The Latest Advancements in Stage Equipment and Lighting

When it comes to staging equipment and lighting, the innovative technology that shapes industry trends can take many years before it takes hold and becomes conventional. Trends and practices tend to work from the top down: a successful high-profile event utilizing new ideas in staging will spread influence, creating demand for the equipment and technology used and making those elements easier to access. In the event production community, the advancements in programmable LED lights have made them incredibly popular.

LEDs have been a staple in event production for decades, but usually in small-scale, limited ways that play a supporting role rather than being the center of attention. However, recent years have seen LEDs used in larger arrangements that create a unique, cohesive atmosphere while limiting the amount of equipment needed for the event. Consider the LED screen: multiple rows of lights can be arranged as backdrops for the stage area, working to eliminate the need for non-movie screen projections. Far from serving as simple accents, LEDs have evolved into one of the largest pieces of visual equipment available today.

Affordability, durability, and endless opportunities for customization have been the biggest draws of LED-based structures like screens and curtains. Even production companies working with modest budgets will find them a sound investment, and because they can be scaled to any area size, a variety of opportunities can be found to deploy them.

The market for LEDs has grown considerably recently, leading to a multitude of products with unique capabilities. In their early years, the “programmable” attribute of programmable LEDs referenced their color, which users could change on a whim or program to be in sync with a timing mechanism. Now LED walls, screens, and other fixtures can synchronize with audio and visual cues, reacting to key parts of a presentation or performance and captivating an audience. Programming capabilities allow for greater immersion as well as a changing atmosphere, giving a production a greater sense of life and activity. It’s a powerful way to create distinct audience experiences while minimizing the amount of equipment used.

Improving technologies allows for once difficult to program features to be executed with little technical knowledge. Less time can be spent learning a system as a result. The growing prevalence of the “Internet of Things” allows fixtures and features to be activated wirelessly, sometimes even remotely, de-cluttering your staging space significantly, creating a less intrusive experience for the audience that requires less maintenance on your part.

As aspects of stage equipment and lighting grow more advanced and powerful, they often grow smaller and easier to use. The size and simplicity of programmable LED lights have certainly played a large role in their appeal, but it’s the ever-expanding range of customization that has seen their use expand across a broad spectrum of events. With the ability to build any kind of mood or atmosphere imaginable, LED light naturally fits into any type of event staging and production.

As part of our continuing mission to make creative use of the latest audio and visual production trends, American Audio Visual uses programmable LED lights. It has become an important tool at our disposal for any event production. It’s energy-efficient and customizable so you can program and time it the way you want it without going through technical difficulties.