Theater / Studio

LQE places a high value on the customer experience. We combine years of installation experience in entertainment lighting and architectural environment lighting to provide a set of creative solutions based on the flexibility and diversity of needs in theatres, studios, bars, and other similar usage scenarios.

Since its establishment in 2008, LQE has cooperated with theaters, TV studios, and multi-functional conference hall projects of various sizes around the world, with more than 150 successful cases of cooperation.

Each venue has its main purpose. We will communicate with the lighting buyers on several key issues to let them know or guide them to clearly understand their purchasing needs. Our team can then provide at least 2 sets of stage lighting to choose from. Configuring solutions to choose from saves you decision-making time and helps you save money. All you need to do is take a multiple choice question.

Theater lighting is special since it is one of the most deliberate sorts of lighting. Lighting designers in Theater Arts must work with other departments to bring the director’s and, ultimately, the playwright’s vision for the performance to life. Every lighting decision in theater should be chosen through the lens of the entire script and how that moment should feel in relation to the rest of the play. One of the things I like about theater is that there’s really no wrong way to do things, as long as they’re safe.

Ellipsoids can be used for theatrical lighting. You could use pars for illumination. You can try Fresnel illumination. You can utilize LED illumination. You can utilize ordinary illumination. You get the point – as long as you maintain the show’s visual vitality and push it even farther with lighting, no light source is off limits! Knowing and comprehending how to use lighting in a dramatic way is not limited to theater. So even if you don’t consider yourself a “theatrical” person, you’ll find something here.

Step 1: Understanding the Nature of the Performance

Before you dive into any technical planning, assess the nature of the performance you’re working on. Are you creating lighting for an upbeat musical, a theatrical drama, a concert or dance performance? Different types of performances have different needs. Musicals and concerts might require vibrant, changing lights that sync with the music. In contrast, dramatic plays may need subtle, nuanced lighting to highlight moments of tension and release. All these factors influence the equipment you need, the number of lights, and how you set your scenes up. So, start by understanding the essence of the performance. Take the time to visualize what you want your audience to feel in every moment and how lighting can contribute to achieving that emotion.

Step 2: Read the Script and Meet with the Director/Performance Team

Now that you have a broad understanding of the performance, dive deeper. Begin by thoroughly reading the script – if there is one. Take note of segments that stand out or places where you think unique lighting could accentuate the story. Lighting is more than visibility; it’s a tool of story-telling. Set up meetings with the director or the overall production team. These meetings will help you understand their vision for the play better. Discuss different scenes and what the director wants to achieve. The director may have unique insights or ideas on how to use light that you may not have thought about. Remember, you’re not operating in a silo. Stage lighting design is a collaborative process. Don’t hesitate to share your ideas and get feedback from the director, the set designer, and even the costume designer. All these elements need to work in harmony on the stage.

Step 3: Detailing

Having gathered requisite insights, it’s time to start making more detailed plans. Begin with deciding the types of lights and their positioning for each scene. You might need to use different lights, like Floodlights for a broad wash of light, or Spotlights to focus on a particular performer or set piece.

Work out the colors for each scene, keeping in mind what you want to heighten – an emotional facet, a plot point, or the period in which the performance is set (For example, warmer hues might serve for a play set in the past). Prepare a cue sheet – a detailed outline of when specific lighting changes occur.

Step 4: Creating a Lighting Plot

A lighting plot is the schematic representation of your lighting plan. It is a blueprint that shows clarifies where each light goes. Each symbol on your plot corresponds to a piece of lighting equipment. Other details on this plot include the type of light (for example: Fresnel, Ellipsoidal, etc.), its purpose, which areas it illuminates, and its color. Professionals like the master electrician will use this plot when installing and focusing the lights.

Step 5: Lighting Check

Before the actual performance, ensure you perform thorough lighting checks. Check each light to verify if it’s functioning as desired. Ensure it’s in the appropriate location, illuminating the needed areas, and the color gel (if used) matches your plan.

