Gobo Projector Rental, Gobo Design, Rent DIY Lighting

No dance floor? No problem! Define the dance floor with dynamic texture lighting. Two texture projectors on either side of the dance floor create the space for guests to dance.

Not every venue has a defined dance floor area. Instead of bringing in a dance floor, create one using texture lighting for a fraction of the cost. Texture lighting is an effective way to create a dynamic dance floor experience.

Create the Dancefloor, Texture Lighting

One of our favorite ways of personalizing the dance floor is by using a design the couple is featuring in other aspects of their decor and creating texture lighting. In this case it was a design from the wedding couples invitations.

We helped shape the vine design into a form that would define their dance floor on a large open space they wanted to use for dancing. It not only looks good for photos but also adds some additional lighting that helps your photos turn out better.

Types of Lighting Used

This wedding also features wireless uplighting around the walls of the room in amber with pops of purple. Using pops of color at the entryway, around the stage area, and other focal areas in the space help define areas in the room and pull together linens and other elements of the wedding decor together.

White christmas string lighting around each of the archways that was already in the venue. The venue also has chandeliers on dimmers higher up in the ceiling that provide some ambient light in the room.

Cake spotlights illuminate the wedding cake so it can be enjoyed by all of your guests.

Pin-spot lighting highlights the taller centerpieces on each of the tables. Without pin-spot lighting centerpieces can appear dark, dull and drab when incorporating other lighting into your wedding.

Lighting on the cake in the form of a cake spotlight helps make the cake pop so that you can feature a beautiful design element that’s often forgotten.

Incorporating multiple lighting elements into an event creates a complete look that helps create the perfect place to have a celebration.

Venue: St. Francis Hall – Washington, DC
Catering: Main Event Caterers – Arlington, VA

Example of a blacklight mounted to a tripod light stand

Do I need a light stand for my light?

It depends on how you’ll be using your light and the space, different options are available for mounting and setting up your lights.

Think about light stands if:

• You expect 100 or more guests at your event
• Want to get the most effect out of your light rental
• You want the easiest setup

Generally it’s a good idea to get a light stand.

Below are the stand and mounting options we offer and what’s recommend based on the light and your space.

Types of Light Stands and Mounting Options

Tripod Light Stand (most popular)

Compact, three leg stands extend upwards of 8-10ft, foot print of 3ft in diameter. We match each stand to the light being shipped so it’s a perfect fit. Plenty of room to project above your guests.

Super clamps attach to anything 2in in diameter or less.

Recommended for:

• Gobo lights
• Texture lights
• Monogram Lights
• Bliss lights
• Black lights
• Cake and table washes

Super Clamp

Attach light fixtures to anything 2in in diameter or less. Existing light stands, speaker stands, pull up bars, volleyball posts, basketball hoops, truss, deck, railings, chain link fence, etc. Offers a lower cost option to mount lights using elements you already have.

Drop ceiling clamps attach to the strips in between tiles in a drop ceiling. Good for lightweight light fixtures.

Recommended for:

• Gobo lights
• Texture lights
• Monogram Lights
• Bliss lights
• Black lights
• Cake and table washes
• Pin-spots

Drop Ceiling Clamp

Clamps clip onto existing drop ceilings and allow mounting of lightweight light fixtures. Improper mounting can result in damage to the ceiling or serious injury to guests.

Recommended for:

• Cake and table washes
• Video lights
• Cake spots
• Pin-spots

Air wall clamps attach to the air wall track available in some venues.

Air Wall Track Clamp

Clamps attach to air wall track in hotel ballrooms. These allow for advanced hanging and configurations. Recommended only for event professionals.

Recommended for:

• Any of our rental lights

Why would I need a light stand, don’t the rental lights already have a built in stand? 

A light stand elevates the lighting fixture so you can project light exactly where you want it. Stands are most helpful for:

• Increasing the effectiveness of the light by projecting down on guests
• Raising the light effect so it doesn’t project in guests eyes
• Clearing guests heads so they don’t create shadows or block a projection
• Keeping curious guests from “adjusting” your light during the event
• Create more useable space in the room
• Getting the light to the optimal angle for projecting the best effect

Think of your rental light like a flashlight, wherever you aim it light will appear. If something walks in front of the light it will block the effect.

