Notes and Lines

Gian Benallo from First Christian Church of Huber Heights in Dayton, Ohio brings us this stage that could look like sheet music. (originally posted April 2016)

Gian used 8-foot clear florescent light protectors (purchased from Lowe’s) that were attached to a frame made from 1×4’s painted flat black and screwed to the stage with L brackets. He attached them by cutting a small x in the front with a razor blade so he could put a screw through it without causing any real damage. Then screwing them to the frame through the back. He inserted long strips of sketch paper (he purchased a roll from Hobby Lobby) so they were completely covered from the inside. This served to diffuse the Supernight SMD5050 RGB LED strip lights (purchased from Amazon) that was then inserted into each tube. It made the tubes look like colored florescent bulbs.

For the other element, he used two 4×4 foot pieces of hardboard (purchased from Lowe’s). He used a hole saw to cut out the pattern. They were painted flat black. They were attached to the same kind of frame as the tubes. He then covered the inside with the same sketch paper. He used 2 Chauvet Color Pallets (LED wash panel) offset from left to right to back light them. The Color pallets worked well because you can break them into 8 different areas with different colors to create some really cool gradients. It cost less than $250 to create. But they already owned the color pallets. They cost about $150 a piece. But you could experiment with other options like Par LEDs and get really good result.