Hey guys,

I'm looking to buy some lighting for a party room, to be installed permanently. The problem is, we're on a ~$500 budget. I'd like intelligent lighting, and equipment that could be expanded on in the future. I'd much rather buy 2 average fixtures and expand in the future than buy 6 terrible lights. Thanks

probably the most bang for your buck will be the VUE series LED from Chauvet or the Revo series from American DJ and a mirror ball with a par 56 spot. You might even have enough for some black lights. The LED's are stand alone or DMX controlled. Also down the road you should look at some par 64 LED RGB color cans.

AS far as intelligent lighting goes...your best bet would be to save more money....the stuff in the 250-500 dollar range is garbage. The starting price for ONE low-end fixture is 500.


If you have a little more than 500....say 850, you can purchase one REVO 4.1 and two Chauvet HTI 2.0 scanners. For a future purchase of 500 you can buy two par 64 LED RGB's cans to round out the install. That would make for a Kick@#$ small venue or mobile jock lighting rig. All of this can fit on a double stacked T-bar.

Thanks for the response, those Chauvet LED's are pretty nice.

Some more info that I forgot to include the first time: we'd like to stay away from basic par cans, and we put black lights in all the ceiling fluorescent light fixtures. It looks pretty cool, but we'd like to add onto it.

Any more suggestions? Thanks

Mount a fogger on the ceiling or high up on the wall, it adds a lot for the lights. I would look at the stores on line or even YouTube for lighting ideas- try this a lot of good info on various LED lights...

This might sound like a cheese ball effect and to some point it is but having a WiDE Focus LED Par Can in a slow chase pattern looks awesome if you use it properly.

I use 2 x One Watt Par 64 LED's and shine one on the ceiling and one on the floor. Then I will point my REVO's at the furthest wall in front of the DJ booth. If you can imagine the REVO's move to the beat of the music and the PARS are constantly changing into every color in the spectrum SLOWLY. The whole light show BlendS together very nicely and is a BREEZE to set-up. NO DMX controller either. Total cost was about 900.00

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DJ BAM,

I could see that looking good. I use 1 Revo 3 pointed above the dance floor and then 2 Vue ones pointed at the floor and dancers. Again easy to set and can run all night with little effort..

Hi Guys,
I use Acme led Lighting on two T-bars (very lightweight)
X2 Impossibled.
X2 Invisibled.
X1 iColour4.
X1 Hazer.
Prefect for halls large or small
Wont break your back aswell as Bank Account !

I use two simple lights. The elan and the new mystic by adj. Both led and dmx so they would last long. When mounted high, they shoot a pattern that spreads pretty far so it's very efficient for less. Other than that I still like the good old roto ball for the high energy effect until I burn a bulb out or the motor. Then I throw it away. but led's ar here to stay.

I adimitly disagree that you must spend minimum for a "low end fixture" of 500.

That's just rediculous, in fact. Kind of like saying you can't buy a low end SUV for less than 50,000.

The man asked for suggestions on a light solution with a 500 budget and wanted something possibly intelligent, and something he could add to, instead of buying crapola, and then wanting to get rid of it. (an avenger or agressor effect comes to mind).

I would get 2 intimidator 2's and a legitimate controller.

I purchased a set of four a year ago for 1000.00 with a standard dmx controller from a major outlet, so I would think you could do this quite near the 500.00 goal.

I have played with just 2 in small venues and it's more than enough, and the dot based LED effects are very cheesy IMO, reminding me of the agressor/vertigo type effects of old, just minus the high heat, and distinct bulb pattern on the floor Remember, LED stuff is great, but soon there will be LED replacement bulbs for all existing fixtures.

The intelligent light is the best way to go, Martin is better if you can afford it, but if you can't you gotta do what you can. Mentioning martin, I would much rather have my intimidators and a controller that was more advanced (circular motion, etc) than a standard martin set with a standard martin controller. No comparison in results.

The intimidators can do not only good multi-color gobo action lighting, but can be slowed down well and used for slow lighting with good results. And you can add to them later, as you suggested. Please let us know what you decide.

Whatever lights you get, make sure you budget enough for a smoke (or haze) machine and a mirrorball as well. These two items will effectively double your light show. A decent cheap laser will work wonders too - especially in conjunction with the smoke machine and mirrorball.

Best of luck.

I suggest a set of Microh LED BAR PRO's. They contain many different functions example : color fading , strobing, full DMX, auto programming and many other functions. This light combines many effects. It's like your buying strobe lights and par cans into one light.

Oh come on cheeba, you cheated. I was looking forward to your opinion on this. I agree with the mirrorball and fog / haze machine being a big deal, but with the given criteria, what would the cheeba buy? I am very curious to know.

For ~$500 I would look at LED lighting. It will allow you to run the lights all night and give you that dmx expandability in the future. Most LED fixtures will allow you to run them in sound active mode or use their pre-programmed internal programs. This allows you to avoid having to spend your initial budget on a dmx controller.

I don't remember seeing you mention the size of this "party room". This will play a factor on room coverage. I will try to give a few options for small vs larger rooms.

First I would look into some LED par/panel lighting. I know you mentioned wanting to stay away from standard pars, but these LED versions will give you a light capable of washes and strobing. For a small room: 4 x chauvet colorsplash jrs (~$200). These can all be linked together. The only drawback is there is no sound active mode. An upgrade to get sound active and greater coverage would be to get one of the chauvet colorsplash 200b or color pallette (~$179-229). You could always add more than one in the future.

Next, I would look at an Effect light. Again I would stay LED to avoid a duty cycle. The Chauvet Vue 3 (~$229) will give you great coverage and a lot of visual light action. If the room is smaller, you could go with 2 x Chauvet Vue 1.1 (~$200).

Depending on what options you went with, you would have anywhere from $40-100 left of the budget to spend. You will need cables to connect everything. If there is any money left after that, I would consider a mirror ball. This will enhance the lighting effects you already have. If you went with the chauvet colorsplash jrs, you could use 2 of them to point at the mirror ball. If you didn't want to use your wash lighting on the mirror ball, there are some mirror ball packages that include a motor and a typical par can (~$70)

Lastly, I do not have any affiliation with Chauvet. I chose their products because on a budget they come out slightly cheaper than the American DJ counterparts. I also personally use the colorsplash 200bs and Vue 3.

Hope this helps.