Uplighting, What Do I Need For My Event?
Well there's a question!
There are lots of different types of uplighters available to hire for events, all of varying quality and at a range of price points. If you've searched on-line for uplighting for your event you have probably seen quite a number of companies offering uplighters for hire and everyone seems to have different uplighters available. So what do you need?
At this point we would actually have more questions than answers!
There are two main types of uplighter used for events, those that use traditional incandescent tungsten filament lamps and the other type that use LEDs as the light source.
Traditional incandescent lamps are very good at rendering warm white colours, with good warm white colour ranges from 2700K-3200K dependant on the lamp. The only way that the colour can be changed is by using colour filter gels.
The main drawbacks with this type of lighting are low lamp life (sometimes in the range of 300-500 hours or less), power consumption, with some lamps being as much as 300-500W or even 1000W per lamp and heat. They generate a lot of heat so can't be used close to fabrics and drapes, also these are wired fixtures so require cable runs between lights. Traditional Par38 uplighters are typically used by marquee companies and traditional Par64 uplights by some theatres, schools and colleges, although these are slowly moving towards LED variants.
We use LED uplighters and have several different type of uplighter available. There are several reasons why we use LED uplighters over incandescent lamp uplighters. The main reason is heat. LEDs produce very little heat so the fixtures can be used right up to fabrics and drapes to produce dramatic effects.
Then there's colour, LED uplighters with red, green, blue, 3-in-1 RGB or 4-in-1 RGBA/RGBW-FC are able to produce a wide range of colours instantly and with RGBW-FC (Red, Green, Blue, White, Full Colour) LED fixtures 16.7 million colour variations are possible, including pastel colours.
As if that wasn't enough LEDs, even in high powered fixtures, have an average life span of between 25,000 hours to 50,000 hours and some manufacturers state upwards of 50,000 hours average LED life.
We have all of these available, even LED uplighters for use outdoors, so let's take a look at what these are suited to.
Our individual RGB (red, green, blue) LED uplighters are what we would call our budget uplighters, these have individual red, green and blue LEDs with the colour mixing taking place outside of the fixture. These are more suited to smaller rooms or venues with low ceilings.
They aren't as powerful as our 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 LED uplighters and because they are indivdually coloured LEDs with some colours a level of colour separation may be visible just above the fixture with certain colour combinations. Slight colour shadowing may also be visible when photographed.
Par64 and Slim Par64 variants are available and these are ideal for use at parties at home, small marquees or venues with low ceilings or for those looking for a larger number of uplighters on a budget.
When we go up a level the type of LED and the optics within the uplighter start to play an important part in the mix. With 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 LEDs the colour mixing takes place within the LED and fixture itself, all but eliminating colour separation above the fixture and the shadowing effect within the beam angle.
If the optics have built in diffusion or frost filtering the resulting light output will be smoother and more uniform than fixtures that don't have these, however as the LEDs and optics get better this does have a knock on effect as the uplighters cost much more and therefore the hire cost increases.
We have Tri Colour Par38 LED uplighters, RGB and RGBA (A = amber) LED Bars and RGBW-FC Wireless Uplighters available for hire. These are more suited to larger rooms, higher ceilings and events where there is to be photography or filming or the uplighting is a focal point of the event.
Our SmartBat wireless battery powered LED uplighters are our most flexible uplighters. They are a "position anywhere" option and being battery powered can be used in places even where there is no power available. With high quality high output 4-in-1 RGBW LEDs and high quality optics these can be used for a wide range of events.
What's more our SmartBat uplighters can be controlled wirelessly by smartphone (Android / Apple IOS), using a easy to use app (SmartColors) so you can change the colour of the uplighters and the mood of the event throughout, they can even be made to be sound activated to work alongside a DJ or band at the press of a virtual button.
So there you have it, we hope we've made it a little easier for you to decide which uplighters are suitable for your event however we would always prefer a chat or meet up to ensure we are supplying the right uplighters for your event.
Feel free to contact us to make an appointment at our offices or at your chosen venue. Or just call us on 01628 617730 for a chat!
Take a look at our Pinterest boards and Instagram feeds to see our latest event uplighting.
Jeremy