Lighting effects – moving heads

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In addition to music, the second important element that is responsible for the atmosphere of club or wedding fun are lighting effects. A professional DJ must therefore take care not only of choosing the right music repertoire, mixing it, leading a host, but also of appropriately selected lighting effects. Of course, in the era of digitization and computerization, the lion’s share of the work is done for him by the computer and programs that synchronize everything at the right time and rhythm.

Basic minimum

The market is full of all kinds of lamps, lasers, moving heads and you can sometimes get lost in all of this. What to choose so that our lighting set gives the planned effect, and at the same time that we do not spend too much hard-earned money on it. Moving heads are one of the most frequently used lighting effects. In recent years, the most common applications are LED heads, which we can synchronize and which, of course, we can control remotely. The number of such heads we need to fully meet the expectations of our club or wedding guests depends primarily on the size of the room in which we will conduct a music event. That is why it is so important to carefully read the technical specification of a given device, which is within the scope of our application. Not always a large head will work well in small, intimate clubs and vice versa. Rarely does a small head illuminate a large room in a good enough way.

Types and possibilities of moving heads

As with most equipment, there are several basic types of this type of equipment among the heads. And so we have, among others moving spot heads, which are equipped with lenses that give us a clear shape of a light spot. Often the task of such a head is to illuminate a specific object, e.g. a young couple dancing in the middle of the room, or a musician playing the piano. Most modern heads have several colors that we can change depending on our needs. Thanks to the mixing of appropriate colors, we can obtain very interesting colors. Of course, the light intensity is fully adjustable, so we can brighten or dim the intensity of our lighting. Our moving heads are also equipped with various types of discs with effects. For example, there are gobo wheels that will produce specific light patterns, such as flowers, hearts, geometric shapes, or designed inscriptions. The more advanced the heads, the more goodies we will have at our disposal. There are a shield that will smoothly blur the effects on the edges. In these more expensive heads, we will have the possibility of, among others changes in the radiation angle, which is of great importance when illuminating a given object.

Another interesting moving head is the wash head, the main task of which is to illuminate a given space with a specific color. Here, the lighting angle is quite wide and the beam of light has blurred edges that gently merge and penetrate with each other with the space illuminated, for example, with a different color from the other head. Of course, most of these types of devices have an available color palette to use along with the regulation of its intensity.

The beam heads, whose lighting angle is very narrow, are a kind of opposite to the wash heads. They make such a classic pillar of light. Since the emitted light is very compressed, it is characterized by great power and clarity.

We also have flower heads that emit a large number of light beams connecting the elements of the wash and beam heads. This combination allows you to obtain very original lighting effects.

Summation

Of course, the types of these heads can be multiplied almost infinitely because more and more often different types of hybrids are created that combine individual functions. However, it should be remembered that these devices must be properly synchronized with each other so that we can easily control them. Therefore, in addition to the heads, we will need an appropriate controller from which we will be able to control all the heads. Moving heads are most often controlled via DMX or via Ethernet. Of course, wireless communication is increasingly used with this type of device. When buying heads, also remember about appropriate stands. Those that are permanently in clubs are usually mounted on special stage structures.