Stage Designs

Pixel Dots

Jack Koski from Chandler Christian Church in Chandler, AZ brings us this simulated pixel map wall. (originally posted July 2015)

For this set, they expanded on the classic LED light box. They normally have a fully lit cyc wall. This time, Jack wanted to create something that could fill the entire backstage, but also leave negative space to place truss with blinders and movers on the backline. They used 1×8 boards to make a 4’x8′ wood frame, then attached a full sheet of white Coroplast to the back. Inside the frame, they used two American DJ LED bars, one on top and one on the bottom.

The lights are divided into three cells, so they have control over six (almost, there is overlap) sections in the panel. The front is a sheet of black Coroplast. They ordered the black sheet pre-cut with 120 holes in the front, which was designed in Google Sketchup. Out in the open, the LED bars don’t give a very even wash, but when the wash on white was seen through the holes, each circle individually looks even to the eye. This gave them an almost pixel mapped effect, but much more affordable than actual, pixel-mapped fixtures.

They made eight panels total, but ended up cutting one and using seven and a half. Budget for this project was about $1500 for lumber and Coroplast. Getting the Coroplast precut with holes drove up the cost a bit. They tested different ways to bore 4″ circles, and it was extremely difficult to work with. It may be able to be done with plywood or cardboard, although with cardboard the cuts won’t be as clean. They wanted perfect circles.

Here’s some videos of the panels in action.

Back-Corner

Inside-Corner

Inside-Full

Inside-Out-Corner

Panel-Back

Wake-thumb

Winding Thorns Fan Blades

25 responses to “Pixel Dots”

  1. Nate says:

    Well thought out, very creative, love the way it looks!!

  2. Chris says:

    Love it! It’s amazing what a little creativity can do to ordinary LED lights. What is the tune in the first video?

  3. Steven Hall says:

    Jack,

    This is awesome! Way to come up with a great creative solution, that looks amazing!

    ,Steven

  4. Jared says:

    What kind of lights are you using up top? That are changing colors? Thanks so much.

    • Jack Koski says:

      Hey Jared, are you asking about the lights above the stage? If so, it’s a combination of Elation Platinum Spot LED II’s and LED Design Wash Zooms. I also have several Opti QA Pars up there, but they weren’t used for these two songs.

  5. Roger O'Neel says:

    Great work Jack! Love it!

  6. Jack Koski says:

    Hey guys, I was talking with the team today and realized I made a mistake in the cost I put in here. It was actually only around $1000.

  7. Sam Thomas says:

    What was the model of the American DJ lights and what kind of console are you running everything off of? Great design!

  8. Micah Roddy says:

    Awesome stage set up. How big are your ADJ LED light bars that you have inside the pixels and what kind of light console are you running?

    Looks great!

  9. David says:

    Where did you get the coroplast black and precut?

    • Gregory says:

      I would also like to know what supplier/company provided the pre-cut coroplast. This ideas blows my old light boxes away.

  10. Kristi says:

    What did you use to keep the boxes standing? Was there a brace in the back? And where did you find the precut coroplast?

  11. paoma says:

    I have a question? The led lights you put in the coroplast is what it gives variety of colors or is the console.what kind of console is ?
    And also the led lights are only white.

  12. Dennis Kelly says:

    Great work Jack! I love how that turned out!

  13. Luke says:

    Where did you get the coroplast pre-cut like that?

  14. Brett McFarland says:

    Also looking for where you got your colorplast precut, I didn’t see an answer.

  15. Great design, my church is currently getting ready to redesign our stage and would like to use this design and implement it to fit our stage. Any way you could share the file you used for the holes in the coroplast?

  16. Rafael rojas says:

    Did anyone ever find out where to find the pre cut coroplast

    • Rafael,

      I did a similar look to my church recently. I found a company in main that made the holes in the coroplast for me. I had to make the design on CAD for the cnc machine. It wasn’t that expensive to get them made. I think I paid around 160.00 for 4 sheets of black with the holes in them.
      We thought about cutting the holes ourselves, but that would’ve been too much time to do that. It’s better to let a company do it for you. results are better.

      • Nathan Lord says:

        Hello Josh,

        You actually found a place to cut the circles? Please send me the link to the place that cut them for you. That would be a big help.

        Thanks

      • Craig Smith says:

        Josh, I’d love to know the name of the company you found, too!

        • Rafael says:

          We finally did this design we found a company in Clovis called precision plastics. I told them what I wanted and they delivered. It is a lil pricy to do the holes though. Each sheet that had holes was around 40$ Each. But it worked great looks great. Our church loves it.

  17. Dallas says:

    This is awesome! How did you program the lighting?

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