Category Archives: Special Events

Michael Simon Photo Maymont Garden Glow Outdoor Event Lighting Richmond

Event Lighting Design: Maymont Garden Glow

 

One of the best parts of fall is providing outdoor event lighting for events like Garden Glow. The first annual Maymont Garden Glow event just finished up and it was one of the coolest events to see in the city. Running for three weeks during the height of fall colors in Maymont’s Japanese Garden.  Attendees were treated to magical views of the landscape bathed in colored light and tall pine trees were illuminated from below while rolling hills stood aglow. Boulders beneath the waterfall sparkled and shimmered with color-changing lighting.

 

uplighting Spanish moss string lighting tree

The Japanese Maple in the garden was beautifully lit with a combination of blue uplighting and Spanish moss string lighting.

Environmental Difficulties of Outdoor Event Lighting

The Lighting & Sound Co is always involved early  in the planning process for events like Garden Glow. Outdoor event lighting provides a number of challenges, such as weather. We provide consultation to the event organizers about technical feasibility and lighting features. For Garden Glow, the remote outdoor site location of the Japanese Gardens provides additional obstacles to the event design. 

 

led outdoor uplighting

It took over 3 miles of extension cable to provide all of our waterproof LED lighting throughout the garden with power.

 

With many events, our event technology equipment is operating indoors in climate controlled-spaces. However, Garden Glow was quite the opposite with lighting used outdoors exposed to the full elements for more than three weeks. This necessitated the use of waterproof lighting designed to be used outdoors. (IP65) Lighting fixtures, power supply cables, and control enclosures were all weatherproof. The Lighting & Sound Co maintains an extensive stock of suitable weatherproof LED lighting fixtures.

 

Outdoor Temp Power Generators Event

Our event partners, Temp Power, provided power for Maymont Garden Glow

 

Providing Power for an Outdoor Event

Electrical power is not available in Maymont’s Japanese Garden, so generators were required. Our event partners at Temp-Power were also involved, supplying mega-silent portable generators that kept the lights on while staying quiet to avoid distracting from the tranquil ambiance of the event. Remote monitoring, standard on all Temp-Power units, kept us aware of fuel levels to prevent running out of gas.

This amazing annual event was sold out nearly every evening it was open. We are definitely looking forward to next year’s Garden Glow.

 

Cover photo by Michael Simon Photo

lighting for sports boulderbash 2018

Lighting for Sports Events: Boulder Bash

Providing Lighting for Sports Events.

 

Since our inception, we’ve provided high end lighting for sports events all over the country. We’ve created designs for some pretty unique events.  Our crew has crisscrossed the country with Tough Mudder, setting up obstacles made out of entertainment truss. Lighting & Sound Co. Richmond works with VCU Athletics every year on the hype video for the VCU Men’s Basketball team, and works with Bleacher Report to provide production for their Honor Bowl Event in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

 

Black Truss tough mudder Technician lighting for sports events

An LSC project manager oversees the building of black truss obstacles for Tough Mudder X.

 

 

Mile high custom aluminium truss structure lighting for sports events

An LSC technician tests the “Mile High Club” in Kentucky for Tough Mudder.

 

 

Hype video lighting for sports events

Production for VCU Basketball’s Hype Video shot at The Siegel Center in Richmond, VA. 

 

Lighting Up A Rock Wall

One of the cool clients we get to work with every year is Sports Backers.  Sports Backers is a non-profit aimed at getting people more active.  They put on all of the large sports events in Richmond. Some of their events include the Anthem Richmond Marathon, Dominion Riverrock, and The Monument Avenue 10k, which is the 4th largest 10k in the country.

 

 

setting up lighting sports event

An LSC technicians ties up cables on the complex scaffolding structure.

 

Boulder Bash at Dominion RiverRock involves “the most unique bouldering wall ever constructed” and is over 20 feet high, which is a fitting challenge for the nation’s largest outdoor sports and music festival. 20 men and 20 women, some of the best rock climbers in the nation, compete for cash prizes worth up to $1500. Since the final stages of competition go late into the evening, lighting is needed for climbers to see the routes and spectators to view the action. We use waterproof lighting fixtures, Chauvet Colorado 1 Quad IP and Colordash H12 IP units, to light up the outdoor area. We provide an operator during all competition times, allowing for lighting effects to run during inter-race periods.

