Stage Designs

Shine Your Light

Josh Gilson from New Life Church in El Cajon, California brings us this very cool stage design feature chase-able blinders.

They built this set for under $1000 then gave it to one of their sister churches when they were done with it. Very cool!

Stats:

  • 12 rows high
  • 24 columns long (3 panels of 8 columns)
  • 24 feet long
  • 288 C9 Clear Christmas Lights
  • 3 4-CH DMX Dimmers
  • 3/4″ holes drilled every 12″

Materials:

  • 12x 2″x4″x12′
  • 6x 4’x8′ sheets of plywood or particle board 1/4″ to 3/4″
  • 3x C9 Clear Christmas Lights, 96-100 count per strand. They cut them every 8 lights and connected 24 on 1 channel for a total of 288 lights on 12 rows (12 channels)
  • 3x 4-Channel DMX Dimmer packs
  • 24x Brown 6′ Extension cords from Home Depot/Wal-Mart. They cut them to make them the connections between the middle panels.
  • 96x Wire Connectors
  • 1x Wire Stripping Kit
  • 96x 1/4″ Bolts
  • 96x 1/4″ Wing Nuts & Washers
  • Misc, Bolts and Screws to keep the parts together. They also used black zip ties to keep the panels tight together
  • Flat Black Spray Paint (They painted everything)

Hints & Tips:

  • Get your Christmas bulbs, C9 Christmas Bulbs during the holidays…they’re easier to come by.
  • 1 person can build it, 2 people are helpful, but 3 people can get the job done it no time!
  • An electrician can zoom through the wiring.

Mid-Explosion Wrapped and Framed

19 responses to “Shine Your Light”

  1. Mike Fowler says:

    I like it! What intelligent fixtures are you using for this design?

  2. TheRVK says:

    Any video of this stage in action? I’ve debated doing something similar for some time now and would like to see how it turned out. Good work.

  3. Tim Lemons says:

    I would love to see some vids too!

  4. MYRNA says:

    Great photos! Thank you for sharing the “details” with us!!!

  5. Kevis says:

    this looks alot like what I did at newhope church last year…looks great.

  6. James T says:

    This looks great.

    I do not know if this is the correct forum for this… I do not understand the need for doing IMAG in a room that sits less than 400.

    • Jonathan Malm says:

      haha. you need to talk to Denny Weinman about that. You two would have a blast agreeing with each other. :)

  7. Jeremiah says:

    How does this look with the Pastor speaking?

  8. JD says:

    How did you cut the sheets of ply wood so straight?

  9. chad says:

    I love the look, very hillsong-esk. My only concern is with all of those loosly put together connections and light gauge wiring. Dont take this as an insult, but for your safety and your insurance purposes I would reccomend having an electrician look at you set-up to make sure you aren’t risking any fire or power danger.
    Great idea’s though.

    • Josh Gilson says:

      Chad, thanks for the reply. We actually had a electrician look over it all and give his blessing, in fact he did most of them. Also we had them running to Dimmer packs with low fuses to ovoid any spikes and everything on stage was sprayed with fire retention stuff.

      • chad says:

        awesome! well done. I hope you can understand what I meant. I just know that the church has gotten a terrible wrap for doing things cheap and unsafe. It’s nice to see that you did your homework.

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