-duty cable from your 20A outlet to the lighting dimmer pack. You simply plug the fixtures into the dimmer or use a short extension cord. With portable or distributed dimming, the power is already near the light fixtures, so wiring the fixtures to the dimmer pack is easy.
DIMMER FOR LED LIGHTS STAGE LIGHTING FULL
Since each 20A circuit can supply 2400 Watts, the total load is under the total supply of the 20A circuit, even with all four fixtures at full power. If you plug in a 500W Par into each of the 4 channels, the total load is 2000W. That means a 500W Par Can is perfect to use with this type of dimmer. You can usually control 4 lights independently with load power for each light up to 600W. Older churches often have 15 amp circuits so you need to check your wiring and circuit breaker panel first before you decide on which dimmer pack to order.įor smaller venues where dedicated 20 amp circuits are readily available and for smaller portable setups, portable stage dimmers make a lot of sense. Four-channel packs are very popular since they typically can plug into a 20 amp circuit, which is the standard for newer commercial building wiring. The number of channels per pack can be as low as 4 and as high as 24. Portable dimmer packs consist of several independent dimmers packaged into one chassis. Use dimming switches only as a last resort. That can often result in noise problems for your sound system and even your video system. They are designed to fit into a small electrical box, therefore the "choke" or "filter" that helps screen out noise is also very small. These lighting dimmers also have inferior filtering. Unfortunately, your lighting console can't control these dimmers, so you have to dim lighting manually. While not terribly user-friendly for theatrical uses, if you have a super small lighting rig (maybe 4-8 lights) and this is all you can afford, it sure beats an on/off switch. Four Styles of Dimmer Packaging Dimming SwitchĪ dimmable switch is dimming at its simplest form. Unless you are a licensed electrician, please do not take this role on yourselves. All in all, once you get into larger dimming set-ups, an electrician MUST be involved to ensure proper electrical distribution. A 12-channel, 1200 watt-per-channel dimmer then will need 120 amps to power it all.
If you break it down, that means for every 600 watts you have, you need 5 amps. Very simply, 20 amp circuits equate to 2400 watts of power. While portable and distributed dimming generally will work with a 20 amp circuit, most light dimming packs will need much more. How Much Power Does Your Dimmer Need?īefore we dig into the types of dimmers available, it's important to have an idea of how much power these dimmer systems will require for your stage lighting system. As anyone who has house lights that only turn on or off can tell you, dimmers play a valuable role in great lighting. By adjusting the voltage sent to the light fixture, a dimmer can turn the light on, off or anywhere in between.
Typically used with incandescent halogen or specific kinds of fluorescent fixtures, dimmers give us the flexibility to set the mood and/or focus attention on a specific section of the stage. Stage Lighting dimmers are used to increase or decrease voltage to a dimmable lighting fixture in order to adjust its intensity. Library Cases & Media Library Media Cases
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