Sean Bolinger from Christian Faith Center in Federal Way, WA brings us this bright and shiny patriotic design. (Originally posted August 2013)
They wanted to incorporate a light bulb wall as part of the design and they wanted to build it into the existing structure that was already on stage. This design was inspired by the Faith Hill music video American Heart.
They took 1/8″ plywood. They laid out and drilled out the holes for the bulbs using a 7/8″ paddle bit. Then they assembled the three big panels and painted them like the American flag. The center piece was 10’x14′ while the two sides were 10’x10′. Instead of painting all the stars, they bought 1′ cardboard stars and drilled holes through those which the bulbs held in place on the panels. For the light bulbs, they bought C9 Christmas lights, white for the white stripes and stars and red for the red stripes, and spools of sockets. Then they went around to each hole and placed the socket in the back while somebody screwed in the bulb from the front.
Since the bulb itself was bigger than the hole when screwed in, it held itself in place. To put the structure in place, they set the bottom on 4×4 blocks. Then at the top, using i-hooks in the structure and on the framing of the pieces, they used turn buckles to support the pieces and stop it from bowing. They used 1048 light bulbs which they plugged into dimmer channels so they could control it from the lighting board. They budget was $1100.
For the blue illuminated stairs: What did you use to light these up?
That was a previous project a few years ago and we used RGB LED strip lights.
Here is the link:
http://www.environmentallights.com/led-rope-and-strip-lights/led-strip-lights/rgb-led-strip-lights/13497-rgbddrf-reel-10.html