I call them my throw away lights because they are an absolutely fantastic bang for the buck. I have seen them sold at pro Audio places all over the place for over $100 CDN (many places $150 to prey on house party folks) which is a complete rip-off. I buy mine from Ebay (usually from China so long shipping timelines but cheaper prices apply) or Amazon from anywhere $20 and up (who in turn get from China but sometimes have local stock if you need them quicker). Simply type in "LED DJ Crystal Ball" and you will get lots of hits. They are very cheaply made with the expectation that if one craps out you toss it and buy a new one without any worries (other than adding to the landfill so recycle is better). I have 4 right now and usually use 2 with the other two as backups at each of my gigs. So far I have not had one crap out yet - have had to re-glue, solder on new plugs and do some patches but they are all still ticking - two are almost 3 years old. The other two are maybe a year old and still as new. They are easy to throw around anywhere there is space to set them down and they really put out an impressive amount of light with amazing options. In my video I use one on the pile of crap sub (that canked on me that night) and the other I mounted on my light stand facing the crowd - both were set to sound active - they also have DMX feeds so you can slave them together easy enough if you so desire. I am not a big lighting guy so I don't bother with DMX programming. too much effort for little return in the mobile scene. Clubs and big events would be a different story so flexibility is there. My Light stand is mostly LED stuff except one micro Laser which is a waste of time as the other lights overpower it. I have two LED Pucks on the end of the T-bar, A Crystal ball as explained above, and an ADJ Jellyfish. Sometimes I use a couple of strobes or can do a mirror ball if requested but....
That more than fills a medium to large size hall but doesn't overpower things so the video monitors aren't drowned out. I also use a DIY LED Bar light made of 5050 LED strip lighting to backlight my hand built facade and then usually add either LED Strip lighting on the Velcro edges of my facade or (as in this particular case) I use a couple of clamped cone lights with the above linked 3watt LED light as an added roof effect. I seem to get a lot of good comments from the guests despite the fact it is a relatively chintzy collection of cheapo lights. I think the only place people care would be corporate events or high school proms where not going to premium lighting might be a deal breaker with the younger more hip crowds these days. Most wedding couples I have run into never ask anything more than: will there be lights? Out come the giglog vids and they are usually very happy with what they see ;-)
TMF
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