Christmas 2016, the goal was to create a starscape over the audience. After a lot of back and forth about how we could pull this off, we finally came to terms with the despair of realizing we will never have enough budget to rent a LED screen. We decided to get creative and try to create the start scape with Pixel mappable led tape.
Inspiration for Starscape
The first bit of inspiration struck. Remembering back to the time you lazily float past the “Blue Bayou” inside of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean and hear the sounds of crickets in the distance. While you float past the blue bayou if you look to your left, you will see little “fireflies” bouncing around through the scene. There’s something magical with fireflies flying around in the blackness. During a previous set change, someone had a great idea, to connect tiny lamps to a 9 volt light. We hung them throughout the trees, and they became out fireflies. We decided the best approach was to get little LED lights we could string above the audience.
One of the guys on our team scoured eBay to look for “pixel mappable Led strings.” apparently Chinese companies manufacture and sell these led strips off of eBay. Pixel mapping was crucial because you could turn each individual led off and on, allowing for a twinkling effect.
We took some eBay led strips that have plastic squares where the LED diode sits. We strung these together from the catwalk to the stage.
Gear used.
@enttecofficial pixelator was used to send the signal to each led strip via enttec pixel link system. @mad_mapperwas used to pixel map the strips.
Pixel strips were bought on eBay due to budget. “50pcs DC5V 12mm 2811 Square Diffused Digital addressable RGB LED Pixel String”
These led strips were reused over and over again. After we hung them over the audience, we decided to keep them up for an extended period, because the ambience was so great. We then incorporated these led strips into 3 other sets. One of my favorite uses was to wrap Christmas trees with these pixel mapped strips. During Christmas, we were able to create some dynamic lighting effects.
Check out the portfolio page to see other cool stage designs.
