What Are Stage Floodlights?
Stage floodlights are used to flood or "wash" large areas of the stage with light. Several lighting fixture types are commonly used as floods, depending on the particular application and installation.
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History
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Stage and theater flood lighting have come in many forms, but the first incandescent lights for stage use were installed in the early 1880s in the Paris Opera House, London's Savoy Theater and Boston's Bijou.
Par Lighting
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Par can lighting is perhaps the most popular stage floodlight fixture for live concert use. Using a sealed-beam parabolic reflector bulb, the par can light is the concert industry standard for rugged reliability. Five hundred- and 1,000-watt versions are used, projecting an intense medium angle, soft-edged flood beam.
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Fresnels
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Fresnels are widely used for permanent floodlight installations in theaters and auditoriums. Using a movable incandescent bulb and fixed glass lens, the soft-edged light beam can be focused and adjusted, with bulb wattage ranging from 500 to 5,000 watts.
Box Floods
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Box floods are a true floodlight and are made of a bulb mounted in a scooped, internally reflective fixture. Box floods produce wide, soft-edged floodlighting, with 500- to 2,000-watt bulbs. Box floods are not typically used in concert stage applications, but for special effect flooding in theater use.
LED Floodlights
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The newest wave of stage lighting is the LED fixture. Available in par, fresnel and box flood-type (LED panel light) flood formats, LED fixtures boast low-power draw, minimal heat output and longer bulb life than traditional lights.
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References
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Dan Brady
