Hi there,

This forum has got some really valuable information and than you all for the contributions...

This is my first question and would really appreciate some help.

We have a stage that is 10m wide x 5m deep. we have about 17 PAR LEDs lighting up the stage.

What we are noticing is that the lights are too bright at certain spots and quite dull in other spots and also shadows. I have attached a picture for reference.

We had few options in mind and wonder which ones would be suitable. I have listed them in the order of our preference.

1. Install acrylic sheets to the lights to diffuse the lights. Then Shuffle the lights that we have, so that we have some lighting from sides and back
2. Add more lights from other angles to improve the spread of light

Any thoughts on the effectiveness of option 1? Have people added acrylic sheets to the LED par cans to diffuse and get a wider spread? Any thoughts on this would be very much appreciated.

What kind of LED pars are they? Multi color multi diode? COB?

A single color cob is the best option for this type of use, it is the closest to a traditional halogen par that LEDs get and are available in a warm white color temperature which is considered best for illuminate the face. Any lighting that goes behind those persons on stage should be considered special effects as it doesn't illuminate faces but can be seen by the audience, and to avoid blinding people should be run at a relatively low intensity level. Lighting all important points on stage from the left, center, and right from out front and above at between 45-75 degrees produces best results.
Multicolor LED fixtures can produce white with all diodes on but all those LED sources don't mix terribly well so you get multicolored shadows and halos at the perimeter of the fixtures coverage, and these fixtures also tend to have a rather narrow coverage area which tends to produce hot spots.
The year before Covid I outfitted a local church with COB fixtures on their stage, these were mostly 100w and 200w warm white but a few were RGBW for effects. A COB source has all the diodes tightly packed on a single substrate, these fixtures produce a smooth cone of light that can be shaped with barn doors to keep it off the backdrop for example. See below.




Diffusing a multi color fixture can help in some cases(I have done it) but anything you put in front of the lights will also reduce output some and it won't completely eliminate halos.. does reduce it some.

Thanks for the great advice! At present we are using multi colour RGBW LED lights. I have not heard of COB fixtures. Is there any part numbers you could share? I did some google and it seems like they are pretty good with strong light output.

We tried with diffusers over the weekend and exactly like you suggested, there is some light loss. So we are thinking of having some diffusers and then also have some lights added to the existing fixture set up.

Friend, COB (Chip On Board) is introduced for energy conservation. COB chips have more diodes mainly nine or more accordingly. So, this can produce more lumens with less energy.
Due to the presence of reflectors, which enables it to provide light for the extremely dense areas. If you don’t know about it, just try it. This is good for setting designs.
This will produce less heat also.