I have a 7 piece band that mostly gigs at venues which provide stage lighting.  However, there are times we have to bring some lighting of our own. 

Someone gave me 8 small par cans with mounting bars, stands and gels.  I want to use 150w bulbs but am not sure if I should use spots or floods.  The typical stage we will need to light is about 30’ wide and 15’ deep. 

i realize it’s mostly a matter of choice and or preference.  I just posted this to get a few opinions.

Thanks for any input
Kevin

I realize this was an obscure post but seeing how it got almost 200 looks I thought I’d post a reply answering my own question.

I loaded the cans with 8 - 150w Floods.  We recently used them at a small outdoor gig and they were sufficient.  They were constant on (no flashing via controller or beat sensor) and they gave plenty of color splash to a 20’x12’ stage.  Also they only drew 1200 watts. We used a 12ga extension cord to the power source and had no problem on a dedicated 15 amp circuit.

Get a disco light pointed out to the dance floor and your set! That’s what we did! :)

After 20 plus years of trying to keep up with the ever changing keyboard knowledge, I recently started getting involved in lighting.  Just as keyboards have progressed over the years, so has stage lighting.  In the 80s, we needed a “light man” but I’m not so sure this is necessary.  I admit not fully understanding DMX yet, I’ve had a lot of success setting the lights to “SOUND” and using DMX cables to use the master/slave capabilities of each light.

So far, we aren’t using par cans (which is all we had in the 80s) but may add some in the future.

Right now, we use several American DJ color bars (their coverage is amazing), 2 x ADJ Galaxians (best with a fog machine) and our newest addition, ADJ Nucleus for center stage. This is very basic but extremely effective and impressive.

Most likely if we add more lights, we’ll probably have to add a controller but from what I’m told, they are relatively easy to set up and use.