School Stage & Theatre Lighting

We supply and install a broad range of Stage & Theatre Lighting, into Schools & Colleges up and down the country. To help us do this we like to visit your school and look at the space and then design and specify the best stage and theatre lighting solution for you. A lot of the lighting equipment we work with can also be installed into other faculties such as main school halls. performing arts buildings, rehearsal & performance studios.

  • school theatre lighting

Not just a School Stage

Often schools don’t want to be restricted to performing just on the stage but like the option to have performances in the round where they can combine the stage and floor space for their performance area.  Having an installed lighting grid offers the greatest flexibility however sometimes this isn’t always possible due to the fabric of the building or simply cost.  Solutions to this include floor-mounted support structures, the installation of wall & balcony mounted bars, portable lighting systems or recessed lighting fixtures. We can look at your theatre, hall or studio and provide the right stage and theatre lighting combined with installation options to help you optimise the performance potential of your school.

What type of Stage/Theatre Lanterns should my school choose.

Traditional school stage & theatre lighting use to essentially comprise of “generic lanterns”.  These use a halogen bulb as the light source and are typically 650 or 1000 watt and are dimmed when connected to a separate dimmer which in turn is controlled by the lighting desk. A sheet of coloured gel is clipped in front of the lantern and this sets the colour that you want and barn doors can be mounted on the front to shape the beam and help control the spill.  The popular lantern styles used by school theatres are:

Fresnels – Uses one adjustable lens to provide a variable beam of soft wash light

Zoomspots – Uses 2 adjustable lenses to create a soft or had wash beam of light

Followspot – Manually operated 2 lens variable spot light to follow performer

Par Can – Fixed lens soft wash light – used more in live music stage wash

  • school drama lighting
  • school stage lighting

LED Theatre & Stage Lighting for your school

Nowadays LED Stage lighting is very popular and companies such as ETC & Strand who were some of the original pioneers of generic stage lights now make LED versions of them with the advantage of far greater lamp life, energy saving and with built in digital dimmers they do not need separately installed remote dimmers. This can save space in often cramped lighting control rooms and can also reduce the cost of the installation.

Intelligent Stage Lighting for your school.

Many schools and theatres are replacing their stage lighting for intelligent lighting as they can be controlled remotely via a protocol known as DMX and have many built-in features such as multiple colour choices, gobo wheels (which are round discs with patterns cut into them), that can then be projected out through the light.  These lights can also have prism effects along with remote zoom and focus to create hard and soft wash beams.  Some are also mounted onto moving yokes so they can spin and fire the light beam into almost any position on your stage. This can also be useful if due to the fabric of the room we are unable to install lights into every ideal location and instead use a moving yoke model to provide multiple beam projection options. Popular theatre brands include: Chauvet, Robe, Clay Paky, Martin Professional.

  • performing arts lighting

Controlling your School Theatre & Stage Lights

To get the most out of your school stage lighting you are going to need a control surface such as a lighting desk or controller that can be programmed to achieve the lighting show you desire.  These range from being fairly basic with a few buttons to access colour, gobo and change scene etc to more complex and fully programmable lighting desks or computer operated and controlled via a laptop or Tablet.  

  • theatre lighting for schools

Frequently Asked Questions

Is all LED Stage Lighting Dimmable? – All the theatre stage lights that we specify have internal dimming so that the brightness can be adjusted from your lighting desk.

Will the Stage Lighting work with our existing desk? – Pretty much all LED theatre lighting is now DMX controlled so as long as you have a DMX desk then you should be able to control it.

Can you use LED Theatre Lights on existing lighting bars? – Yes as long as the socket that it is plugged into is no longer connected to a dimmer otherwise this could damage it.

Can you get warm white out of LED Stage Lighting? – Yes many of the LED theatre lights we supply have an excellent warm white colour or you can purchase dedicated warm white LED stage lights.

Will the LED theatre lights cause flickering when being filmed? – All the stage lights we specify are flicker-free and suitable for filming.

At River Audio we can help you choose the best stage lights for your School, Theatre or Performing Arts Space and provide full installation, commissioning, programming and on site training. Based in Gloucestershire we cover the Southwest Southeast & Midlands for all your school lighting, sound & AV needs.

Call us to arrange a site visit to discuss your needs on: 01453 882256 – 07816 885066


LabelsClients