An Introduction to DJ Lights
Let me be honest. Ever since I discovered lighting effects for DJ work, I’ve become a lighting fanatic. I’m assuming here that you are just beginning to explore DJ lights. Given that being the case, let’s start with some basics and go from there.
Most all DJ lighting units are sound activated. That means you can just plug the unit into an outlet, point it in the desired direction, set it to respond to sound, blast the music, and let it run. However, you need to put some thought into this first.
Keep in mind that many lighting fixtures get extremely hot, so be careful that no one gets burned. We’re talking about a blistering hot device plugged into house current, so safety must come first. Since you will probably decide to suspend some of the lights, be entirely sure that you employ every possible safety precaution to make certain they don’t fall on someone’s head. And don’t overload power outlets! It is horrible to fire up your equipment for the first dance, flip on your lighting units, and have the whole thing work great for five seconds before a breaker trips ending the show. Power your lights properly from multiple circuits then turn it all on for a while before the event gets started.
When you position your lights you need to make sure every light that is set to respond to the music can hear it properly. This is rarely a problem, but it does mean that snuggling the thing away behind your speakers might not be the best idea.
What ones to use? I love the various “intelligent” lights or scanners. You can thrill your crowd with laser lighting effects. If you’re not afraid to spend some money, some of the “moving yoke” lights are will knock your socks off. There’s no reason to discuss these now because you can examine them and watch little movies on the internet of how they work in action. If you don’t know where you can find these, do a search for “Chauvet Lighting”. Chauvet has a lot of videos of their lights in action on their webiste.
I would make this one strong suggestion: Be sure any lights you buy are DMX lights. DMX refers to a way to control the lighting units from a remote programmable control board or software program. As a result you can run all your lights from a remote light control board or a device that hooks up to a computer. This does mean wiring the units together or using wireless control boxes, but the results can be amazing, and sooner or later, you’ll want to try this out.
Want to be part of our discussion? Then you need to be at my blog, Discovering and Shopping for DJ Lights.
A deeper look at DMX next time. For now, go check out what’s out there – and have fun!
