Richmond Weddings just released this amazing video from the Richmond Weddings Expo Fashion Show we provided production for back in July. If you’re getting married in Richmond, you need to be familiar with these folks.
You can check out some photos of the show below!
All photos by Third Eye Studios:
Our beautiful high definition wedding chandelier gobo!
Uplighting gives the stage a great look.
We had a very eventful (pun intended) Memorial day weekend, with events all over Richmond. Among those was Aditi’s & Aditya’s engagement party, and we were lucky enough to work with the very talented Candace Morgan, who sent over some lovely photos. If you absolutely love what you see, you can check Candace out here.
Aditi wanted the rotunda to be a classy blue and gold, and the Science Museum of Virginia was a wonderful venue to accomplish such a look. We went with thin beamed wedding uplights to accent the museum’s neoclassical columns. The powerful LED uplights reached all the way up the fifty foot ceilings of the Science Museum and made the room look absolutely stunning.
Congratulations to Aditi & Aditya on a beautiful engagement party!
One of the best parts of working in entertainment is the wonderful people you get to meet. Every once in a while, we get to work with a group of truly special performers such as our friends in Heartracer. We put together a small ambient lighting setup for their most recent show at Hardywood Craft Brewery here in Richmond, Virginia. You can check out the awesome video by Dave O’Dell below.
You can find Heartracer on Soundcloud, Facebook, and on the web at Heartracerband.com.
To show the power of event lighting, we set up some of our most popular wedding lighting services in an abandoned basement. This helps to give a better idea of what wedding and event lighting can do to completely transform a room for your wedding reception, ceremony, or any event or party you have at all.
While all the individual pieces that make up the perfect wedding or event are equally important, lighting is the only one that can change how everything is perceived. Lighting can change the look and feel of the entire event, from the mood, to the color the place setting appear to be, make sure you have the right team handling your event. You can learn more by checking out our informational article on wedding and event lighting. Take your event lighting to the next level.
Check out a full display of our services here.
Local pop-punk legends Conditions reunited on the 5th anniversary of their album Florescent Youth. Richmond, Virginia locals that are familiar with the band might have attended their disbandment show at the National in Richmond in July of last year, where The Lighting & Sound Co. provided concert lighting, giving the band a proper send-off. We once again coordinated with Conditions, in association with Syke, on their anniversary show to provide a show four times as big.
Check out Brandon Hambright’s awesome photography at the Canal Club in Richmond, Virginia!
Photography by Brandon Hambright
Conditions custom concert lighting rig:
6 x Elation Platinum Beam 5R
4 x Chauvet Intimidator 350
6 x Elation Design Wash 60
2 x DTS Jack Spot
6 x ADJ MegaFlash
4 x Chauvet Slim Panel 24
2 x ColorTran 1000W Floods
2 x Chauvet Funfetti Confetti Cannons
1 x Chauvet Nimbus Low Fog Machine
1 x Look Solutions Unique 2.1 Hazer
ETC Ion 1000 Control Surface
20x Fader Wing
2 x 19″ ELO Touch Screen
Each August, DJ Times presents The DJ Expo at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Produced by DJ Times and its publisher Testa Communications since 1990, the Expo remains the DJ industry’s best-attended, most-successful trade show and convention. Lighting companies geared towards mobile DJs and consumers, such as American DJ and Blizzard Lighting, often have enormous booths made of truss and huge assortments of the newest lighting gear and tools. Walking into DJ Expo is a little bit of a surreal experience as you move the relative quiet of the hallway turns into what can only be described as organized chaos as you enter the show floor. The space is enormous, dimly lit, and very hazy. Every booth vies for your attention with loud electronic music and flashy light shows, and as with any expo, free stuff.
