Mirror Balls

Used in venues and homes all up and down the country, the ever-popular revolving mirror ball has enhanced light effects for decades. Rotating lights are an excellent focal point to any celebration, once light hits a glitter ball it is reflected and turned into multiple beams of light. You’ll notice with mirror balls they’re hanging in the centre of a room more often than not, this allows refractions in every direction.

Buy Affordable Glitter Balls

The balls are easily fastened to a small motor hung on the ceiling which spins to revolve the ball itself. External lighting is then directed toward the ball, hundreds of small and reflective squares will then cast this all over the room as the ball revolves. This rotational method has been consistently in use for decades and the technique was first implemented over 50 years ago.

Fast forward to today, we are witnessing the balls being used as part of modern home design and even as wedding decorations. Decorative glitter balls give off the impression that the residents or happy couple are free-spirited and don’t take life too seriously. At weddings, couples tend to hold onto them in pictures, some hang them above the altar or even above tables in the reception dining area.

Hanging up disco mirror balls of varying sizes together provides a far more attractive visual effect, you can place a group of smaller units as decor for the aisle. Also, this method looks fantastic when displayed within a marquee or tent-based wedding or venue, natural light will also come into play, brightening the area. With the right lighting effects, your wedding pictures are sure to look stunning, do some further research on ball based ideas.

Where to place a retro mirror ball?

Where you situate the ball is fairly crucial, some set them up to dress corners but they are usually a centrally placed item. Once hooked to the ceiling, the best course of action is to set up your lighting and let the motor rotate the ball. Then if you still want to push the boat out a little further you can activate a smoke machine to deliver an even better effect.

Beams of light pierce through the smoke, but the smoke will actually highlight the entire length of the light itself. Therefore, as the ball itself revolves the light will follow suit providing an amazing multi-light effect that will cover the majority of your venue. The more lights you can direct at the ball, the more the effect will multiply, you can do the work of many light systems by using this method logically.

Coupling our light systems with fog or haze effects is highly advised across much of our lighting and effects sector. Smoke-based after-effects like this will increase the visibility of all light effects created, a technique utilised by venue owners, promoters and working DJs for many years. It is definitely a great idea to go the extra mile and consider a spotlight and smoke machine to go with the order of your ball.

Who can use a disco mirror ball?

Of course, anybody can use this item but usually, this item is reserved for use by operators or owners of live music venues. There are a few different sizes available as mentioned so while you can use these in the home, the sixteen-inch may not be suitable for smaller spaces. Pro DJs tend to have their own ball system ready to go in case the venue they are performing at is lacking their own.

With the advent of apps like Vine and more recently TikTok, we’ve seen many young people embrace the effects of a disco ball system. This provides the background of their videos with an interesting visual effect, especially those that upload videos of them dancing etc. Some of the balls on this page come as kits with a motor and a spotlight for excellent effects right from the box.

If you do decide to make an order, you can set these kits up yourself at home for testing purposes before you take them out to a party. Firstly, use a hook or similar to hang the motor up to the ceiling above, usually above a dance floor of some kind. Secondly, hang the ball to the motor and activate the light fixture, you can then activate smoke machines too if you own one or have one in your basket.

Origins of the glitter ball

Officially invented in the early 1900s, the little-known Myriad Reflector also created multiple beams of light through reflective material. However, they didn’t really become globally popular for many decades, hitting their heyday in the 1970s where they became synonymous with the Motown and disco era. The general popularity of this item has risen and faded multiple times, seeing a comeback in the naughties and has since returned two decades after.

Though they are retro, they are affordable and therefore popular all year round especially as the UK prepares for Christmas work parties and other late-year celebrations. Each year around this time we experience a large uptick in ball purchases, this is amongst smoke machines and LED PAR cans as mentioned above. This alone shows that the public still associates this product with celebration and parties and rightly so, we couldn’t agree more.

This item now has worldwide recognition as being the centrepiece of thousands of parties over the course of each year. The myriad reflector remains a big deal a whole century after its initial design and is a surefire way to get your party guests in the celebratory mindset. Easy to set up, easy to use and most importantly easy to convey the party atmosphere to anyone and everyone.