People ask me  questions all day long about gobos, from, “what is a gobo?” to “what are the differences between glass and steel gobos?”. Having worked in the theatrical lighting business for over 20 years, these seemed like simple questions to answer when I first took on the task of being a sales/rental rep at Kinetic Lighting.  But answering these questions was surprisingly difficult. In the lighting world, you just know what a gobo is and what it does, much like how a golfer knows a pitching wedge from a driver.

Years ago, one of my first new customers called and asked, “what does a gobo do?”. I wasn’t far into my answer before  feeling like he had asked me to explain the function of a proton in the nucleus of an atom.

Customer: What is a gobo?

Me:  Well, a gobo is a, uhh…a gobo.  It’s, it’s….it’s…well, you use it to light things on a wall or set…I mean, lighting designers, you know, for theater, they use it to…it’s a thing you plop into a light to make a thing happen on the wall and you can see it, I mean…everyone can see it.  That is, everyone who is looking at it can see…it. In any event, that’s what a gobo is.

I would have preferred the proton question.

Monogram projection at wedding

As the years have gone by, I’ve become better able to handle these questions.  To make things a little easier for the newcomer, I’ve put together some information about gobos and feel this is as good a forum as any to share it.

What is a Gobo?

A gobo is a flat piece of glass or metal with a design in it.  When a light source sits behind the gobo, the design is projected onto a surface (usually a wall, building, set piece, or floor). Custom gobos are used to project  images in light. This maybe done for branding and promotional purposes, to convey a theme or message, to generate a particular ambiance, or simply for fun (e.g. monogram projected onto a dancefloor at a wedding). Whatever the purpose,  lighting is an eloquent (and effective) means of projecting imagery.

Light Source

Your projection will also require a light fixture. The fixture is offered separately from the gobo and may be rented or sold. You can choose from a variety of light fixtures. I often help people figure out which light fixture (or light projector) to buy or rent. Here are details you can provide me with in order to make a recommendation:

• The purpose of the event or permanent install
• The distance between the light fixture and the surface you are projecting
• The image size you want on the surface
• The importance of energy efficiency

It is rare for a glass gobo to burn through the way steel can. However, fragility is an issue.

Types of Gobos

A gobo is typically made of steel or glass. There are big differences between the two, not the least of which is cost.

Steel gobos have artwork cut into them. Light passes through the cuts, or openings, resulting in the projected image. The cut-out process requires tabs or bridging of the steel (like stenciling) to keep curves and O’s in tact. So your logo may appear slightly different in the projection than in the artwork. And since this process entails metal cut-outs, color is not included in steel gobos (the fixture used to project light through the gobo may be fitted with a filter for a specific color). These can normally be used multiple times but will eventually burn through. Steel gobos are commonly used for short-term applications.

Glass gobos feature artwork embedded directly onto glass. This results in higher-resolution imagery than the steel version, and may also include color. Glass gobos will typically last longer than steel. It is rare for a glass gobo to burn through the way steel can. However, fragility is an issue: Drop a glass gobo, and it can crack or break; Steel won’t.

Black-And-White glass gobos are popular with users who donʼt want to pay the additional charges for color. Black-and-White Glass may include grayscale images, and, due to the higher resolution, the integrity of artwork remains intact (sans color).

One Color glass gobos are rare, but they do exist.  It is perfect for artwork that has just one color and white (e.g. red & white Coca Cola logo).

Two Color glass enables color to pop. This is also an ideal choice if your artwork has any two colors other than white (black is considered a color).

Full Color is when the logo has more than one color in their artwork and the the color-integrity of the artwork is highly important. Full Color gobos are also the choice if you wish to project a gradient.

Artwork & Content

Gobos can be made from nearly any common graphics file format: eps, pdf, jpg, psd, png, tif, ai.  Caution: don’t submit a .doc fle for gobo manufacturing because the artwork can get altered.

Artwork Tips

• Bright, vibrant colors (for glass) project best.
• Keep text and lines away from edges.
• Text should be big and bold.
• Avoid lengthy text.

If you don’t have artwork or a graphic designer, there are sites that I can send you to where you can pick out fonts and designs, just let me know.

Pricing

Pricing varies between the different types of gobos.  The first gobo you purchase is called an original and you can purchase a duplicate (same artwork, size and gobo type) at a reduced rate. Artwork is kept on file so if you find yourself in need of a copy a couple of years down the road you can still get the duplicate price.

Rush charges can apply if you need a quick turnaround.  I can get you the specific details, just ask.

Do you have questions about gobos?  You can contact me for additional information.

