Stage Designs

Throwback: Points of Light

Paul Snyder from Fairfax Community Church in Fairfax, Virginia brings us this shining piece of art from their stage. (originally from 2011)

They wanted a very light-bulby set so they went with 220 lightbulbs. They created two 12×12 foot frames and lined them with light sockets every two feet. They also created two 8×8 foot grids with the same setup.

Then they hung 50 light sockets from the ceiling to finish the look. All the lights were on dimmers so they could be brightened or brought down in worship to create certain moods.

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11 responses to “Throwback: Points of Light”

  1. Avery says:

    This is beautiful! Works really well with the soft blues and lavenders.

  2. Patrick says:

    Can you post how you built the frames? We were trying to do this for one of our stages at camp this year but couldn’t get it to work right. How did you wire them?

    • Paul says:

      Patrick,

      Thanks for the question. We really wanted to create something on straight lines so we knew a grid would be our best best. We found a strand of lights that we liked and built our grid to fit that. This is the light strand we got. http://1000bulbs.com/product/826/SIV-LSM24102PBL.html

      We only bought one and were able to borrow two from another church that had the same strands. For the hanging lights, we bought individual light sockets and cords at Ikea. Then we had 15 foot extension cords that we hung at varying heights.

      For the grids themselves, we built two 12×12 grids and two 8×8 grids. We did the math and knew that with the light strand we were getting, it had 50 sockets spaced two feet apart which would just work. So we bought a bunch of 12′ x 2″ pieces of wood. We laid down two of the pieces for our top and bottom. Then we measured and put another piece every two feet. As we started screwing it all together we realized that we needed to trim our vertical boards a couple of inches or we’d actually be taller than 12 feet and that would mess up the lighting. After we got the grids put together and painted, it was just a matter of installing the lights. We thought about trying to staple them onto the wood, but ended up using black gaffe tape instead. We also built out three sets of legs, two on the ends and one for the middle to help them stand up and then sand bagged them.

      Looking back, I’d make the height and length a little less than 12 feet. There were turns that really stretched our light strand. I wish we’d have had a little more wiggle room.

  3. TheRVK says:

    I would also love to have some more detail on the frames and wiring. I was trying to do a similar design for a special event, but scrapped the idea for something a little simpler. I really want to give it another go and your suggestions would really help. Thanks!

  4. Ryan says:

    Great Design, I’ve been wanting to do this myself. Do you have happen to have any photos with the lights on of the grid?

    • Paul says:

      Ryan,

      I looked through my pics, but I didn’t have one that was close enough to really see how the lights were attached. I can tell you that we used gaffe tape above and below each socket and we wrapped it completely around the post it was attached to. Otherwise, the tape started peeling up.

  5. James says:

    this design looks great.

    I really really really like the grids of lamps in the background… I would love to try that on my stage, I would be worried about folks (and camera guys) accidently running into the lamps.

  6. Ryan Murphy says:

    Hey Paul, What type of wattage did you use for the light bulbs?

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