This was our first year at DJ Expo, but we were lucky enough to be accompanied by local DJs and seasoned veterans of DJ expo, Mike Beene and Eric Cunningham, who showed us around and introduced us to everyone. DJ Expo 25 was a great opportunity to network with pretty much everyone who is anyone in the DJ world, including Jim Tremayne, editor of DJ Times Magazine. That’s what DJ Expo is, now here’s what you need to know:
Blizzard Lighting
We spent a lot of our time looking at Blizzard Lighting’s booth, conveniently located at the front of the expo. This is great for them, as the only booth in front of theirs was audio electronics giant Pioneer. If you don’t know who Blizzard is, I don’t blame you, but maybe you should. Blizzard was started in 2010, so it has only been around for 5 years! Yet, they have a pretty tricked out product line of various movers, LEDs, and their aptly named Pixellicious, which is an awesome name. While Blizzard hasn’t been around long enough to establish an extensive reputation, they have a commitment to quality that is evident in their products.
The GLP U-Torm is a versatile and innovative trussing solution.
GLP’s U-Torm
The U-Torm is a flexible solution to hanging drop fixtures and finding tormentor positions, for lighting, projection, and other equipment in a completely modular solution from Cosmic Truss.
Comprised of lightweight modules and sections, the U-Torm allows endless configurations fro single fixtures, double hangs or ladders of multiple fixtures, either rigged or floor mounted.
The U-Torm is available in two standard sizes, but can be built upon and customized using the standard cosmic Truss F31 range of 2″ pipes, T-Sections, spigots and corner adaptors. These all fit seamlessly into the U-Torm allowing you to create hanging positions or structures in an unlimited variety of combinations. The U-Torm 50 is able to take a center point load of up to 110 lbs. / 50 kg, and if hung in a ladder configuration, it is possible to mount up to 10 units together. The brackets are available in a natural aluminum or black finish as standard, and other colors can be provided on request.
In the custom event industry, having a highly versatile and dependable support structure is very useful!
The Nimbus helps us to provide an affordable low fog solution for our clients.
Chauvet’s NIMBUS Pea Souper (Ground Fog)
Nimbus is a professional dry ice machine which produces thick, white fog that hugs the floor and dissipates without rising. This powerful machine heats enough water to create fog from 10 lb of dry ice to provide 6 minutes of run time. Output and flow are easily controlled, thanks to an adjustable multi-level control arm. Dual heaters allow for faster heat-up and recycle times. We saw a demo of Nimbus at the expo, and picked one up to add to our ability to create a custom atmosphere. We’ve often used an LSG fogger before to achieve this “ground fog” effect, but with the Nimbus, we can provide a more affordable option to our clients, with almost no drawbacks!
Wireless and light-weight, Chauvet’s new pin spots can hang from almost anything.
Chauvet EZpin IRC
EZpin IRC is a battery-powered LED pin spot, perfect for lighting centerpieces, cakes, and focal points. Its magnetic base affixes to most metal surfaces, eliminating the need for clamps, and the scissor clip with eye loop easily attaches to drop ceiling supports, for quick setup and cable management. Wireless on/off operation is available with the optional IRC-6 remote, and we can easily achieve multiple lighting looks with the included gel pack. With the ease of setup these new fixtures provide, we can cut down on setup time, allowing us to offer more affordable wedding pricing for pin-spotting, which is a popular wedding lighting look.
The KLA12 is a powered 12″ line array that packs a punch
QSC KLA12 Powered Line Array
QSC’s incredible KLA12 line array speaker combines astounding power, amazing flexibility, and road-ready dependability in a surprisingly lightweight package that sounds absolutely stunning. The KLA12 is powered by a 500W x 500W module that provides plenty of clean, clear power to the 12″ LF driver and the 1.75″ HF compression driver. Ar-Q frequency optimization lets you tune the KLA12 to the array; in fact, you can adjust for the number of speakers in your array and get the most out of your KLA12.
This is another piece of gear we saw at DJ expo that we are adding to inventory. The size of the KLA12 makes it easy to transport and use at mid-size to large events. This line array can be used to create quality, affordable, and powerful sound solutions for weddings, corporate events, parties, concerts and more. The quality that comes behind a QSC product means we won’t have any issues with equipment failure.
DJ friend David Sporn will be doing a followup to this post shortly from a DJ’s perspective.
Looking for wedding lighting? Lighting up your special day? Here are some things about wedding lighting you should know:
Wedding entertainment is an extremely competitive business. Many couples are shopping around looking for the most affordable solution, while wedding vendors are providing crossover services that they are often unqualified to perform correctly. Uplighting is a fairly new addition in lighting weddings, but since early 2000, it’s been one of the fastest growing services offered by production companies.
