Stage Designs

LED Sunburst

Lance Rosenthal from Faith Center in Rockford, Illinois brings us this LED tape-backed cross for their stage.

The cross was built from 1×8″ boards. One was six feet tall and the other 4 feet tall put together to build the cross. Once the boards where put together with a 2×4″ board on the back, the front was covered with RGB light strips to allow it to glow and change colors. Black electrical tape was laid on the lights to ensure that if the adhesive on the lights failed, the electrical tape was there to support it. Translucent Coroplast was used to make the lights in the cross be visible and create the 3D look of the cross.

Each beam of light coming from behind the cross was a twelve foot 1×2″ piece of wood painted black with RGB lights taped to the fronts of the boards. Every few feet, black electrical tape was wrapped around the board to ensure the light strips didn’t fall off.

The seven beams and cross were controlled with decoders to allow them to be controlled over DMX, assigned, and controlled with their computer software.

All seven of the beams were screwed to a four foot piece of 1×12″ board painted black, mounted to two T-shaped supports, elevated a foot off the ground, and screwed to the stage floor.

The cross was mounted to a six foot tall 2×4″ board mounted to a T-shaped support screwed to the stage floor.

The two truss on the sides were used to help support the beams. RGBA pars were mounted to the tops and bottoms of the truss to make the truss glow. A par was clamped to the side of each truss aimed at the ceiling. Four pars were on the floor in front of the cross, aimed at the ceiling, with a diffuser gel on them to spread the light. Two RGB+UV light bars were placed behind the cross and beams to flood the back curtain and add extra light.

From wiring, pre-building, to assembling on stage, this project took about four days with one person doing most of the pre-planning, wiring, and pre-building; and two people doing the assembling on the stage.

For materials such as: lumber, paint, light strips, decoders, power supplies, and Coroplast; the cost was around $470.

Links to online items purchased:

Mountains and Echoes Woven Wood

6 responses to “LED Sunburst”

  1. Prit says:

    Hey lance its prit here coming back at you for the lovely design

  2. Micah Gay says:

    Looks awesome! Does each light need it’s own power supply or is there some way to daisy chain the power?

  3. Coop says:

    Quick question about this. Is the coroplast formed in a box around the cross?

    • Lance Rosenthal says:

      The coroplast was formed by being bent into a three dimensional shape then stapled at the edge to a 1×8 board in a cross shape. The coroplast was measured then cut and bent at the measured spots. No box was used in forming the coroplast. Hope that helps.

Leave a Reply to Lance Rosenthal Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.