The primary use case is to illuminate the center stage area for the speaker and music team, and the secondary use case is to illuminate the whole width of the stage for the choir & drama events.

There’s a projector screen on the back wall starting at about 5.5’ off the floor, so I need to look at lights with beam angels and modifiers that won’t spill onto the screen.

The lights will be controlled with a DMX board in the back of the sanctuary.

I still need to decide on a color temperature, as there’s tons of ambient light from windows, but the ceiling lights are a mixture of warmer color temperatures.


I haven’t been given a target budget, but I’m looking at the best bang for the buck options, as this application doesn’t warrant Arri lights.


Stage dimensions:

9’ deep (approximately)

Can't remember the width offhand.


Measurements:

• Distance from light to subject = 29.83-ft.
• Ambient light meter reading for typical Sunday service = f/1.0 at 1/60th of a second shutter speed.

Calculations:

• Target lens maximum aperture = f/5.6
• Assuming a base ISO of 100, I need +5 EV of light to attain proper exposure at f/5.6.
• 5 EV converted = 7.43224 Foot-candles or 80 LUX
• Factoring the inverse square law to determine falloff over distance = 6689.0189 Foot-candles or 72000 LUX

Questions:

1. How do I determine the base gain/ISO of a PTZ camera (I started out in photography, so I think in terms of ISO rather than gain)? The Canon CR-N300 specs list the gain as 6 to 33 dB, but what is the equivalent ISO to 6 dB, 50, 100, 200, 800?
2. Is there an online calculator that simplifies things? I used this online table to make the stated conversions.
3. What type of lighting fixtures should I be looking at? I’m not familiar with stage lighting, but have run across PAR cans, floods, and spots with focusing lenses.

Thanks.

Andrew