Glowing Lines and Bars

Ben Brown, an Atlanta area lighting and scenic designer, worked with The Church in Norcross, GA to bring us this awesome LED tape set.

From Ben: This set was to replace a set that we put in The Church back in 2018. There was a decent budget on this set at just under $6000 for materials and labor. $3500 of it was for materials which included: 2x4s, foam core board, florescent acrylic diffusers, LED Tape Channel Diffusers, LED Tape, LED Tape Extension Cable, DMX Decoders, DMX, Power Cables, Power Supplies, Lighting Clamps, 30lb double sided tape, black gorilla tape, and Lunch. The 3D Rendering was done in SketchUp Pro and the Lighting Render was completed in Capture Nexum. Including the load out of the old set, the project took 5 days (about 50 hours total) with 2 people.

As for the actual build:
We started by routing a 1/4″ groove an inch off the edge of the 12′ 2x4s that would make up the vertical pieces of the frames. We then built (12’x24″ for the sides and 51″x24″ for the middle 3) and painted the frames black. We then applied the foam core backing to provide a “reflective” surface (*see “things I would change” notes at end). We taped the edges to seal any light trying to escape. We used 30lb double sided tape to secure the LED tape (the LED tape will not stick to wood/painted wood). We also spread out the tape in 6″ strips about a foot apart to save money. Once the LED tape around the edge we popped in the Acrylic Diffusers at a nice round dome-like arch. After the Acrylic Diffusers were in we used lighting C-Clamps to rig the large frames to the lighitng grid over the stage. The smaller frames got screwed to support framing bolted to studs in the wall. We then wired the boxes and moved on to the vertical LED Tape Diffusers. Those were screwed straight into the wall and LED tape was added and wired up to the decoders.

Things I Would Change Notes:

• I would probably use a white chloroplast like material as the backer if I could do it over again.
• I would keep the frames in 4’x2′ sections to make sure the acrylic was more secure.
• I would custom make and route end cap pieces for the acrylic to rest on.
• I would fire the LED tape (about 10 strips a box) out at the acrylic diffuser instead of across the back of set piece. If the budget would allow that many DMX decoders and that much LED Tape.