Preface
With customers' demands growing ever higher, it has become increasingly crucial for public relations event planning and execution companies to better convey customers' promotional requirements and create a public relations scene that maximally meets their demands. After coming up with excellent and original event ideas that meet the customers' requirements, the next step is to bring all these ideas to fruition in the real world, that is, to realize the previous creative concepts. In today's era, with science and technology evolving at a rapid pace, various high-tech and high-quality exhibition and display technologies and equipment are increasingly appearing in various conference halls. While meeting the customers' requirements, they undoubtedly also offer a visual feast to every audience member present. Besides the commonly used exhibition and display equipment, various types of professional stage design equipment are also widely used at event sites. The application of these technologies and equipment has also played a huge role in better achieving on-site effects. Here, based on my experience in supervising on-site stage design projects, I have written this article, hoping to provide some valuable reference content for colleagues in their future practical work. Due to limited experience, any inaccuracies are welcome to be pointed out.
Lighting Equipment
The commonly used lighting equipment (lights) is mainly used for artistic lighting on the stage, that is, stage lighting equipment is adopted. Moving head lights refer to lights with a microprocessor installed inside, which can receive electronic signals and respond accordingly. According to their functions, computer moving head lights can be further divided into spot moving head lights and moving head wash lights. The former mainly features dynamic display of light beams and patterns, while the latter is mainly used for spreading large areas of colored light curtains.
The commonly used conventional lights mainly include PAR lights, laser lights, profile spotlights, and follow spotlights. PAR lights are the most commonly used conventional lights. They are relatively lightweight in the T-shaped body and are divided into various models according to the size of the lights. Among them, PAR56 and PAR64 are the most commonly used. These lights are used for directional lighting on the site, and color filter papers can be added to the lights, or an automatic color changer can be installed.
Laser lights can be divided into single-head and multi-head laser lights. When using them, it is necessary to avoid directing the light beams directly at the human head to prevent discomfort. By using lasers, in addition to creating built-in effects such as space-time tunnels, dynamic effects similar to video clips can also be achieved through computer programming. However, correspondingly, the costs and production cycles are relatively high; at the same time, they can also be used in conjunction with various laser software.
Profile spotlights can actually be regarded as an evolved product of PAR lights. The length of the light body of profile spotlights is lengthened on the basis of PAR lights, and multiple light shields are installed, so that the projected light can be shaped to a certain extent. Due to the improvement of the light source part, the projection distance of the light is farther than that of PAR lights. Nowadays, the CRI of Igracelite profile spotlights is greater than 96, which can meet the requirements for rich colors, deep red colors, or cutting one by one.
Follow spotlights are almost used in every event, and I believe everyone is quite familiar with them, so no more detailed explanation will be given here. The higher the CRI index, the relatively better the performance of the light.
DMX Console Equipment
In addition to the various lights mentioned above, the selection of lighting control equipment is also crucial in on-site events. According to the control capabilities of lighting control equipment, they can generally be divided into dimmer consoles and DMX consoles.
Dimmer consoles generally refer to lighting control equipment that can only control the on/off and brightness changes of lights. Some dimmer consoles also have a simple program storage and playback function. All the input and output signals of this type of equipment are analog level signals, so they are generally suitable for on-site environments without complex lights; therefore, dimmer consoles have basically withdrawn from the market in the development of stage lighting equipment.
DMX consoles generally refer to lighting control equipment used to control stage lights. The input and output signals of this type of equipment are all digital signals, so the functions of stage lights can be fully utilized, and at the same time, ordinary conventional lights can also be controlled. Therefore, they have been widely applied in on-site events. DMX consoles are generally divided into small, medium, and large computer light consoles according to the number of controllable signal loops. The type of DMX console to be selected is generally determined according to the number of moving head lights on the site. If the number of moving head lights is within 20, a small DMX console is suitable; if it is within 40, a medium DMX console is suitable; if it exceeds 40, a large DMX console should be used. Of course, according to the requirements for lighting on the site, the above comparison is not fixed.
Audio Equipment
As equipment for strengthening the transmission of human voices, audio equipment is almost applied in all on-site events. A complete audio system generally includes speakers, power amplifiers, microphone subsystems, peripheral equipment, and so on. The quality of speakers directly affects the final effect on the site, so it is crucial to match speakers reasonably. According to their functions, common speakers are divided into full-range speakers, subwoofer speakers, and full-range monitor speakers. According to the installation methods, they can be further divided into single-unit speakers and linear arrays. The most commonly used are single-unit speakers, and linear arrays are mainly applied in large events.