Tripod light stands increase the effectiveness of the lighting effect.

All of our lights have basic built in bases. These can be put on sturdy flat surfaces and allow minimal movement adjusting the light fixture. If you have area(s) where you can place the light out of the way of guests or don’t mind guests walking in front of the light, the built in stand may be a good fit.

Lights that may work well with the built in stand:

• Blisslights (aimed up at ceiling)
• Blacklights (less than 100 people)
• Cake Spotlights

We always recommend a stand for gobo/monogram lights, if you don’t elevate the light people will walk in front and block the projection.

Bottom Line on Light Stands

You know your event and the event space best. Make sure you have a place to mount or set the rental lights that is out of the way of guests and people walking in front of them.  This will allow you to achieve the best lighting effect possible.

Cheerleaders leading a cheer at a high school glow pep rally.

A glow pep rally is a great way to boost school spirit for homecoming, football and basketball games. Using blacklights for a pep rally is an inexpensive way to transform an entire school gym, football field or cafeteria into an entirely different and cool space. Most of the decorations (neon clothes) and glow items are brought in by the students on the day of the event so a glow pep rally can be very cost effective.

Most single, full court school gyms are at least 120ft long x 60ft wide with 16ft – 24ft high ceilings. That is a large amount of space to fill with glow light so you need to get lights that are designed to fill the entire gym with blacklight.

Types of Blacklights

Short Throw: These blacklights are designed to throw the light a short distance. Perfect for living rooms, bedrooms, these lights are designed to be cheap and fill a small space with blacklight. These lights may look like fluorescent overhead lights or lights that fit into a standard lamp socket. These lights will not help you light your gym.

Long Throw: Designed to throw blacklight a long distance and cover a huge amount of space with blacklight, long throw lights are designed to bathe and saturate large spaces with blacklight. These lights are expensive and come in a variety of configurations. For a high school pep rally you want to go with a LED based long throw light fixture. These lights are durable, stay cool, easy to use, and provide some visible purple light which is what you want for a pep rally.

We rent the highest powered, lowest cost per watt, long throw, LED blacklights available designed for glow pep rallies.

High school glow pep rally with students and glow sticks getting ready for homecoming.

How Many Lights Do We Need?

The way your pep rally is configured and how many students you’ll have will tell us how many lights you need. Not all blacklights are created equal, we’ve calculated all of the numbers below specifically using our high power blacklight rental lights.

Here are a few sample configurations that are the most common.

1. Students on both sides of the basketball court sitting in the bleachers: You’ll need at least 4 blacklights put in each of the corners of the gym aiming across the gym to the other side. If you have a lot of activity in the middle of the court or have more than 800 students we suggest putting an extra one to two lights at the ends aiming towards the middle.  (4-6 blacklights)

2. Students on one side of the basketball court sitting in the bleachers: You’ll need at least 2 blacklights for under 300 students, 3 blacklights for 600 students, 4 blacklights for 1000 students, 6 blacklights for 1500 students. We’d also suggest for large areas of the basketball court an additional one or two blacklights to light up  the performers. (2-6 blacklights)

3. Half size gyms, smaller gyms and spaces: Generally you want at least 2 blacklights to light up a smaller gym space in opposite corners facing where you want backlight. Generally we recommend an additional blacklight to light up the court area where performers are as well. (2-3 blacklights)

4. Football field pep rally: For football fields think about how many people you will have and how much space they will fill. A blacklight generally will cover a 60ft x 60ft area. If you have people in the stands half the space of a football field (50yds = 150ft) centered on the 50 yd line going up in the stands 80ft you’d need 5-6 lights to cover the stands and an additional 2 blacklights to cover performers on the track / field. If you have performers covering more of the field you’d need more blacklights to cover them. For best results you’ll want to be able to turn off the field lights. (5-10 blacklights)

Blacklights enhance glow bracelets and any other item that is blacklight responsive.

Glow Items for Blacklight Pep Rally

There are a lot of various glow items that are perfect for a glow pep rally. Some items that are the most popular are:

Glow Tape: Fluorescent gaffers tape is an excellent and inexpensive way to outline times in the gym or create designs with tape that will glow with blacklight. It comes off easily, is safe for painted surfaces, and won’t leave  sticky residue.