I first saw it at Event Live Expo in Los Angeles in 2011. Realizing the 880 would fill a void we had in moving light rental stock, I made my case to James and Daniel (who didn’t get a chance to see it). They bought in. And we bought — or so we thought — VL880s. Turns out, the fixture wouldn’t be ready to ship a year later. Fast forward a year…

This shipment arrived at our Glendale facility the first week of January 2012. The lights arrived in cardboard boxes which were printed to look like flight cases. Cute. We powered them up and only 1 unit didn’t strike. After Erick, our senior tech, fiddled with it, all units were fired up.

The first thing we noticed was how bright the Philips Platinum 35 lamp is. Coupled with Vari-lite optics, the VL880 is damn bright (Vari-lite measures output at 19,000 lumens, per their spec sheets). Flat field performance is great. And the gobo selection is better than most. With 2 gobo wheels, you’re able to achieve some really nice texture and motion effects. The other plus with the stock gobos is how well they work for beam effects, too: Tunnel, check. Flat plane, check. Leafy breakup, check.  Circles in triangular formation, check.

The fixture’s color-mixing system consists of Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta wheels for seamless blending options, augmented with a dicroic, indexable wheel. This type of setup has been standard fare for years, allowing designer to have seamless mixing and the ability to pop to hard-to-mix colors on the fixed wheel, but Vari-lite has been widely praised for it’s color mixing, a feature the VL880 inherits.

Vari-lite did a great job with the form factor, too. The VL880 housing is sleek and compact (for an 800w-source fixture). Let’s face it, there are some great moving lights out there packaged in some ugly housings. And while this may not be the most important factor in a moving light, we are in a business that’s all about pretty visuals (and as Steve Jobs proved, the beauty of every detail, not matter how small, matters). The 880 weighs in at 56lbs. (without clamps), a manageable figure for a fixture that can hold its own against the big guns.

It’s also worth mentioning the VL880 features auto-voltage switching. This is huge for a lighting rental company. This means we can send the fixture out with L620 connectors and if a user wants to run the units at 120v, they simply connect adapters and go. No fuses to fuss with!

We just used the light on a gig for the first time the response was great. Our crew especially liked the unit. We look forward to getting them out on many more.

We’ve got a few lighting picts up — shots of lighting equipment — and will be working to quickly expand the photo albums. Once we’ve got a few more equipment picts up, we’ll focus on event lighting images. We’ve got tons of them, so I expect a lengthy process there.

The setup was fairly painless but overall, Google+ does not have the most intuitive interface. And it lacks some basic features like the ability to change the cover of a photo album. To be fair, it’s relatively new.

If you’re into lighting, stop by our page. And do check back — We’ll be updating content regularly.

The party was in the front building, which proved to be a perfect space. Room for lighting, food, people, and a big white elephant gift exchange. Rachel handled the lighting which turned out beautifully (check out the picts!). A few sticks of truss around the room elevated our new Legend 412 moving lights and COLORado LED pars and were uplighted with Elation LED blacklights (purple light emitted from the blacklights reflected off the silver truss to reveal our company colors — Nice touch, right?). Our new Batten 72 LED striplights were placed around the room ro uplight the walls and a strategically placed COLORado gave our photo area some needed front light. Said photo area was in front of Daniel’s office where a Christmas tree was joined with a big inflatable snow man.

A few parties back, we started a Honeybaked Ham tradition, so Andrea made arrangements to have them cater this year, too. Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, and gravy. Nobody left hungry. And by by the end of the following day, there was no food left.

I handled the music, a throwback to my old-school DJ days (I actually considered bringing in the turntables and rocking Sorato…maybe next year?). The homemade playlist was supposedly synced to my iPhone, but upon firing it up at the office, it clearly didn’t sync completely. No biggie…rebuilt the playlist on the office machine. Thanks again, Steve.

James and I grouped a bunch of photos together for a slideshow presentation. Usually we’re sharing event lighting photos, but for this, it was all about showing the Kinetic family. I though I had some classic, but he really had a good archive of embarrassing shots. Everyone got a kick out of the slideshow. We looped it throughout the night.

Darts and beer pong were big hits, but the highlight of the night was the $20 white elephant gift exchange. It was the biggest we had in years, and the most fun. Jennifer helped keep it moving. Gifts were given, received, stolen, re-stolen, and re-re-stolen. Judging by the smiles on everyones’ faces, all were happy with their choices.

What a great time. The bar has been set high for next year’s party.

Martin showed off both architectural and theatrical lighting equipment. The gear was all housed in their mobile showroom, parked against one side of our parking lot. Robert Scariano controlled all fixtures from an M1 console. Geg Jones led most of the demos.

Robert Scariano runs demos from an M1

This was the 1st time most of the attendees — and all of us at Kinetic — got to see the Martin’s Mac AuraLED moving wash light. And it blew everyone away. The eye candy is fun, the quality of light is great, dimensions, weight, and power consumption are exceptional, and it’s priced attractively. What more can you ask for in a moving light? I think a lot of those who saw it are now looking at ways to get it, present company included.