Uplighting has been becoming increasingly popular since 2006. Graph courtesy of Google Trends.
With LED technology becoming more affordable and more widely available, companies are able to offer lighting services which greatly improve the overall look of a wedding or reception. We compiled this list to help brides and grooms avoid common mistakes, and become more aware of what is available to take their weddings to the next level. This list is in no particular order.
1. What the heck is a gobo?
A gobo is a template — made of glass or steel — that is inserted into a lighting fixture to obtain a projected image. Steel gobos are typically more cost effective, while glass gobos yield a higher quality image. Some common applications of gobos include:
- Monogram names of bride and groom projected on dancefloor at wedding
- Sponsor company logos projected at event
- Logo/Brand projected in retail shop / gallery
- Logo projected at entrance of hotel / restaurant
- Pattern gobos used on walls, floor, ceiling to create textured look (as pictured above)
Today, a monogram gobo at a wedding is practically required, and is usually most recommended by photographers, who love having shots of the bride and groom with the monogram in the back.
2. Be careful using businesses that offer wedding lighting as a secondary service.
Many mobile DJs and tenting companies also offer services such as uplighting, but it’s usually best to avoid such companies for lighting services. You wouldn’t want your DJ bringing in your catering, and in much the same way, you probably don’t want them doing your lighting either. While a tenting company may be able to offer you a great price on LED uplights that they purchased at Guitar Center, professional lighting companies are more likely to have the best, most powerful, (and most reliable) equipment on the market. Professional wedding lighting companies will also have a lot more knowledge about lighting, color theory, power consumption, and are going to be able to do far more than just uplighting.
3. Wired vs. Wireless LEDs and how they impact your wedding lighting.
We often find that brides and grooms are misled by companies into thinking wireless solutions are the only way to go. Be wary of companies that claim to only use battery powered LEDs and use phrases such as “no messy wires.” The truth is, any professional production company should be able to offer both solutions. Many times, wireless LEDs are required for areas that it’s impossible to get power to, but wireless LEDs run on batteries with lives of 4 – 8 hours, and this number decreases over time as the battery wears out. Wired LEDs are far more powerful, i.e. all of the ambient lights don’t have to be off in order to see the beam and color. Wireless LEDs are great time-savers, and can be extremely useful, but good lighting companies know how to hide all wires out of sight anyway, so make sure you go wireless for the right reasons!
When it comes to lighting, there are thousands of magical possibilities for you to choose from.
4. Wash vs. Beam: What’s the difference?
If you’ve been in the market for wedding lighting for a bit, you might have heard these terms tossed around. The difference is pretty simple: a beam light will be more like a straight column of light, while a wash will have more spread. The important thing to note is that LED lights come in all shapes and sizes, and the thing that distinguishes the width of the beam is the beam angle on each particular fixture. There is no rule as to what looks best, but you should be asking your vendor questions about the options they have available for you.
Make sure that you have options to choose from, and don’t corner yourself into using a look that you’re not in love with.
Bistro lighting can add a beautiful classic look.
5. Is Bistro Lighting for bistros?
Also known as festoon lighting, bistro lighting is strings of evenly spaced miniature light bulbs. Bistro has become incredibly popular as wedding lighting, and is great in conjunction with uplighting; with both, there is a nice color wash, but also a classy incandescent ambient look. The important thing to know about bistro lights is that they can be a safety hazard if installed by the wrong company. Make sure your lighting vendor is using properly rigged aircraft cable (very strong, thin, cable) for runs over 20 feet. Anything more than a 20 foot run begins to get very heavy, and all of the weight is held up by the thin electrical cable that is powering the lights. The last thing you want on your special day is string lights falling onto your guests from improperly rigged lighting.
If it looks unsafe, it probably is, and safety should always be the primary concern.
