Light it Up

In the last few years, LED event lighting has gone from an unknown to something your local wedding DJ might be packing. The advantages of using LED lighting are being recognized by a growing number of event planning professionals, with manufacturers offering an increasing array of products designed to fit the rough-and-tumble demands of the business.

Here’s what LEDs can do for you — and what they can’t — and why, if you haven’t gone LED yet, the time may have arrived.

A More Versatile Form of Lighting

The versatility of LED lighting is one of its biggest attractions, agree event planners. LEDs are now widely available in wireless and even submersible versions, reports Coy Comart, owner of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based event planning company International Laser and Event Productions (ILEP) as well as International Laser and Light, which sells and rents both LED and conventional lighting.

“LEDs can be used to create lighting effects in fountains and swimming pools,” he says. “We have even created props out of translucent acrylic such as wet bars, tables and columns that can be lit from the inside.”

LED lights can be individually programmed, and come in battery-operated versions that do not need to be connected to a controller. This provides great flexibility for positioning — and repositioning — elements anywhere in the venue.

According to Comart, ILEP recently produced a highly successful event for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Board of Realtors using a combination of LED lighting for color washes and laser lighting to kinetically project corporate logos. ILEP has already been booked to come back next year — for which Comart credits the raves over his company’s lighting.

Increased Options

Mark Flaisher, one of three co-owners of Los Angeles-based architectural and event lighting company Kinetic Lighting, is an enthusiastic booster of LED lighting. He praises its sparkly quality, and especially likes the way LEDs have let him rewrite the rules about where lights can be located.

“LEDs come in a larger variety of shapes and sizes than conventional lighting. They can be small enough to embed in scenery and even in costuming,” he says.

And because temperature-wise, they are not hot and don’t heat up the surfaces they light, LEDs can be wrapped in sheer fabric or other flammable materials worn by performers, with no possible overheating hazard. (Conversely, however, for outdoor performances in cold weather, such as evenings in late fall, the lack of heat can actually be a drawback. Flaisher recommends that planners take this into consideration.)
James Schipper, another of Kinetic Lighting’s co-owners, lauds the improved color saturation, richness and purity of LED light.

“With LEDs, the light source produces the color directly without gels. Each element can produce a nearly infinite variety of colors without the fluctuation in brightness associated with color changes using conventional lighting,” he says. “LEDs are very attractive for those who like to mix or change colors. The entire room isn’t going to get brighter or dimmer depending on your choice of colors.”

LEDs are also faster. Schipper points out that they change color quicker than conventional lighting because there is no gel to change. And they fire up faster and turn off instantly, without the lag time of conventional lighting. This gives better definition to color strobe effects and color chases that involve turning lights on and off in sequence so that the colors seem to chase each other around the room.

Your Bottom Line Will Like LEDs

Just as important as what LEDs can do to enhance the way your event looks is what they can do to improve your budget. Although the fixtures themselves aren’t necessarily less expensive than conventional lighting, significant savings can be realized in other areas.

According to Schipper, power usage is the single most important reason to use LED lighting. An LED color blast can be powered with as little as 50 watts — compared to several hundred for the equivalent conventional lighting.

“Because of the power savings, we can often take a generator off the budget,” he says.
The power savings also allows you more flexibility in venues where power is scarce and bringing in auxiliary power isn’t practical. Additionally, LEDs last considerably longer than conventional elements. Because of this, according to Flaisher, the labor savings in large installations can be significant.

LED versus Conventional Lighting

White LED lighting is available and works well for certain effects. As a result, LEDs have become popular with touring acts for stage uplighting because of significant savings in power usage. And according to Comart, white LEDs can produce a purity that can’t be achieved with conventional lighting, and the tone of white LEDs is somewhat adjustable. However, white LEDs are not yet bright enough to replace conventional spotlights.

There are other places LEDs can’t quite substitute for traditional lights, as well. LED lighting doesn’t produce the definition of conventional spotlighting, and it also doesn’t provide as much spread as conventional floodlighting. Comart reports that his company sometimes uses frosted lenses with LEDs to get more beam spread. Also, the more economical LEDs may lack the brightness needed to be effective for many uses. And not all LEDs are designed for outdoor use.

Manufacturers Keep up with Demand

All the same, because of its many advantages, LED event lighting is gaining rapid acceptance. Comart says that International Laser and Light is experiencing its second year of solid sales growth in LED fixtures. LEDs have become so widespread that most rental houses now carry them.

Manufacturers are aware of the trend and are developing new LED lighting products specifically targeting the events market.

According to Felicia Spagnoli, corporate communications specialist with Color Kinetics, an LED lighting firm headquartered in Boston, the company is redesigning LED products originally intended for permanent installation to make them fit the needs of the event planner. The company has an increasing array of products available with XLR connectors (rugged multi-pin male/female connectors long popular with audio and lighting professionals), which plug into receptacles common to current lighting controllers.

Color Kinetics has also redesigned fixtures to include individual programming capability for more on-the-fly flexibility, and boots to protect the fixtures during the rigors of transportation, setup, breakdown and storage.

LED color lighting fixtures don’t suffer from the mechanical vulnerabilities of color wheels and other conventional lighting fixtures. Strings of lights similar to Christmas tree lights are now available, each element having considerable independent programming capabilities. Additionally, because LEDs are inherently digital, these new products can be configured with digital controllers.

If you make significant use of lighting, it’s time to consider making LEDs a part of your operation. Between their versatility and cost savings, LEDs are rapidly moving from the future of event lighting to the present.