Guests view the Mac Aura

Of course, the architectural line, Mac 101, Mac 350 Entour, and Mac III were all impressive as well. Judging from their questions and reactions, our guests were interested in all of the product lines.

I’m grateful to Martin for swinging by, and to those who attended.

Checking out Greg's presentation

The Solar Structure

As Kinetic Lighting’s principal designer I worked closely with Josh Mark, FOX Broadcasting Company’s Executive Director of Event Production and Director of Sustainability to first design a solar truss structure to cover a large portion of the Step & Repeat and Grandstand areas. This structure was covered with numerous solar panel arrays to generate power for the red carpet lighting. As an added benefit the panels created shade for the fans and press, helping to solve a complaint from previous years.

Photo By 2me Studios

Emmy Solar Truss Structure

Red Carpet Lighting

To add just the right amount of fill lighting for the red carpet lighting I  then utilized a combination of KinoFlo Image80 fixtures for the primary fill and Phillips Color Kinetics iwBlast TR fixtures as groundrow units to illuminate the 390’ red carpet and step & repeat areas. These energy-efficient LED and fluorescent light sources consumed only 21,000 watts, approximately one-sixth the power of traditional lighting methods which would sap as much as 130,000 watts of power. The energy-efficient method consumes less power than the average home consumes in one day, whereas the traditional method would be equivalent to five and a half days of power consumption.

Photo by 2me Studios

Step and Repeat Press Lighting

The Media Center

In the Media Center, where the award winner’s are interviewed by the press, not a single “conventional” fixture was used. All the task lighting, stage lighting, and event lighting was either LED or Fluorescent. I decided to use large Compact Fluorescent Lamps to illuminate the general workspace for the press and create a base illumination throughout the space. To both diffuse the light and help minimize uncomfortable glare I had the lights hung inside 24” diameter white paper lanterns.

Photo by 2me Studios

Media Center Digital Production Area

At the General Press stage award winners are interviewed by members of the media and broadcast on news outlets throughout the world. I used our HighLux 990 fixtures for front fill and Prism Projection’s RevEAL CW fixture, an LED wash light, as a backlight. The color-mixing LED source gave me the warm golden backlight I was looking for – helping to create a subtle nod to this year’s Emmy theme “Television Gold”.  I lit the room with white-light LED softlights. The tunable color temperature allowed me to create just the right feel for the house lighting, not too warm, and not too cold.

Photo by 2me Studios

Emmy General Press Broadcast Interview Room

CFL Studio Reflector Flood fixtures were used in the Photo Press stage creating a base fill and backlight for the dozens of press all seeking the perfect shot of the celebrities.

Lastly, I used Chauvet COLORado 1 Tri Tour LED wash fixtures to colorfully illuminate the two lounge areas in the Media Center. By varying the lensing on the units I was able to provide broad color washing for the walls, narrow pools of light for seating areas, and functional illumination of bars and buffets, all with the same units.

Photo by 2me Studios

Emmy Media Center Lounge

With my team’s unwaivering commitment to the task we were able to provide 100% energy-efficient lighting while not sacrificing any creative or production requirements.

Here’s a list of the new gear that will be on display at the Road Show at Kinetic:

Snacks and beverages will be provided. All who are interested in seeing Martin’s newest line of theatrical and architectural fixtures are invited to come by. Martin reps will be on hand, and of course, our team will be present.

We purchased some GrandMA 2 Light consoles at the end of summer, so the training is pretty vital. We expect our crew will be comfortable on this desk before long.

In keeping with the event’s 70s theme, Rachel made liberal use of mirror balls. Guests entered from the sidwalk, walking underneath a 20″ mirror ball that refracted light from a pinspot. Inside, small table-top mirror balls were placed on decor pieces and were illuminated with LED pinspots (we used LEDs as much as we could to reduce our power requirements). Two additional 20″ mirror balls were hung from the ceiling, complete with 1 RPM motors for rotation, and LED pinspots.

LED pars provided a color wash on walls, art pieces, and the ceiling. They were programmed to output pink and blue light, two colors used prominently in Paul Frank merchandise. Rachel repurposed some LED UV blacklights that were intended to be projected onto a banner with the Paul Frank logo (it was moved at the last minute, so we couldn’t get the UV effect on the logo) and instead focused them on the venue’s walls, between art pieces. The walls were white so the UV light made them pop.

The Paul Frank step-and-repeat was a big hit, as guests seized the opportunity to get their pict snapped in front of the iconic logo. We used High Lux fluorescent soft lights to illuminate this area. The fluorescent source was another energy-efficient technology that helped us make the most of the scarce power available.

This event not only looked great, but it was a lot of fun. The Paul Frank team was great to work with. And judging by the constant inflow of guests, it seems the event was a success.