 

 

Rock climbing sports event lighting

Lighting the wall was both aesthetic and functional. High-powered LEDs places strategically out of sight-lines illuminated the path for competitors.

Sound Reinforcement

What’s a sporting event without an announcer to let the spectators know who is winning? We provided powered speakers, the venerable QSC K12, flown high up from the top of the structure. This position enabled everyone to hear announcements and music far across the event site.

 

 

audio for sports event

 

 

About The Lighting & Sound Co.


The Lighting & Sound Company provides high-end sports event lighting to the East Coast. We’re here to help make sure it’s perfect. With an extensive portfolio of beautiful events, we serve sports events of all sizes. Our team has worked many high profile projects, and has experience working and integrating with major TV networks.

The Lighting & Sound Co. offers many custom design & AV solutions for events of all sizes. Take a look at our portfolio and give us a call to start designing your sports event. Our knowledgeable and friendly designers will walk you through the process. Our extended office hours mean you can reach us at almost any time of day.

 

 

 

 

Event AV: Who should I hire?

Things to know before hiring event AV

If you’re interested in working with an AV company for your event, there are a couple things you should know before you start the hiring process.

  1. What is the goal of your event?
    • Before you contact your the company you want to do your event AV, make sure you know what you want your event to be. Will it be a educational presentation? Will it be an engaging activity? Different equipment can drastically change how the event feels.
  2. What are your needs vs. wants for the event?
    • Your basic needs may be a screen, projector, a few speakers, and a microphone, but adding small details will go a long way to help your audience stay engaged. Lighting, drape, projection mapping, and much more can all help make your event unique and fun. It’s up to you to decide how important everything on your list is, especially when budget is on the line.
  3. How big is your event?
    • The size of the venue and the amount of people in the room can call for a wide range of equipment needed for the event. The dimensions of the room and the head-count should be enough for a technician to know what is required.
The Elby's at Main Street Station in Richmond, VA

2 screens, face-light, and a PA flying from truss at Main St. Station in Richmond, VA

Choosing an Event AV company

After you know your plan, the next step is to choose an event AV company. The most important job of an audio visual company is to provide solutions, not products. Instead of trying to sell you equipment, they should look at your goals and needs and provide the answers that will result in a successful event. Many companies will use the same equipment, so you should make your choice based on how knowledgeable they are and how their solution fits into your budget.

Event AV and lighting for a church event

Event AV can help to make your presentations unique, lighting backdrops are very versatile

The Lighting & Sound Company is a full event production company, not just an Event AV company. Maybe you need just a TV for a presentation, or maybe you need a full stage with a velour backdrop, projectors and screens, key lighting for a speaker, and a PA system. Allow us to make sure your event is perfect.

Chandelier weddings events richmond

Chandeliers for Weddings & Events

Using Chandeliers at Your Event

You can find beautiful chandeliers in homes all across the world. They represent elegance and class in a way no other fixture can. It’s no wonder that hanging chandeliers for events has become increasingly popular. While event chandeliers are popular among those planning the event, providing chandeliers for events is difficult for many companies due to the expense of acquiring them and the delicacy of transporting them. This, however, is not an issue for The Lighting & Sound Company. We saw the writing on the walls many years ago and have not only acquired the prettiest chandeliers, but have developed ways to transport and hang them to be efficient and safe, allowing us to bring the cost down to the client!

 

Creating That Extra Spark

Do you feel as if your event is missing that one statement piece? Or the venue you picked is almost perfect but could use a little more spark? Chandeliers can lift your venue into the place of dreams and create memories for you and your guest forever. You will have known you chose correctly when your event is taken into the next level and the warmth and light from your chandelier is spread throughout the event venue.

