Theatre Lighting

What is theatre lighting used for?

There are multiple types of lighting in theatres available in this category, including some of our high-end range of BeamZ professional lasers, spotlights, fresnel spots and stage blinders. All of these fixtures are ideal for beginning your lighting setup and can also be easily integrated into your pre-existing lighting rig. With DMX programming capabilities, you can set the lights to perform at specific sections of your play to sync up with the scenes.

Stage blinders produce an extremely bright flash of light from their COB-LEDs for various applications. These 2-in-1 fixtures can also be used as a strobe effect in order to produce bumps during the performance, where the sudden, blaring light prevents the audience from seeing scene changes and emulates slow-motion. With the blinders able to be used in a wall or line arrangement that faces the audience, they are most commonly used to encourage applause and allow the actors to see their crowd.

Our range of spotlights varies between moving head, follow and fresnel spots. They are an industry-standard of theatre lighting, where their narrow beam angle highlights a specific object or person to focus the audience’s attention to the point of interest. Follow spots do exactly as stated, where an attendant operator usually moves it manually to focus on the actor.

Moving heads, however, are completely programmable via DMX, allowing 16-bit adjustments to pan and tilt movement in almost every direction for flawless scanning of the stage and room. With motorized focus, they can project gobos onto surfaces for interesting pattern effects that are produced in great detail over long and short distances.

Fresnel spotlights feature a ridged lens that produces a high-intensity beam of light with soft edges and a large throw distance. Some of these fresnel lights are fitted with hinged 'barn doors' that can be adjusted to shape the beam and reduce the glare so that performers won’t be distracted.

Different types of lighting in theatre

Also available in this category are wash lights, which are most commonly used for background lighting or for illuminating the entire space in vibrant colours. Most of these fixtures are used as stage floor lights to light up the backdrop and flat scenery. With a wide and powerful output, they can fill the room with colourful lights to set the atmosphere of the scene. Some even have a hanging bracket to install them on truss to flood the stage with various colours.

Gobo projections are available on various lights, such as moving heads, spots and even lasers. These are designs etched onto rotating discs that can be projected onto surfaces to show different elements, such as foliage and skylines. Some are interchangeable in order to use your own patterns during the play.

Alternatively, you can create your own patterns and texts to display during the performance using ILDA programming on high-end lasers. This is a digital programming software on computers that lets you design different images that will be produced by the laser. This programming option is similar to DMX, but is best suited for single lasers as it has a better signal strength and analog modulation.

DMX is the best option for using multiple lights all at once, as you can program a synchronised display across truss mounted and stage floor lights. Through DMX, you can adjust each light individually for flawless light fades and dimming, strobe and panning movement (for moving head lights). This allows you to programme lights to compliment the atmosphere and action of your stage show, with the ability to create scenery and backdrops to match every scene.

What are the different types of theatre lighting?

Most commonly used types of lighting in theatres are spotlights and wash lights. Spotlight types include follow, moving heads and fresnel, which are used to draw the audience’s attention to a specific object or person. Wash lights have a wide output that lights up the backdrop or the stage to create atmospheric scenery.

What does lighting do in a play?

They are mostly used to create an immersive atmosphere to match the mood and action of the scene. Similarly, they draw the audience’s attention to specific objects on the stage and add extra texture to the play with the use of gobos, which can project foliage patterns onto surfaces.

How is lighting used in theatre?

Lighting is used to make the scenery of the play more life-like and immersive, such as with colourful wash lights that can illuminate the backdrop for an interesting atmosphere. Lasers can even be programmed to display any pattern, shape or text to add extra depth and realism to the scene.

What are stage lights called?

There are various types of stage lights, each with different purposes and applications. Our range of theatre lights includes spotlights, wash lights, lasers, blinders and moving heads. Moving heads are great for use during a play as they feature a rotating mechanism that allows complete movement in nearly all directions.

What is light useful for?

Blinder lights, for example, are great for hiding scene changes with extremely bright warm light so that the audience remains immersed in the atmosphere. Overall, light effects are ideal for adding texture and setting mood lighting. They can even follow the action with the use of moving heads and follow spotlights.

What is the purpose of a gobo?

Gobo designs are etched onto rotating disc wheels that are placed in front of the light’s lens in order to be projected onto surfaces in various colours. They can be used to show foliage or buildings. With interchangeable slots, you can even use your own customised gobo to project logos.

How does lighting affect the mood of a play?

Colour is extremely effective at conveying the mood of a scene, where blue light is most commonly used to show sad or tense moments of a play. Blinder lights can be used to highlight specific moments, such as gunshots, and to show temperature and the time of day.