The Lighting check is both a technical and creative process. It’s the time to calibrate your design with actual stage conditions. During this process, you might find that you need slight adjustments from the plotted design. Embrace these revisions as they take you closer to a perfect design.

Remember, each step is interconnected, and thoughtfully executing each one helps create a lighting experience that contributes meaningfully to the performance’s overall impact.

(photo from LQE project)

What are some key elements to consider when creating a lighting plot for a stage production?
Creating a lighting plot requires careful consideration of several key elements to ensure a successful and effective lighting design. Here are some important factors you should factor in:

• The Stage Layout and Structure: Understanding the physical characteristics and dimensions of the stage is crucial. It includes the positions of set pieces, props, and where actors will be during each scene.
• The Script: Your lighting design should align perfectly with the different scenes, times of day, and emotions communicated in the script.
• Types of Lights: Utilize different types of lights such as spotlights, floodlights, LED lights, moving lights, etc., depending on the scene’s requirements.
• Position and Angle of Lights: Where the lights are placed, the angles at which they are hung, and the direction they’re pointed can significantly alter the mood.
• Colors: Color selection in lighting can greatly affect the audience’s perception of a scene.
• Intensity of lights: Determine how bright or dim a light should be at certain points or scenes.
• Cues: These are pre-determined triggers during the performance for changes in lighting. It’s essential to synchronize these cues correctly with the script and other technical elements.

Finally, remember to continuously collaborate with the director, the set designer, and the costume designer to ensure all artistic elements work in unison on the stage. Depending on their functions and uses, lights in the theater can be divided into various categories. Here are some of the key types:

(photo from LQE project)

1. Front Light

It’s used to evenly light the actors and remove shadows that side lights cause. It plays a vital role in making actors clearly visible to the audience. Installation at the top of the auditorium outside the stage curtain. The light is projected into the performance area in front of the stage from the front, and the lamp position that illuminates the actor’s face is a surface light. Lighting rules are generally divided into parallel projection or left and right cross projection.

It can achieve universal brightness and eliminate “dead spots” that are easy to occur in the picture. It can also adjust the light ratio and increase or decrease the contrast to achieve a balanced effect and avoid local underexposure. However, if this kind of light is not used in conjunction with other light levels, the tone will have no brightness level and 3D, making it look dull. Therefore, it can only be used as basic lighting and basic tone, and does not play a major role on the stage. Cannot be used as a key light and sculptural image tool.

Ellipsoidal, Spotlights: These can be used as Front lighting due to their ability to project hard-edged, focused light from a long distance. They’re ideal for spotlighting, since they can make the actor visible with quality CRI, flicker free, when recording video clips and taking photos.

Ellipsoidal

• EL400Z (400W,RGBWAL 6in1 COB source, 19°- 42°)
• EL200Z (200W, COB source, 19°- 42°)

Nowadays, more and more designers like to use moving head profile to be a front light, because its flexible shape and fast control by DMX, and long distance cover.

Moving head framing

• LX1000P (1000 LED engine)
• LX900P (800 LED engine)
• LX800P (800 LED engine)

(photo from LQE project)

1. Low side front light

The lights set at the front of the second floor of the auditorium can increase the overall brightness of the front of the stage. Floodlights can illuminate the stage and the auditorium close to the stage. This light can provide television broadcasts and conference news reports. Auxiliary lighting, light is projected into the stage performance area from both sides and the low front, supplementing the front light.

Small theaters, religious sites, and church scenes can also use two-color high CRI Par cans, such as LQE’s OD504Z, which is a covering distance of 15-30m, with zoom (15-50°), IP65, two-color par can can, to reduce your front light usage cost, but the effect will exceed your expectations.

One of the most widely used lighting fixtures on the stage today. It is mainly used for large-area lighting, back lighting, and top lighting of the stage. It is especially suitable for small stages, multi-functional halls, hotel banquet halls, concert halls and other noble places that require high-quality lighting. Occasionally, it is a low-noise light dedicated to the concert hall.

