Uplighting !

When you have questions or you are ready to book your CKE Wireless, RGB, DMX ( the best you can get ) Uplighting, E-mail or call 866-667-8910      24 / 7. We are here 7 days a week and we have no life ...except to serve you ! Wireless Up-Lighting is a very popular trend, currently.  Curtis Knight Entertainment has 60 uplights and, put very simply “We can light anything !” Use our soft colors to augment and enhance the early moments of your reception.   Then, the stronger colers for later when the action takes over your dance floor. Strobe effect, chase effect - you name it ! We will notate your  color choices and reproduce them flawlessly.  Add a custom monogram / GOBO designed with your initials or names projected onto the dance floor, wall or any other surface.   We will take any design you have, and make it into a projection GOBO.

Most people use 20 lights for their celebrations.  We recommend 1 light for every 10 people attending as a minimum.

Uplights …what to look for and what questions to ask.
Uplighting is currently the rage for weddings in the New England region.  If you are planning adding uplights here is what you need to know…and ask.
How much did you pay for your Uplights ?
Cost: some Uplights are $59 to purchase them,  each at Guitar center and the good ones are $500 - $600 per fixture.   Ask your Uplight vendor how much was paid for each light.  If you ask me I sure do know.   They should know.
How far do your Uplight beams reach ?
Depth of throw: some  uplights throw the light about 12 feet and some throw it 30 feet.  If celebration is in a venue that has very high ceilings then you might want to order uplights that have a long throw, so they can shoot their beams high into the air.   if your Uplighting vendor hesitates when you ask how long the throw is, it means that he / she does not know and most likely they have “short throw” Uplights, which are gorgeous yes…but might not hit the ceiling of the castle. 
Are your Uplights Preset L E D or are they R G B ?
L E D or R G B:  Predetermined L E D color schemes are less expensive and so they are more popular to the Uplight vendors.  With these uplights, you have a predetermined set of colors, like maybe: red, dark blue, light blue, green, pink, yellow, amber, orange and white.
The Uplight operator must pick one of those colors to come as close to the colors that are in the room you are lighting.  If your Uplighting system is RGB based,  this means your fixtures are able to accept any combination of 16 million colors and the operator uses a “joy stick” to dial in the colors necessary to match the colors presented at the event.  RGB is typically more expensive and a tiny bit more complex to operate, but the end result is far more interactive and breathtaking.  At CKE we use RGB.

Are your Uplights DMX controlled ?
DMX:   DMX is a global controller spec created especially for the effects lighting industry.  DMX allows you to have a master controller that sends control signals out to any number of lighting or effect devices.  Even 1000 or more lights.   DMX allows you to control them all simultaneously, where you can make all 1000 lights do the same thing and the same time.  Or you can decide that 500 of your lights will be teal colored and 500 of them will be magenta.  So one half of the room is teal and the other half is magenta.   Or you can decide that every other light will alternate - teal, then magenta, then teal, then, magenta and so forth.  Each Uplight has an address and your controller knows the address of each device because the operator programs each Uplight.  Without getting too far into the weeds, every  Uplight  has a unique address that the operator will assign to it, using a series of dip switches.  When all the assigning  of addresses is done, you can program the controller / mixing board  in advance to save a series of “scenes”.  Each seen will be a collection of commands to specific addresses.  The end result is a roomful of uplights and a magical sequence of one breathtaking scene after another …At CKE we use DMX controllers.

Are your Uplights fully wireless…as in no cables or extension cords ?
Wireless: They should be battery operated and should last for 8 hours

How do you generally operate your Uplights ?
Operation:  Generally for a ceremony and for cocktails and dinner your operator should leave the uplights “static”.  This leaves them unchanging, with no motion.  When the dancing starts, this is where a talented Uplight operator can really add some sizzle and zip to a celebration, with a variety of action scenes that seem to MOVE the room and add phenomenal excitement to your celebration !

Teabo / Melvin Reception, Colonial Hotel - Gardner, MA 07-22-11


Teabo / Melvin Reception, Colonial Hotel - Gardner, MA 07-22-11

Fulgoni / Croteau 11-27-11 Sky Meadow Country Club, Nashua, NH

Fulgoni / Croteau 11-27-11 Sky Meadow Country Club, Nashua, NH

Black Swan Country Club, Georgetown, MA Magazine Shoot 11-17-10

Black Swan Country Club, Georgetown, MA Magazine Shoot 11-17-10

$100 per hour additional, above and beyond 5 hours