Stage Lighting: Types, Varieties, Main Features and Applications

The design of a club, disco, concert venue or concert hall implies not only excellent sound, but also dynamic bright lighting that sets the atmosphere of the event. Professional lighting equipment is used to create various lighting effects on the stage and dance floor.

Types of stage lighting equipment

Lighting equipment used to create lighting at mass events can be divided into three categories: light sources, special effect generators and control panels. Let’s briefly consider which devices are included in these groups.

• Spotlights
• Colorchangers
• Moving Head Spotlights
• Strobe Lights
• Scanners
• Lasers
• UV Lights
• Architectural Lighting
• LED Equipment
• Special Effects Generators
• Light Control (DMX)

A spotlight is a powerful directional light source. Spotlights are used both to provide floodlighting, for example, to illuminate the entire stage, and to accentuate certain areas or objects. The variety of spotlight types is great.

• PAR floodlights (Parblazers) provide uniform floodlighting and are very affordable
• Profile floodlights allow you to create light patterns with clear boundaries due to a special diaphragm
• Colored floodlights can change the color of the light flux using filters

“The floodlight design includes a powerful LED, a reflector and/or a lens that provides focusing of the light beam.”

Despite the complex name, a color changer is essentially just a colored floodlight. However, it differs from the latter by the presence of a function for automatically changing the shade of lighting. The total number of shades can be quite impressive. Often, a color changer combines the functions of a strobe.

Rotating Head Spotlights

A special type of dynamic lighting fixture equipped with servo drives that provide rotation of the spotlight head along all three coordinate axes with virtually no restrictions. The result: an impressive effect of a wandering beam or beams – after all, rotating heads are usually installed in a group. And if the spotlight is additionally equipped with color filters and gobo profiles, then the impression of the observed effect is greatly enhanced.

A strobe is a lighting device that implements a stroboscopic effect. Let us recall what the effect is: if the lamp flashes at a certain frequency, then moving objects will seem motionless. In nightclubs, strobe lights create a stunning illusion of slow motion of dancers, the so-called “slow motion”. By changing the frequency of the strobe lamp flashing, you can set the rhythm of the dance, and the digital nature of the device allows you to control the effect from a computer.

Scanners use mirrors and prisms to reflect and refract the light emitted by the lamp. The result is a kaleidoscope of multi-colored beams, as if scanning the space of the room. And the stepper motor, moving the scanner head in different directions synchronously with the music, and a set of gobo stencils allow you to instantly create a sense of dynamics on the dance floor.

Laser spotlights allow you to create unique special effects – draw animated figures, create the effect of “star wars” in the room, launch a running line or simply launch spectacular laser beams of all imaginable shades and configurations. The peculiarity of laser beams is that they practically do not scatter, which is why they are almost invisible when viewed from the side. This allows you to draw spectacular animations on the walls or on the floor without “cluttering” the space with beams of light, as a spotlight does. On the other hand, by combining lasers with smoke or fog generators, the beams can be made visible, which is also quite spectacular.

Ultraviolet light sources emit light in the UV range. The peculiarity of such lighting is the luminescence effect. White and neon colors look bright and eye-catching in UV light. Ultraviolet lamps are great for creating a special atmosphere on a concert or theater stage, for various art installations and for club decoration.

Architectural light is used to illuminate elements of structures, buildings and architectural structures. In addition to the main function – illumination – such lamps can play the role of decorative elements, artistically highlighting certain elements of the stage. Taking into account the outdoor use of architectural lighting, the equipment for it is made in a protected climatic design. Architectural lighting is based on powerful gas-discharge lamps.

LED equipment

It is not entirely correct to single out LED equipment in a separate category, because all of the above devices are also available in LED design. At the same time, it is necessary to mention this class of equipment.