Special Event Design

Lite Brite

Christopher Law from SpringHill Camps brings us this design that snaps me back to dark nights in my childhood.

This design consisted of approximately 100 fluorescent lighting fixtures purchases on Craigslist for $100 from a factory transitioning to more efficient fixtures. They used it to emulate LED tubes.

Each fixture had two 110w 8′ bulbs. They experimented with painting and gelling techniques, but ended up carefully spray painting each tube. Then they hung the fixtures from their lighting grid in single units as well as in side groups, ladder style, using aircraft cable and the appropriate fittings.

They powered each unit by modifying each unit to have a pass-through power connected. They put 3-4 fixtures on a circuit allowing for different chase effects.

The 12-foot wide “Lite Brite” in the center of the stage was constructed from OSC with 8 of the above mentioned fluorescent fixtures inside. The color pegs were made by PVC gluing two translucent party cups opening to opening. These were then friction fit into the OSB face.

Check out a highlight of the set here: (5:30 for a quick shot of the set in action)

[tentblogger-youtube Hut46mkgXDU]

United Line Items

6 responses to “Lite Brite”

  1. Dustin says:

    Very Nice…

  2. Mike Fowler says:

    amazing! What board are you using to control the lights with and how many fixtures are you using all together?

  3. Christopher Law says:

    Thanks for the encouragement. At the time this set was built we ran it on an NSI 24/48 console. Since than we have upgraded to a Jands Vista i3 console and love it.

  4. Jeremy McKenzie says:

    What kind of spray paint did you use on the tubes? Looks awesome!

  5. Ryan Cirkles says:

    Christopher, we are very interested in this idea. Is there a way I can contact you to get more details on pulling this off on the same scale?

  6. Christopher Law says:

    Jeremy, standard paint was used. Applied while lamps were on. Takes some practice to get the paint to go on smooth. The older fixtures we used were had larger bulbs with low temperature output. Using modern fixtures may require additional heat testing for fire issues. Alternatively Rosco and maybe others make gel sleeves which would be best if budget allows.

    Ryan, contact me via email claw@springhillcamps.com

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