The multi-mirror transparent infrared cold light cup allows the heat of the light source to dissipate from the rear of the light, minimizing the temperature of visible light. This provides sufficient intensity of lighting and also avoids the discomfort of stage performers or leaders due to the temperature rise of the lamp! At the same time, avoid the damage caused by ultraviolet rays to human skin.

Spotlight

• SL400Z ( 350W COB，10° -40°)
• SL200 ( 200W COB)

Follow spot

• FS1000 (1000w LED)
• FS1600 (1600w LED)

2. Top Light

These lights are positioned directly above the stage. They create dramatic emphases or particular effects like mimicking natural sunlight.

PAR Can Lights: Parabolic Aluminized Reflector lights are often used for down light to create a direct beam of light coming from above, creating the feel of natural sunlight.

Top light projects vertical light from top to bottom, which is not suitable for photographing people. This kind of light position, such as using astigmatism lamps and adding soft light paper or gauze, becomes soft light and provides general illumination to the scenery. It can be used as a base light. It can give uniform illumination to scenery, props, and the ground, and can appropriately weaken or eliminate messy shadows caused by light from other light positions.

The LQE panel soft light uses high-quality anodized orange peel mirror aluminum plate as the reflector, which has the characteristics of high reflectivity, high illumination and reasonable spot illumination distribution. It is widely used for lighting and coloring in TV studios, film shootings, and stage curtains, ground curtains, soft scenes, and hard scenes. It is also suitable for conference system lighting.

Soft panel light: PL1500(RGB 3in1), PL601 ( Dual colors)

Depending on the needs of theaters, TV studios, you can also choose moving-head wash lights and Par cans as top lights.

Moving Wash

• LW1000 (1000W RGBW 6140W)
• LW800 (800W RGBW 3740W)
• LW600 (600W RGBW 1940W)
• LW500 (500W RGBW 760W)

Par Can

• OD1910 (200W RGBW 19*10W)

3. Back Light

Back lights are positioned behind actors and help separate them from the background, creating a distinctive edge light and depth on the stage Lighting behind an actor is back lighting, with the beam falling on the actor’s head and shoulders, creating a halo-like effect that makes the actor stand out from his background. (The full name of the light opposite to the audience’s position is backlight, at an angle of 180°.

This kind of light is often used to express the silhouette effect of objects or characters. The general use of backlight is to outline contour lines to separate the subject or character from the background. Isolated to create a sense of spatial depth, the picture effect does not appear dull and has a vibrant feeling. The most common type of backlight is a wash light.

There are several different sizes of PARS that you could choose from as well as wash lights and even moving wash lights. PARS and wash lights work well for back lights because they give off a nice, soft light. Although Top light and backlight have different functions, the lights fixture they use also have many similar parts. Please refer to the list of top lighting equipment above.

4. Side Light

Lighting from the sides is mainly used to emphasize and reveal the three-dimensional form of the object or performer. It forms a lighting effect on the front side and produces a stiffer shaping effect. If it is properly matched with the light ratio of the dark part, it can achieve a rich and powerful modeling effect.

5. Ground side light

Commonly known as flowing light, it is a kind of motorized light on the stage. It is usually placed on both sides of the stage and used in conjunction with the overpass side light or used alone as a modeling light. The light utilization rate is very high and the modeling ability is very strong.

The position of the Ground side light and the angle of the actors form a 90° when viewed from the audience’s position. This kind of light highlights the surface structure of objects, creating an effect of half light and dark on objects and characters’ faces. The projected light has a strong 3D shape, giving people a feeling of perseverance and power. Normally, it no need high power fixture.

Fresnel Spotlights: Fresnels can be an excellent choice for side lighting as they provide a soft, even pool of light.

Par Can

• Moving Wash

5. Foot Light

These are placed at the foot of the stage and cast an upward glow to soften or eliminate shadows created by overhead lighting. A strip light is installed on the lip of the stage outside the big curtain. The light is projected upward from the table onto the actor’s face or the light at the bottom of the big curtain after lighting is closed is the foot light. Generally, strip floodlights or low-angle spotlights are used.

