Due to the social distancing required to fight the current worldwide Coronavirus pandemic, live-streamed video has seen a huge surge in popularity over recent weeks. Individuals, organizations and corporations are all using this technology to stay in touch with their audiences, but many aren’t equipped with the necessary lighting technology to do it effectively. For this reason, ADJ has created a series of new lighting packages that are designed to make it easy and affordable for both individuals and organisations to enhance the visual appearance of their video recordings and live streams.
From singers and musicians livestreaming performances direct to fans, to companies offering online training, to churches hosting virtual worship services, online video streaming is being widely embraced. However, it’s likely that the living rooms, meeting spaces and offices that are now becoming makeshift studios don’t have the best light conditions for video recording. And good lighting is important. It ensures that viewers can see clearly, and therefore feel connected with, the person they are watching.
“With a bewildering amount of choice available, ADJ wants to make investing in the right live stream lighting as simple and cost effective as possible,” explained ADJ USA’s National Sales Manager, Alfred Gonzales. “Our new Live Stream Lighting PAKs feature carefully selected bundles of lighting fixtures, with stands and other accessories included, that provide a one-stop-solution for live stream lighting. Ranging from a simple single light package suitable for individuals on a budget, through to advanced professional setups designed for multi-person broadcasts from churches or businesses, we are offering PAKs that cover a range of budgets and requirements. All the PAKs feature everything that’s need to get the lighting up and running, and all are designed to help make users look their very best when ‘going live’!”
The ADJ Solo Stream PAK is a simple and affordable package that combines an Encore FR20 DTW with an LTS6 tripod stand. Featuring a 2-inch Fresnel lens and powered by a 17W warm white LED engine, the FR20 DTW is a compact wash fixture that produces a soft-edged warm white beam of light. Designed to provide simple keylight illumination, this first PAK option is intended for single trainers, presenters, vloggers and influencers on a budget who want to quickly and easily improve the image quality of their live video streams.
Extending this a little further, the ADJ Entry Level Stream PAK features two FR20 DTW lighting fixtures along with two LTS6 stands. This allows for a more flexible lighting system that can be used either to illuminate two people on screen together or to light a single presenter from both the left and right side of the camera. This will give more depth to the speaker’s face and help to fill in shadows, for example under the eyes, to create more professional and also more flattering video images.
The FR20 DTW fixtures feature their own internal dimmers, which can be controlled from a knob on the back, however they are also Triac dimmable so can be used with an external dimmer pack. The ADJ Starter Stream PAK combines a pair of FR20 DTWs with a pair of LTS6 stands as well as an ADJ Uni Pak II dimmer. This 1-channel (two output) dimmer allows DMX control and also features both on-board and external fader control that can be used to easily alter the brightness of the two Fresnel fixtures without having to use the knobs on the back of the fixtures. This would allow a presenter to easily dim their lighting mid-stream.
Offering a larger, more professional solution, the ADJ Basic Stream PAK combines three Encore FR50Z lighting fixtures with three LTS6 stands, a DMX dimming controller and three DMX cables. With a 6-inch Fresnel lens, the FR50Z features a 50W warm white LED light source and also offers manual zoom control for a beam angle variable between 8 and 50-degrees. This means the three fixtures included in this PAK could be deployed in a variety of ways depending on the application. For a single performer or presenter, one unit could be zoomed in to provide keylight to really make them pop, while the other two units (zoomed out) could provide left and right fill lighting. Alternatively, fully zoomed out, the three fixtures could provide front light across an extended area to illuminate multiple (social distancing) performers.
The ADJ Advance Stream PAK steps up the brightness another level by including three of ADJ’s Encore FR150Z wash fixtures alongside three LTS6 stands, a COB Cannon Wash ST and four DMX cables. Featuring an 8-inch Fresnel lens and powered by a 130W warm white LED engine, the FR150Z is the largest fixture in the Encore FR range. Meanwhile, the COB Cannon Wash ST is a potent colour wash fixture that features a 150W RGBA COB LED source housed in a compact enclosure. This PAK is designed to boost the three-fixture lighting setup described above with more power, allowing a larger area to be illuminated, as well as add coloured background lighting. The COB Cannon Wash ST can be used to easily illuminate the wall behind a presentation or performance in any colour, using its in-built scissor yoke, to make the video stream more engaging and to increase the visual separation between the speaker/performer and the background.
Finally, the most advanced option on offer is the ADJ Variable White Stream PAK, which allows more advanced content producers to alter the colour temperature of their lighting. This combines a single Encore FR150Z with a pair of COB Cannon Wash ST DW fixtures, three LTS6 stands, a COB Cannon Wash ST and four DMX cables. The COB Cannon Wash ST DW is a wash lighting fixture that features a 150W 2-in-1 warm white / cool white COB LED for a variable colour temperature of between 3200K and 6400K. This means that, in addition to keylighting from the FR150Z and coloured background lighting from the COB Cannon Wash ST, the COB Cannon Wash ST DWs used for fill lighting can be set to a cooler colour temperature to balance out the warmth of the keylight and create more definition in the image captured of the speaker/performer.
In addition to offering these affordable and convenient lighting solutions for video streaming, ADJ is also hosting free training (via a live stream, of course) to help content producers, performers and vloggers achieve the best possible lighting for their video broadcasts. Part of ADJ’s ‘Stay Connected’ series of education videos, the session ‘Light Up Your Live Stream’ will take place on Tuesday, April 21. It will be hosted by ADJ’s Product Specialist, Jake Rhodes, alongside ADJ’s Vertical Market Manager for the worship, theatre, TV/broadcast and education markets, Bob Mentele, and will cover both the theory and practicalities of achieving great looking video streams through effective use of lighting.
All of the Live Stream Lighting PAKs are available now from ADJ dealers, distributors and subsidiaries worldwide.