Here’s what I have to work with - I am the director of an am-dram (community theatre) show in April. 200 seats, to give an idea of scale. The setting is a 1960’s English seaside town, which makes me think of rows of chaser lights. In 1960 of course these would have been rows of incandescent coloured lights controlled by relays or if you were super high-tech, germanium transistors (?).
Incandescent bulbs are hot, inefficient and coloured ones are harder to get hold of these days, so I’m thinking LEDs. Mains powered domestic lights would do, could be ganged up in say 4 sets and then allowed to simple chase patterns. Arduino + Relays maybe. Some lighting filter plastic would provide fixed colour. But the cost of bulbs and holders does mount up, as does the time to attach and wire them up. And I rather like using low voltage if I can.
If I used addressable RGBs, the wiring could be simpler. I could be clever and use different chase patterns and animations. And use less power. And easier wiring. The lighting isn’t just simple chase lighting but mood setting (wearing my director’s hat) so I can control the patterns on the board. Wearing my technical hat, of course, I can see that pre-built WS2818 and WS2811 strings probably won’t have a big enough impact. I don’t need to compete with all the stage lighting - it can be effective when the stage is dimmed for example, but I don’t want people having to squint and ask what the sparkly things are or it’s a wasted opportunity.
If I have to spend multiple hundreds of eurodollarpounds, it’s out of budget, and I guess I won’t be able to get enough brightness in addressable LEDs. After all, someone has to pay to hire the hall, and clothe the actors… It’s not a stadium prog rock concert.
I could forego the colour changes, and look for a solution based on COB white LEDs and coloured filters, I guess, but the wiring gets tiresome when you want to do chaser effects. Maybe the type used to illuminate stair runs or caravan interiors. I certainly don’t need colour changing for historical accuracy, but then again who says theatre needs to be accurate?
A Non-LED option is to use automotive lights like the 21W/5W which are still availble in bulk here n the UK because generic LED replacements are not yet legally authorised. But pretty hot, fragile glass, and so on.
Ideas appreciated, but anyone is going to post that my requirements and budget can’t be resolved, it won’t be a total shock.