 

The Right Style for You

When many people think of chandeliers, they think of the large crystals ones that hang in ballrooms. But the truth is there are several different styles that make picking the correct one for your event an easy task. Are you having a wedding? A rustic event? A gala? There’s a style that is right for your event. From elegant to rustic, the many styles The Lighting & Sound Company can offer will make a statement in any venue or any type of event you may be having. Below are a few examples of the several styles out there:

To see more pictures, head over to our gallery!

Competition A/V AV for Robotics VEX

VEX Robotics State Competition

The Lighting & Sound Company was onsite for the Virginia state competition of VEX Robotics. This event featured challenges and other events from multiple competitors and took place at The Meadow Event Park’s Farm Bureau Center in Doswell, Virginia.

VEX Robotics Competition Fields lit by stage lighting

Robot Competition Fields lit by stage lighting

VEX Robotics

The VEX Robotics Competition aims to challenge students to build a robot which competes in games and engineering tasks. Students who are inspired to solve problems now might consider careers in STEM fields.

Lighting Equipment

The centerpiece of this event involved six competition fields on raised platforms. It was important for the teams and audience to see the action the fields, so the event coordinators requested spotlights on the playing areas. In addition, it was important to not block sightlines with ground-support towers, so we supplied a system that hung from the roof.

Lighting consisted of 120 feet of 12″x 12″ box truss in two 60-foot spans. This supported 24 ETC Source Four Lekos for stage lighting. Also used were Chauvet Colorado 1 Quad units for wall uplighting. Additional stage effect lighting was provided by Chauvet Intimidator 375Z moving head units.

LSC Technicians assemble fixtures and cables on a lighting truss

LSC Technicians assemble fixtures and cables on a lighting truss

We raised the lighting safely out of the way of audience view on eight Columbus-McKinnon chain hoists. Our friends at Hanging Concepts LTD provided rigging services. In addition, Main Stage Productions supplied the competition stages.

All in all, we enjoyed being one of the first providers to provide a flown light package in this venue. We have already marked our calendar for next year’s event.

 

Main Street Station Event Lighting

Main Street Station Event Lighting, AV

Main Street Station, Richmond, Virginia.

The Lighting & Sound Company can meet all of your Main Street Station Event Lighting and AV needs. 

Originally opened more than a century ago in 1901, Main Street Station remains an iconic and historic landmark in Richmond.  The train shed has recently been renovated, and is now one of Richmond’s largest and most popular event venues. Main Street Station is a fantastic venue for large corporate events and meetings. Our crew loves working in this beautiful space. MSS is located right down the street from our Richmond Office!

Main Street Station Event Lighting

Richmond Magazine held the 2018 Elbys in the renovated train shed.

The new event space is pretty large, seating nearly 2,000.  The old shed roof is easy to rig from, and most types of shows can fit between the glass-encased walls. Since it’s re-opening in 2017, the popular venue hosts political events, weddings, awards shows, charity auctions, corporate meetings & parties and more.  Many annual and biannual events, such as the Richmond Wedding Expo, are moving from smaller venues to the new space.

 

Richmond Weddings Fashion Show

The Lighting & Sound Co. provides production for the Richmond Weddings Fashion show and has since 2015.

Because of it’s convenient location down town, MSS is the perfect venue for corporate events. Main street station is walking distance from many hotels, restaurants, and bars. It’s also a train station, which originally worried us because of the noise. Thankfully, the trains aren’t loud enough to be distracting from any event we’d done so far.  For a production company like us, ease of load in is very important. The train shed doesn’t have loading docks, but it does have multiple loading entrances that are easy to access, making it easy to load in alongside other vendors.

Rigging lighting main street station

Rigging in Main Street Station is made easy by the multiple on-site lifts.

 

Wedding custom gobo

Gobos (Monogram Projection) for Weddings and Events

Event lighting doesn’t just have to be a column or circle of light. The skilled designers and technicians at The Lighting & Sound Co can customize the output of some lighting fixtures to project a pattern of light. This element is often referred to as a “gobo,” though it’s also called a template, light pattern, or texture. Gobos can be created from nearly any design, and most flat surfaces are a great place to display a gobo.

Monogram Gobos

Perhaps our most popular gobo service is a custom wedding gobo, often including a monogram. These designs can be chosen from our catalog of custom layouts and fonts, or provided from client artwork. A typical wedding gobo might have the bride and groom’s names in a stylized font, and the wedding date.

