# Haunt lighting: Darklight alternative?



## FINNS

Helping out with a complete lighting overhaul for a large church haunt that has become increasingly popular each year.

Right now we are using mostly clamp lights and crappy party bulbs with extension cords running EVERY WHERE! We've been given a bit of a budget for next year (!!!!) and decided that fixing the trap of overloaded extension cords/outlets would be a good start.

Darklight has the perfect product, but I don't like having to go through a middleman to get them, and from everything I've read they will be cost prohibitive.

I have heard that there is a company with a very similar product at a lower price. Anybody know the name? I was told the name and have since forgotten it. ha I searched to the best of my abilities across the net, but I can't find anything...

Any other ideas would be welcomed. I need to get a cost proposal together to present to the Church finance person and the sooner the better.

Thanks in advance!:googly:


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## BioHazardCustoms

Why not build your own? You can build a dozen LED spots and floods for less than the cost of one Dark Light product. Don't get me wrong, they are great products, and Quan is a great guy, but I can't afford his lighting. I build mine from ebay LEDs and radio shack wire. I run it all from a landscape lighting power supply, but some people have had good results running from hacked ATX power supplies. I have two sources to learn about building LED lights. One is a thread here by niblique71 (It also helps to read the linked threads in his thread) which is great for building LED flood lights. The other is a video by StiltBeastStudios on youtube for building LED pinspot lights. 
With a little research and work, you can save a small fortune.

Hope this helps.


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## Dead Things

I have to agree with BioHazardCustoms. I have built my own using the ideas present on this forum and abroad. I use an ATX power supply and currently run over 30 floods off of it. The ATX is about $10, the floods cost around $3.25 each to build, the most expensive parts being the central vac parts I use to cap the ends of the light tubes, (about $1.20 each). Cheap speaker wire, RCA cables and RCA jacks completes the package. I am currently adding another 40 floods and will have shelled out less than $100.


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## NightRider785

*Mini Spot*

If you do not wish to make your own, I started at a new haunt that had the same as you described, and over the last few years I have replaced most of the lighting with stuff from http://shop.minispotlight.com/
The quality has always been amazing, and I have never had one go out in 4 years! I don't know if they make the stuff themselves, but it sounds like they do, so no middle man. Hope that helps!


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## stagehand1975

We use a melody of homemade led spots, spots from darklight, the new led lights from spirit and the led bulbs that spirit carries. Outside we use also use the new lights from spirit. Led flood lights that can be found only during the holidays at Lowe's or home depot, and led landscape spot light. We use theater gel to color the ones from home depot and lowes and the landscape ones. We power the low voltage led stuff with atx power supplies, a cctv power supply and a landscape power supply.

We have a 5000sf indoor haunt and an outdoor trail still being developed.


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## stagehand1975

I forgot, I a couple larger areas we have dmx controlled stage lights. I am looking now for a computer program to control them in sync with audio.


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## Palmdale Haunter

There are several software alternatives... I use VSA from Brookshire. If budget is an issue, the Vixen is free and is pretty easy to work with...


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## FINNS

Thank you so much! Some excellent ideas for me to ponder! I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated by building my own for some reason, but I think I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes.

Thanks again.


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## stagehand1975

I have gone both ways on building them myself. I have built the version using PVC as a fixture and in a quick pinch a have just black taped a prewired led to a piece of flexible wire and just wrap or stapled or whatevered that wire to where I needed to be. It was fast and easy when I didn't have all of the supplies to build the light or the time to get them


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## creeperguardian

I did try dark lights LEDs and they work great. Bright and can light a while room or area might have pics of haunt in my albums


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## provprops

The squiggly, colored bulbs put out a ton more light with vivid color compared to the incandescent counterparts. They use less power as well. I wouldn't use them for constant flashing though. You can stick with the incandescent for that purpose.


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## ibjeepin

stagehand1975 said:


> I forgot, I a couple larger areas we have dmx controlled stage lights. I am looking now for a computer program to control them in sync with audio.


I looked around myself for something suitable for Haunt shows. I started with VSa and the excorcist and then monkeybasic etc. I ended up ponying up the money for venuemagic and after a very large learning curve (think photoshop powerful) I am happy with it and it controls my entire show. Everything. Video, audio, animatronics, music, props, midi, dmx etc. Powerful nesting and layering of timelines and even things like lightining using a midi drum pad and how hard you hit it is how load and long and violent it is. I use midi devices like a fadermaster or a peavey fader board to record lighting or servo tracks just like a studio, I playback and layer until a routine is complet. I bet I am only 50% knowledgeable of all of its features but its made me happy.

The price is the most negative part though.


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## Scary Jerry

*DMX lights, VSA, Monkeybasic*

We use VSA, VenueMagic and Monkeybasic's products extensively. We also sell a small DMX controlled 12 volt RGB flood that we have not advertised yet.

I highly recommend sticking with the DMX control protocol for everything except static props and trigger activated props.

Jerry
Skulltronix


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## NickWaka7

stagehand1975 said:


> I forgot, I a couple larger areas we have dmx controlled stage lights. I am looking now for a computer program to control them in sync with audio.


Vixen is a great tool for DMX. Vixen 2 is easier to use. It uses a grid based program where you just highlight channels on a grid and tell them when you want them to go on and off. It also has dimmers and a few built in effects to make it easy to program a quick show. Vixen 3 is another great tool, but it is a little more time consuming. If you have RGB products, both are great, though Vixen 3 is geared more towards RGB and people who like complete control. Vixen 3 also offers a preview window, which is nice when you want to program lights, but cannot control a show live. Both programs are completely free! I have used Vixen v2 for a couple years now, both for my haunt and for christmas, and I am starting to venture into v3.


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## Uruk-Hai

I'm the process of changing over my whole yard haunt to LED. I'm not really good with wiring or soldering and such so making them myself was out. I have some from Darklight and others and am really pleased with both the look and ease of set-up. Last year was the first time I had extension cords left over instead of running out! To manage the cost of the LEDs I worked out a 3-year plan so as to still leave room in the budget for other things. I have Precision Z spots and floods from Darklight, small Nano Spots from FrightProps and will be getting some new Ghostlights from Halloween FX.


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