Stage Mechanical Equipment
The commonly seen stage mechanical equipment generally refers to the parts that have a mobile function in the basic structure of the stage. Currently, the two most common types are lifting mechanical equipment and rotating mechanical equipment. Lifting mechanical equipment, that is, what we usually call lifting platforms. According to the types of lifting mechanisms, they can be divided into scissor-type, telescopic-type, sleeve-type, telescopic-arm-type, and folding-arm-type lifting platforms. Currently, the scissor-type and telescopic-type are more commonly used in mobile sites. According to the types of power mechanisms, the currently commonly used are hydraulic-type and screw-type. Among them, whether it is the scissor-type or the hydraulic-type, due to their large load capacity, they are suitable for lifting heavy objects, such as vehicles. Correspondingly, the large volume of the mechanism is also a disadvantage of this type of lifting platform. The screw-type lifting platform has a simple structure and is easy to install, but its disadvantage is that it has a small load capacity and is generally used for lifting lighter items or personnel. At the same time, many current lifting platforms also have a tabletop rotation function.
Rotating mechanical equipment is what we usually call a rotating stage. According to the types of rotating mechanisms, it can be divided into friction-type, chain-type, pin-toothed-type, and elliptical-walking-type rotating stages. Currently, the friction-type and pin-toothed-type are more commonly used. The friction-type is generally driven by a servo motor to drive a set of driving wheels, and then the driving wheels are in hard friction linkage movement with the rotating part of the stage to drive the stage to rotate. This type of rotating stage has a simple structure, a large load capacity, and runs relatively smoothly, and is widely used for the rotating display of vehicles. Its disadvantage is that it has a large volume and is generally used for large rotating stages. The pin-toothed-type rotating stage is driven by a servo motor to drive a set of gears, and the outer teeth of the gears are meshed with the inner teeth on the inner wall of the rotating stage to achieve rotation. This rotating stage has a simple structure and can be controlled within a relatively small size. Its disadvantage is that it has a small load capacity, and when the load is large, the tabletop will shake or not move. It is generally used for the rotating application of lighter objects or personnel.
Stage Special Effects Equipment
Smoke machines, haze machines, and dry ice machines are also stage special effects equipment frequently used in on-site events. Smoke machines mainly produce white smoke by electrically heating smoke oil to create special effects. The main component of smoke oil is a refined petroleum product with added spices. Dry ice machines are also equipment used to create a smoke environment, but different from smoke machines, the smoke produced by smoke machines has a relatively small specific gravity and will float throughout the entire use space. The dry ice machine produces a more accurate term, a condensed fog, so it has a relatively large specific gravity and mainly floats in the lower area when used. When there is a height difference, it will also produce a special effect like water flowing.
The consumable of the haze machine is haze oil, and its effect is lighter than that of the smoke machine. In fact, people now prefer to use haze machines more. Compared with smoke machines, smoke oil from smoke machines will stay inside the stage lights, which has more influence on other stage light.
Conclusion
In today's stage design equipment rental market, there are two situations that our project management personnel need to pay special attention to. One situation is that equipment rental companies often take advantage of the fact that the client does not understand the equipment. They often describe the equipment in one set in the quotation (usually picking the good ones to write), but when the equipment is actually delivered to the site, it is another set of equipment. More often than not, they pass off inferior products as good ones.
The second situation is overkill. For an ordinary-scale on-site event, the equipment rental company issues a quotation according to the equipment configuration of a large concert. The reason is also that the client does not understand the equipment. For equipment rental companies, these equipment are just sitting in their warehouses anyway, so it might as well be taken to the event site to make money. What's worse, the rental company takes the equipment to the site but just places it there, without even connecting the power cords and signal wires... All these situations are just because the client doesn't understand. The current economic environment is severe. How to earn more profits for the company within the client's budget will be a problem that we need to spend more thought on. Therefore, saving effective costs and reducing ineffective costs will become especially important. So saving labor is a good choice: using some wireless stage lamps, such as magnetic floor tiles, wireless battery PAR lamps; or using some relatively easy-to-operate lamps, such as cold spaklers, which can achieve the effect just by using a remote control.
The severity of the market will surely intensify. We need to clarify our goals and save where it is possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common types of lighting equipment for event evenings?
The common ones include moving head lights (spot and wash types), PAR lamps, laser lamps, profile spotlights, and follow spotlights.
What are the main components of a complete audio system?
A complete audio system generally includes speakers, power amplifiers, microphone subsystems, and peripheral equipment.
What are the differences between smoke machines and dry ice machines?
Smoke machines produce white smoke with small specific gravity floating everywhere. Dry ice machines create condensed fog with large specific gravity, mainly floating in lower areas.
What should be noted about the stage equipment market?
Beware of equipment rental companies' practices like providing different equipment than quoted or overcharging for simple events and not properly setting up equipment.