Stage lighting instruments are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television studios and sound stages.
Terminology is different between the USA and UK for many stagecraft terms. In the USA, lighting fixtures are called "instruments" or "units." In the UK, they are called "lanterns" or "luminaires". This article mainly uses terms common to the USA.
Components of Lighting Instruments
Although lighting instruments may look and operate differently, they all have the following components:
Box/Housing/Can/Case
A metal or plastic container to house the whole instrument and prevent light from spilling in unwanted directions. This comprises all of the exterior of the fixture except for the lens or opening. The housing may be designed with specific elements that help reduce heat and increase the efficiency of a lamp. Older instruments were made from rolled and machined steel or aluminum; however, with the advent of the Source Four, many lighting instruments are being made from die-cast metal. Die-casting allows for one single, light-weight piece that is more economical to produce and use. Some instruments are made from plastic, such as the Selecon Pacific.
Lens or opening
The gap in the housing where the light is intended to come out. Many fixtures use a lens to help control the beam of light, though some, such as Parcans and border/cyclorama lights, do not have any lenses, or optics other than the reflector. The lens and the reflector, along with other beam altering devices are part of the optics system.
Reflector
This affects the quality and directionality of the light output. An Ellipsoidal Reflector has a lamp set at one focus of an ellipse, bouncing the light and focusing it at the second focus of the ellipse. This allows the light to spot. A Parabolic Reflector has a lamp at the focus of a parabola, bouncing the light in parallel lines away from the reflector. There is no point at which the light converges, leaving an unfocusable light, causing the more flood characteristics. A reflector is located behind or around the light source in such a way as to direct more light towards the lens or opening. Each unit has a characteristic reflector, used in conjunction with the lens (or lack there of) to create the light that a designer may use.
Yoke
Most instruments are suspended or supported by a "U" shaped yoke, fixed to the sides of the instrument providing an axis of rotation. The yoke is connected to the pipe or batten by one of the clamps mentioned below; it may also be affixed to the deck with floor mounts, or attached to the set with a stage screw.
C-clamp or Hook Clamp
A C-Clamp utilizes a threaded bolt to prevent the clamp falling off the bar and also to prevent the clamp from moving. In Europe, a hook clamp is used. The shape of the hook clamp prevents it from falling off; the bolt stops the clamp from moving. The bolt is hand tightened, and then tightened 1/4 of a turn with a wrench. Once secured, the fixture can be panned and tilted using tension adjustment knobs on the yoke and clamp. In addition, safety cables, a loop of aircraft cable terminated with carabiners, are used to support the lighting instrument in case the clamp fails. A side arm is a longer arm attached to the light fixture with a C Clamp on the end. This enables the light to be hung to the side of an electric as opposed to below it.
Lamp or arc source
Most theatrical light bulbs (or lamps , the term usually preferred) are tungsten-halogen (or quartz-halogen), an improvement on the original incandescent design that uses halogen gas instead of an inert gas to increase lamp life and output. Fluorescent lights are rarely used other than as work lights (see below) because, although they are far more efficient, they cannot be dimmed (run at less than full power) without using specialized dimmers and they will not dim to very low levels. They also do not produce light from a single point or easily concentrated area and have a warm-up period, during which they emit no light or do so intermittently. High-intensity discharge lamps (or HID lamps), however, are now common where a very bright light output is required — for example in large follow spots, HMI (hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide) floods, and modern automated fixtures. When dimming is required, it is done by mechanical dousers or shutters, as these types of lamps cannot be electrically dimmed. Some specially designed fittings now use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a light source. LEDs are ideal where an intense but unfocused light source is required, such as for lighting a Cyclorama.
Accessories
Conventional (non-intelligent lighting) fixtures are designed to accept a number of different accessories intended to assist in the modification of the output. The most common, found on almost all stage lights, is the gel frame holder. The gel frame holder is intended to hold gel, mounted in cardboard or metallic gel frames. Other common accessories include gobo holders or rotators, iris holders, donuts, Barn doors and color scrollers
Types of instruments
Lighting instruments can be broadly separated into two categories: floodlights , which illuminate a wide area, and spotlights (sometimes known as 'Profiles'), which produce a narrower, more controllable light beam. The distinction has to do with the quality of the light produced by the instrument, with spotlights being a potentially tightly focused light, and floodlights being diffuse light. Instruments that fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum can be classified as either a spot or a flood, depending on the type of instrument and how it is used.
Floodlights
PAR lights
Main article: Parabolic aluminized reflector lightParabolic Aluminized Reflector lights , or PAR lights , or PAR cans , are used when a substantial amount of flat lighting is required for a scene. A PAR can is a sealed beam PAR lamp housed in a simple can-like unit. Like an old-fashioned automotive headlight the reflector is integral to the lamp and the beam spread of the unit is not adjustable except by changing the lamp. PAR lamps are widely used in architectural lighting and may often be found at hardware stores. PAR lights have seen heavy use in rock and roll shows, especially those with smaller budgets, due to their low cost, light weight, easy maintenance, and high durability. They are often used in combination with smoke or haze machines which make the path of the beam visible. They are also often used as top or side lights in the theatre and for special effects.
All PAR lamps except those with narrow or very narrow lenses produce an intense oval pool of light, some with fixed focus and soft edges. The way to adjust the orientation of the oval is to rotate the lamp/lens.
The "number" associated with a PAR light (e.g: Par 64, Par 36, Par 16) indicates the diameter of the lamp in 8ths of an inch.
4 different beam angles can be obtained on the PAR-64. The beam angle is determined by the lamp. Lamps come in "very narrow" (6° x 12°), "narrow" (7° x 14°), "medium" (12° x 28°), and "wide" (24° x 48°). Each angle has two numerical values since the beams are elliptical rather than circular.
PAR 16s are referred to as " birdies ".
PAR-bars are aluminum pipes with par cans permanently attached and circuited through the pipe. Par-bars with 4 instruments are often referred to as 4-bars , and par-bars with 6 instruments are referred to as 6-bars .
In 1995 Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) introduced the Source Four PAR as an alternative to PARcans . The Source Four PAR uses a lamp separate from the lens and reflector assemblies.
Strip lights
Main article: StriplightStrip lights , also known as cyclorama or (Cyc) lights (thus referred to because they are good for lighting the cyclorama, a curtain at the back of the stage), border lights or by the brand name codas , are long housings typically containing multiple lamps arranged along the length of the instrument and emitting light perpendicular to its length. Lamps are often covered with individual gels of multiple colors (often Red, Green, and Blue, which, in theory, allow almost any colo
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