The role of contemporary stage footlights is not only to simply illuminate the performance, but also to compensate for the shadows on the actors’ faces caused by the steep front light when moving to the front of the stage, helping to weaken or eliminate them; in opera and dance performances, footlights can be used to illuminate the lower half of the actors. It is helpful for the costumes and dance postures of the characters.

Opera performances still widely use footlights to increase the brightness of the stage and make the actors’ makeup and costumes more distinctive. The flat paintings or curtain decorations hanging above the performance area can also be projected from the bottom up using the proscenium foot light (concentrated light or diffuse light); the proscenium foot light is usually used as a large curtain lighting effect and has a good effect.

• OD168 (LED BAR, 16*8W, Seamless splicing)
• OD2800(LED Bar, 400W, Seamless splicing)

6. Key Light

The primary source of illumination, often a spotlight, acts as “key light” and is typically positioned to represent light from the sun or the main artificial light source in a scene.
·Follow spots: These high-intensity lights are excellent to use as a key light since they can highlight a specific performer.

It has the functions of variable aperture size, color, light and dark, virtual and real, etc. It can enhance the lighting brightness while moving with the actors during the performance, improve the audience’s attention, and realize partial lighting of the actor’s half body, whole body, long distance and small range. Sometimes, light chasing can also be used to express abstract and illusory stage plots.

The light follow position can be set at the front and both sides of the second floor of the auditorium. It can also be placed at the sides and rear of the stage performance area where the shape requires it. It can also be set at a surface light on the top ceiling of the auditorium and behind the auditorium. A closed special light-chasing room set up by the Ministry of Education.

• Discharge HID 380W FS440
• LED 1000W (CRI filter Ra≥92, 50-100m) FS1000
• LED 1600W (Ra≥95, 50-100m) FS1600 

7. Fill Light

They “fill” in the shadows cast by the key light. Fill lights are typically softer and less intense than key lights.

Cyclorama Lights (Cyc Lights): These are wide lights placed above or below the stage to fill in shadows.

Cyc light sky

To illuminate the canopy from top to bottom, several sets of high-power floodlights are usually installed on the boom. Some have a fixed configuration of several colors suitable for the sky (such as dark blue, turquoise blue, green, light blue, purple, etc.), and some choose colors according to the needs of the play. In large and medium-sized theaters, some ceiling lights are in the form of a suspension bridge. The bridge is equipped with a large number of floodlights. At the same time, the suspension bridge is also equipped with projection slides and special effects lights. The lamps are combined with strip lamps or single lamps, which can be installed in one or two rows. The rows can also be divided into upper and lower layers. The lighting requirements are flat and uniform, and they are specially used for overhead lighting of sky scenes.

Cyc light floor

Lamps placed on the front of the canopy or in a specially designed trench to illuminate the canopy upward can be used to express the horizon, horizontal lines, sunset, etc., and are usually used in conjunction with sky row lights to make the color changes richer.

8. Effect Light

These are used to create effects like storms, fires, or to project scenery or logos. In recent years, moving lights have popularly been used for special effects.

• Intelligent Lighting: These include moving heads and scanners. They are often used for effect lighting as they have the versatility of movement and color-mixing abilities.

Effect

• Moving Beam: LB480, LB380
• Moving BSW: LS400S, LS300S, HYB380S
• Moving BSWF: LX1000P, LX900P, LX800P
• Strobe: ST1080, OD2800(Bar)

9. Flow light

Installation location: The lighting fixtures that move at any time are located on the side curtains of the stage to enhance the atmosphere. Their angles can be temporarily adjusted. The lamp is about 2m high and generally has high power. Shine the actor from the side, like sunlight.

A certain number of sockets need to be installed on both sides of the stage near the curtains, installed in the stage floor, and covered. Use spotlights, soft lights, etc Remember, the same light type can often serve different functions depending on its placement, filter, and intensity control, Each of these lighting types has a vital role to play in creating, enhancing, and shaping a stage production’s visual experience. They work together to transform and bring to life the director’s vision.