6. Waterproof Lighting
If you’re expecting to have lighting outside, don’t hire any company that can’t provide you with waterproof lighting. The technical term for equipment rated for outdoor use is “IP 65.” Nobody wants it to rain on their wedding day, but sometimes, bad weather cannot be avoided. Make sure your event isn’t left in the dark while your lighting vendor scrambles to collect all their equipment to avoid damage.
IP65 LEDs are rugged, sealed, and can stand up to most any type of weather. Photo courtesy of Chauvet.
7. RGB vs. RGBW (got hue?)
We’ve been throwing a lot of acronyms around, but this is one that you may be familiar with. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. LEDs use these three colors of light in order to mix to millions of different colors. Until recently, we were limited to using Red, Green, and Blue, but with newer technology comes more versatility. RGB LEDs work fine to mix to many colors, but doesn’t have a lot of control over hue.
Achievable color spectrum with RGB LEDs.
The addition of white LEDs gives far more color control, and makes achieving brilliant pastels a viable option. The white LEDs also help to bridge the spectrum gap between colors, making a far larger variety of colors possible.
White LEDs make a wider selection of color options possible.
That’s a brief primer on the world of wedding lighting. If you have any questions related to wedding lighting, feel free to give us a call! Ready to start planning lighting for your wedding? Click here to get started! The Lighting & Sound Company is located in Richmond, Virginia, and provides lighting support all over the east coast.
April 30th, 2015
Thursday, we rolled out to Sweet Briar, Virginia to provide lighting and sound for the Sweet Tone’s final concert. The Sweet Tones are a talented a cappella group from Sweet Briar College, and sadly, due to the school closing after this semester, this was their last show. We were honored to be able to provide a memorable last show to these ladies, and really enjoyed working with them to make this show happen.
The Lighting and Sound Co. provides lighting, sound, and video for corporate events, weddings, meetings, parties, and many other events, but this was the first rig we’ve setup in a library. The event took place in Sweet Briar College’s Kitty Corbett reading room, and with our LED concert rig we were able to power the entire show off 40 amps, while still making the show pack a punch.
The Sweet Tones performed everything from their school song to “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift.
The Sweet Tones drew quite a crowd, and put on a great show. We send our sympathy and best wishes to everyone with ties to the school during these tough times, and we hope that we were able to help memorialize an event so important to these girls.
The entire rig was able to operate off of 40 amps.
The Rig:
12 x Elation Design Wash 60s
8 x Chauvet Colorado LED
4 x Intimidator 350 LED
1 x Look Solutions Unique 2.1 Hazer
ETC Ion
2 x 10 Fader Wing
ELO 19″ Touch screen
40′ 12″ Box Truss
4 x Applied Electronics L16
We created a club-style light show for Pierce Fulton for his show at El Gran Tucanazo in Richmond, Virginia. While club lighting isn’t our main focus as a business, Richmond is such a small town that it’s hard to avoid having an install in at least one club.
Opening acts warming up the crowd for Pierce Fulton, Richmond, VA
Pierce made his first real breakthrough at the age of 18 with his first 3 track EP titled “Pardon My French”. You may have seen the “making of” video where some pretty unconventional sounds were sampled and definitely turned some heads. With breakout singles including Where We Were, Runaway, Old Man & The Sea and most recently Kuaga as well as official remixes for artists ranging from The Killers to Above & Beyond, his style continues to evolve and love of experimentations doesn’t diminish. You may have also heard his downtempo and experimental productions such as 10/6 (That Should Do It), West Egg, As You Were, his remix for Mutemath and more recently his live version of Kuaga.
Now 22 years old and based in Brooklyn, Pierce is still subject to the habits of his youth; bouncing between genres and instruments while simultaneously bringing all of these influences into the dance music he’s known for. When he isn’t out on the road, playing shows around the world, not too much has changed about those quiet, cozy nights spent in the studio.
When setting up club lighting acts like this one, low budgets are more common than not, so we try our best to accommodate low budget shows by using the most cost-effective solution, while still putting on a high quality show.
The Rig:
4 x Platinum Beam 5R
2 x Shinp 4co Lasers
2 x Mega Strobes
4 x ADJ LED Wash
5 x ADJ Profile
ETC Ion
2 x 10 Fader Wing
ELO 19″ Touch screen
Crowd from above