Custom Monogram Gobo

Custom Monogram Gobo

Pattern Gobos

A common corporate event service, but also seen at many high-end weddings, is a pattern or design displayed on the walls or ceilings around the venue. The design might be a scenic element, or an abstract projection that creates texture on the wall.

Pattern Gobos projected on the ceiling of a venue

Pattern Gobos projected on the ceiling of The Hotel John Marshall

Logo Gobos

Many events need to display the logo of the event sponsor(s) or the company holding the event. A custom logo gobo makes it easy to project the logo. Most corporate events need a logo flanking the stage, or at the building entrance.

Custom Logo Gobo Projected on Building

Custom Logo Gobo Projected on Building

Aerial Gobos

Most concert lighting will include a haze or other atmospheric effect, which allows the beams of light to show up in the air. We can slot a pattern into the light path, and consequently make fantastic aerial effects possible. Our powerful moving head fixtures have numerous pattern choices that, when combined with prisms and rotation available from the fixture, have the ability to take a show to the next level.

Aerial Gobos in use at a concert

Aerial Gobos in use at a concert

Contact Us Today!

If you would like more information about any of our custom gobo services, feel free to get in touch with us via email at events@lightingandsoundco.com or by phone at (804) 893-5066.

 

Draping for Weddings & Events

Draping for weddings and events is an extremely useful tool to structure and customize your event to exactly the way you want it. Use it to create a unique backdrop for your dessert table or divide a room in half to separate the ceremony and reception. Use it to be a great backdrop for a concert or to make a grand entrance through a doorway. Let The Lighting & Sound Co. come up with a great design for your event.

 

Draping in Motion

At this wedding at the John Marshall Hotel, we used draping to direct the room to the ceremony, then removed it before the reception to open up the room again. Resizing the room and using uplighting helped make the ceremony feel intimate and shifted focus to the bride as she walked through the drape doorway. Finally, after we removed the drape, we redesigned the room for the reception and highlighted the floral centerpieces with pinspots. Because of the easy set up and take down, draping is an effective way to build a temporary, yet elegant barrier in the event space.

Versatility in Draping

 

Independence Golf Club Wedding Drape

Independence Golf Club Wedding Drape

Try combining draping with bistro lighting or uplighting to add a dramatic and unique feeling to your event. Remember that drape can be hung anywhere, so it can look great anywhere. Want to see it on the roof of a tent with string lighting or uplit along the walls? Head over to our gallery to see examples and ideas.

 

Wedding string lighting drape

Drape complimented by a string lighting curtain.

 

A drape & bistro look in a clear tent for a wedding at Tuckahoe Plantation.

Work with the designers at The Lighting & Sound Co. to come up with a special look that fits your event.

 

 

 

Event & Wedding Lighting at the John Marshall Ballrooms

Lighting the John Marshall Ballrooms

The beautiful historic ballrooms at the Hotel John Marshall are a Richmond, Virginia institution. They make for a very lovely venue for wedding ceremonies & receptions, corporate parties, and other special occasions. With two stunning ballrooms, a pre-function lobby space, bridal suites, and a hip-looking lounge, there’s plenty of room to fit most events. The Hotel John Marshall provides plenty of space for any event and the authentic look of the historic building brings a next-level amount of class not found elsewhere in Richmond.

As a selection for a venue, you can’t get much better than the John Marshall. However, as is the case with almost all venues, the ambiance can be improved dramatically simply by adding a few lighting features. Check out the details of the most popular services below.

Uplighting

An especially popular technique to use in this space is uplighting. Using LED lighting, you are able to set the mood using the colors of your choosing. In addition, uplighting has the power to make a large room feel intimate. Beyond that, choosing your uplighting colors can be fun! Try out our powerful Color Picker tool and explore the many different possibilities uplighting can provide.

Custom Gobo

Custom gobos are also relevant in the world of wedding lighting. They are a fantastic way to make your event personalized and memorable. Frequently, a monogram gobo is projected on to the curtain on stage. This location is desirable as the gobo is centered and presented in a way the entire room can see it. Gobos can also be aimed on the dance floor or even in the lobby so guests may see it as they enter.

