Stage Designs

LED by the Spirit

Cypress Church from Cypress Church in Galloway, Ohio brings us this great LED tape design.

From the team: This is our shot at an LED Tape Light Set that spanned across our whole stage. We have a very oddly shaped stage and don’t have a ton of real-estate due to our triple-wide screen setup. We saw some posts using LED tape lighting and quickly jumped to make it our own.

The first step was finding out what to buy how much everything was going to cost and where we could save money. We have links below to help you with that process.

Next we made a design plan and figured out the best way to do it. In our case we made a central HUB for our dmx decoders and decided to use ribbon cable to power and control each LED light from that central HUB. The HUB was in one DMX chain so you only had to plug in one dmx cable.

DMX Decoder Explanation:

There is a picture below of one DMX decoder. You will see that each DMX decoder is labeled pretty well. You have you power + and – that will come from the power supply. Then you have three cable for DMX in, and three cables for DMX out. Finally, you have RGBW and a power cable (Black) that is all for your LED tape lights.

After testing the decoders and making sure it worked the way we needed, we went to installing the tape lights. We built the frames out of small 1″ square wood pieces that we cut up from 1″ plywood scraps. These were attached to supports that we have spanning across the stage. We DID NOT buy the correct 90 degree angle pieces to connect two tape lights together, so for the peak of each of our points, we had to make a loop and then cover it with thick plastic shielding.

Here’s the link to a video explaining some of the process:

[tentblogger-youtube 0nnhoyWxpQ0]

Purchase Links:

DMX Decoder: https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Decoder-Controller-lightstrips-12V-48VDC/dp/B09Y1LZLFJ?crid=2JQWHHA551F3W&keywords=rgb%2Bsight%2Bdmx512%2Bdecoder%2B4ch%2Brgbw&qid=1675095417&sprefix=rgbsight%2Bdmx512%2Bdecoder%2B4ch%2Brgbw%2Caps%2C277&sr=8-8&th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=csdi-20&linkId=97d893116b35d4085b81b86a73b16492&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Power Supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007MWNF5Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=csdi-20&linkId=9824bc9063d0d982998b99c600dd2c79

LED Tape Lights: https://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-Waterproof-300LEDs-Changing-Flexible/dp/B00DTOAWZ2?crid=33FPTXH2Q684A&keywords=NEWSTYLE%2BWaterproof%2BIP65%2BRGBW%2BLED%2BStrip%2BLights%2B5050%2BSMD%2BRGB%2BCool%2Bwhite%2BMixed%2BColor%2BLED%2BStrip%2BLighting%2B5M%2B300LEDs%2BLED%2BRoll&qid=1675095568&sprefix=newstyle%2Bwaterproof%2Bip65%2Brgbw%2Bled%2Bstrip%2Blights%2B5050%2Bsmd%2Brgb%2Bcool%2Bwhite%2Bmixed%2Bcolor%2Bled%2Bstrip%2Blighting%2B5m%2B300leds%2Bled%2Broll%2Caps%2C891&sr=8-4&th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=csdi-20&linkId=336d5ddca98428e5e7000dc09818a931&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Ribbon Cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHQLMTS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=csdi-20&linkId=eb1287ec4d1d7a2d7a98364b732df5e1

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16 responses to “LED by the Spirit”

  1. Nicole says:

    How did you program these into your light board? Did you need extra female/male ends?

  2. Sage says:

    Please how much did you spend altogether for the strips and everything you used in making it.

    • Tanner B says:

      For anyone else who needs this answer… I created a small version based off of this (1 power supply, 3 decoders, 3 LED strips, plus wood and supplies) for $175. Mine was 1:5 scale so i would guess their setup was around $850 – $900. Hope this helps anyone.

      • Jobi Collins says:

        Tanner B, I have a quick question that I would appreciate your troubleshooting insights on. We did this design to the T a year ago and its gone without a hitch. We’ll today, Our lights are down, its Saturday, and we’re standing around scratching our heads. Could you shoot me an email?

  3. Question . . . . . .

    Did you have any signal issues with the DMX with the longer runs out to the side walls?

    Did you need DMX amplifiers to extend the signal?

  4. Frank Sanchez says:

    What lighting program did you use to run the led strips?

  5. Greg Huguley says:

    Are you using something to defuse the light?

  6. Trevor says:

    No, we’re not using anything to diffuse the light. In the pictures and videos we just zip-tied the LED strips to our set design.

  7. Erik Hefta says:

    We are looking into doing a design similar to this. We have priced out by the 16 ft…. how many linear feet of tape did you use for this design?

    • Chris Palazini says:

      Figure out the lengths of all the piece of your frame(s).

      And I would add at least 20% more to your total needed to account for bad tape, mistakes and failed strips.

      • Jobi Collins says:

        Chris P, I have a quick question that I would appreciate your troubleshooting insights on. We did this design to the T a year ago and its gone without a hitch. Well, today, Our lights are down, its Saturday, and we’re standing around scratching our heads. Could you shoot me an email?

  8. Kelsey says:

    What was the full cost for this stage design?

  9. Jeremiah says:

    what are the lights you are using in front of the drum risers?

  10. Sam says:

    How did you go from your power cable to the terminal block and do you have a link for the terminal block?

  11. lalolevi says:

    Hi, I followed the process…but I couldn’t configured the DMX thing.
    I putted The dmx address…binary…but The LED tape doesn’t worked.
    Do I Need another equipment?, my LED tape needs something more?

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