Glow Balloons: Using standard helium with glow balloons is an easy way to create displays and pops of fluorescent color in the stands.

Glow Makeup: Glow makeup is easy to apply and comes in mascara, lipstick, eyeliner, nail polish and will illuminate performers and cheerleaders really well.

Fluorescent Clothes: T-Shirts, hats, socks, gloves, glasses, shoes, can all look amazing on students. White shirts work really well too and can be drawn on with regular highlighters.

Glow Necklaces and Sticks: Glow necklaces and glow sticks that glow on their own are amplified to glow even more with blacklight. They work really well together.

Throw a Glow Pep Rally

Throwing a glow pep rally is easy and all you need to do is rent the blacklights. Check availability and throw a glow pep rally for your school!

Regan building wedding lighting with wireless uplights.

Two toned uplighting can create a romantic, elegant and dramatic looks for weddings. When lighting a large space and covering unsightly room features, drape and uplights  go a really long way. Not only will the drape hide the elements you don’t want to see, drapes provide an excellent backdrop to for the uplights that will bring in warmth, color, and added light levels.

The Reagan Building in Washington, DC is a large space with soaring ceilings creating a really grand feel. The large glass ceiling provides light during the day but at night lighting is always an issue because of the large space and lack of flattering light. Offices flank either side of the main area used for weddings so large fabric sheer panels are the perfect way to hide those offices.

Use two color uplighting on tall columns and drape to create an elegant and dramatic uplighting effect.

Power is always an issue in large spaces like the Reagan building and our rental battery powered uplighting is the perfect solution. For the entire space we used 150 of our battery powered uplights to provide ambient light to the entire space.

Going with a two toned uplighting scheme reimagines the existing architectural elements into something more suited for an elegant and romantic wedding feel. The client wanted to reinforce the feeling of candlelight so we were able to use pops of amber on the second level to create the feeling of a flame that went with the candles used throughout the space.

Elegant and romantic wedding lighting at the Reagan Building with uplights, fabric drapes, pin-spots, dance floor lighting.

When presented with two levels like the Reagan Building, you need to use lights at the bottom and at the transition point between the two levels. This helps continue the lighting up and create a seamless look that would otherwise be interrupted by the physical separation between the lower level and the upper level.

You can achieve this look on your own with our rental lighting and our experts have over 20 years of event lighting experience to help guide you through in creating the perfect look for your event.

Venue: Reagan Building – Washington, DC
Lighting: Superlative Events
Decor & Flowers: Imperial Decor
Drape: Davincis Florist

Damask lighting on the wall with blue uplighting and pin-spots on the centerpieces.

Damask texture lighting on the walls help give a large space a touch of elegance for a wedding. It also helps cover up two large ugly cork boards that are located at the end of the room. Texture lighting helps cover up unsightly room features easily.

Blue wireless uplighting around the room helps give color and pull the decor items of the wedding together.

Pin-spots on the tables are the finishing touch making each of the centerpieces pop and bringing light to each of the guests tables. Using pin-spots with uplights is a great combination and brightens the center of the room for photos where the guests are.

Venue: Masonic Temple – Alexandria, VA

Cake spotlight package of 3 pin-spots illuminate the cake evenly. Purple uplighting in the background pulls the purple decor elements together.

This photo features a cake spotlight and purple uplight in the background. Our cake spotlight packages are a combination of 3 battery powered pin-spot lights that illuminate the cake from all sides. This ensures that the cake looks evenly lit and pops as a focal point at the event.

Pink and white uplighting creates a soft elegant look.

Valentines day is this week and there is still time to create the perfect mood with our rental lighting.

This is a great example of how to rent battery uplighting to create a two color lighting look. In this example lights were set to two different remote controls and then one set was programmed to pink and the other set was programmed to white.

Pink and white work really well together to create a soft, balanced look that is perfect for dances, dinners, engagements and weddings.

When adding the additional color white it makes it feel less saturated and more elegant.

Pin-spot lighting was used on the centerpieces that really make them pop in this photo.

Venue: Army Navy Country Club