Pin Spotting

If you are planning on spending a great deal of money on beautiful centerpieces, you don’t want to have them washed out by keeping the work lights on full in the ballroom, and you definitely don’t want them to be overlooked if the lights are a little dimmer. With pin spots, you are able to keep the lights at romantic level while having your magnificent centerpieces pop out of the background and create an eye catching effect. Consequently, pin spotting will allow your guests to admire the centerpieces all night and have them stand out in photos for years to come.

Bistro Lighting

Bistro lighting has the potential to have the biggest “wow” factor. When done correctly (and safely), bistro lighting creates an unparalleled experience. Working with the large ceilings and beautiful chandeliers, bistro lighting hanging from the balconies in the John Marshall produces a very intimate feel. Many popular Pinterest posts also feature bistro lighting.

Draping

The large space provided by the Virginia and Marshall ballrooms can sometimes feel massive. Custom drape features be can added to the space to reduce the expanse or transform the space. Furthermore, drape for weddings are completely customizable and many colors are available. Drape can have bunches and gathers, door arches, complement existing pieces, or create pieces of their own.

You can visit the website for The Historic John Marshall Ballrooms here. See the pictures from this post and many more in our galleries here.

Speaking Lighting

At The Lighting & Sound Co, we have provided event lighting and sound reinforcement for many years. Our start came from the concert and stage production world, which involves plenty of jargon and unique terms. Clients in that world typically have an idea of what their needs are and usually specify (often with a rider) exactly what equipment their production requires.

Weddings and special events, however, bring clients who have a vision but might be unfamiliar with the terms that describe what they want to see and hear.  It’s our job to explain the services we can provide that will accentuate and exemplify a vision that is given to us. We “speak lighting” and translate for our clients.

From Vision to Reality

Our design and sales team consults with clients every day who tell us where they are having an event, how many people are attending, and might share a picture that they saw and would like to replicate. We take this information and translate it into a complete event design, making it easy for our clients to have a perfect event. If the venue is a spot we haven’t worked at,  we’ll do a site survey to get measurements of a space, evaluate the feasibility of different lighting products, plan electrical usage and loading access, and find any limitations of the event site. Many times it is useful to meet the client on site to demo some lighting products or get a feel for what colors will look good in an event space. Of course, we also provide our clients with a virtual color picker, to choose colors in advance of an event.

There are thousands of different styles of lighting fixtures and ways to add light or leave an area dark, as may be required. We might “wash” a wall or ceiling with a single color, or, accent just the columns of a room with sleek, narrow uplighting. We can shoot a client’s logo as a”gobo” on a wall of drape or put narrow spots on the centerpieces of tables. If a large projector screen is needed right on the edge of a seating area, we’ll be sure to use a rear-projection screen so the image isn’t blocked by people walking in front of it.

Once we have an idea of a client’s vision, and have taken a look at the venue, we’ll offer lighting, sound, AV, and decor options that align with the theme of the event, look sleek and classy without having unsightly components, and, most importantly, provide for a safe event. A portfolio of lighting options is available to examine a selection of choices. The client selects the style they prefer and we set it up at the event. In the background, our technical teams are taking the equipment specified by the sales team and determining the safest and most efficient way to set it up. Very occasionally we’ll find that we need to add a component to safely do a job or provide the best experience for the client. If we lose money doing the job right but the client is happy, we are also happy.

How can we make your event perfect?

We specialize in delivering perfection, even with difficult or unusual requests. If you were told that a certain service couldn’t be done, give us a call. We imagine new ways to provide solutions that used to require significant expense or unsafe methods. Clients and venues often say to us, “Nobody ever did that here before!”

It pays to know people. If there’s a task we can’t handle, chances are we know someone who can. Our network of event partners spans numerous industries, hundreds of people, and multiple states.

Let us handle the complex or technical aspects of your event, so you can concentrate on other details. Tell us what you want to happen, and we’ll transform your vision into reality. Our promise is “Event Perfection” and we won’t stop until we achieve it.