Border/Strip Lights

Strip Lights are the roller of the arsenal of stage lighting paint brushes. A large amount of color coverage. If you are looking to light an expanse of light in multiple colors, border and strip lights are a great way to go. Here we have them divided into conventional lamp and LED lamp categories. Often used as foot lights or as cyc lights, they are an efficient and great way to color mix. Today we have traditional incandescent and LED versions. The purpose of a strip light is to give a linear wash of colored light. They are generally used to light drops, cycs, the floor and curtains. Many ballet companies like to see them used as recessed foot lights to see the toe shoes. When lighting drops or cycs you can choose to light from the bottom, top or both. To light from the top you would hang them using hanging irons. To light from the bottom you would sit them on floor trunions. Some floor trunions have a whole in the middle of the bottom flange that can accept a "C" clamp and therefore be flipped around and used as a hanging iron. In traditional units there are generally 3 and 4 circuit units. The 3 circuit units have the 1st and 4th and 7th (and so on) lamps working together. The 4 circuit units have the 1st and 5th and 9th (and so on) lamps working together. In permanent installations it is common for the 3 circuit units to be colored in the primary colors of light. In permanent installations it is common for the 4 circuit units to have the extra circuit be amber or white. Traditional units can hold gel or glass roundels (lenses). You are not limited to using primary colors. You can choose the colors that work best for you. You can daisy chain the units together electrically, meaning that unit 1 can feed unit 2. While daisy chaining, never exceed the wattage pull of your weakest link. Older permanent installations would have a version called border lights that extended to the length of the stage. The LED units can often daisy chain power and data. The color options of LED units vary. Some work the same as traditionals and others have multiple colored LED's behind each cell. If you have multiple color LED's behind each cell and a control board with enough channels you can make a perfect rainbow of color. - Louie Lumen