Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist

Good lighting is a main ingredient of a successful trade-show booth. Just the right lighting system can help an artist create the atmosPh Meter. Total: $ 60.00

Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist

Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist

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Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist

Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist

· 2 Straight Connectors by Thumbnails, Item # 120716 Portfolio, for joining two of the track sections end to end. The idea is to have only one cord to Plug in from a rowof four lights. Total: $ 5.92.

· 2 Cord and Plug Sets, Portfolio brand, Item # 120827, to power track from a standard AC wall outlet. I connected these to the end of the two sections of the track by unscrewing the covering on one side of the track. Total: $ 17.06

· Various multi-purpose Ties (cable ties), by Catamount, for attaching tracks to booth pipes. Total: $ 5.00

· 2 heavy-duty extension cord/power strips-14, 15-feet gauge, with three outlets each, Woods brand, from Lowe 's, Item # 170224, 82965 model. Total: $ 22.00

Grand total: $ 213.86

The Gimbal lights I chose to only accept 50-watt PAR 20 bulb, which made it easy to pick out the bulbs. So in this case, the fixture drove the choice of bulb, not the other wayaround.

According to the Bulb Ph Meter 5 when it reaches 10 feet away. It offers about 12 foot-candles worth of light at 10 feet away from the bulb (a foot candle is the level of illumination on a surface one foot away from a standard candle.)

For the sake of comparison, PAR 30 beam offers a diaMeter of more than 10 feet away at 8, and you still get about 14 foot-candles at that distance. What happens if you notch it up to a 75-watt bulb? You get a lot more foot-candles (38) at 10 feet away. This suggests that larger trade-show booths might want to take advantage of higher and higher watt bulbs PAR.

All together, the track lightingsystem I chose uses 400 watts of electricity. This left me another 100 watts to add specialty or accent lighting to my booth, while still remaining at the 500-watt limit.

Cords, Plugs and Hanging Lights

The Las Vegas Convention Center has very strict rules for cords, plugs, and hanging lights.

The two-pronged, 18-gauge cords that the manufacturer has attached to your lights are acceptable (leave the UL tags and labels intact). These lighting cords cannot be plugged into the convention center outlet, however. Instead, you must plug them into a three-pronged, heavy duty, 14 gauge extension cord-or a breaker strip with a 14-gauge cord. You can then plug that 14 gauge extension cord-into the convention center outlet.

A 14-gauge extension cord is capableof handling 1.825 watts. It's helpful to read the brief extension cord sizing and safety-information on the web pages of the Underwriters Laboratories (www.ul.com/consumers/cords.html) and the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service ([http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FY800]) before purchasing a cord.

Bruce Baker suggests the cord be 20 feet with six outlets, and that it include a cord reel. I couldn t find this type of cord at Lowe 's, so I decided on two 15-foot, heavy-duty, 14-gauge extension cord/power strips, each offering three outlets. If you have a larger booth, you can find a 25-foot cord with three outlets at Lowe 's.

There are so many different approaches to hanging lights, and so many variables to consider, that it could be a topic for anotherarticle. In general, you can hang or clip lights onto a cross bar or onto the hard walls of your display if you have them. Depending on the rules of a particular trade show and the size your lighting system, you may be permitted to attach the lights to the booth's existing pipe and drape.

Since my booth design does not include my own walls, my lights will attach either to the existing pipe or to a cross bar. Cable ties (commonly called zip ties) appear to be tool of choice for attaching tracks to the pipes or bars, and even for attaching additional cross bars to existing pipe and drape. One artist I know uses Velcro strips, followed by cable ties to secure the attachMents. There are a few enTire websites for cable ties. One of them ishttp://www.cabletiesplus.com.

The multi-purpose Ties purchased from Home Depot. They can bundle 4 inches in diaMeter, withstand temperatures up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and hold up to 50 lbs.

Accent Lighting: LEDs

There are many ideas for accent lighting, although a fAir treatMent of the topic is beyond the scope of this article. Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is one technology that is experiencing breakthroughs and growing Fast. It takes many LEDs to equal the light output of a 50-watt bulb, and LEDs are fAirly expensive, so LEDs aren t ready for prime time when it comes to lighting a whole booth.

There are several close-up applications for LEDs, however, that are worth looking into now. An example is the in-counter light bars sold by MKDigital Direct at http://www.mkdigitaldirect.com (at a whopping $ 175 per foot). The more affordable MK Sparkle Light Pocket ($ 30) is a portable device that has extra long-life of over 100.000 continuous hours and promises to give jewelry maximum sparkle and scintillation.

The Nexus mini LED light system (www.ccl-light.com), meanwhile, offers a lot of illumination for its size to puck shape not much bigger than a quarter. The company says it is for direct display lighting of crystal and glass, and it can even be submerged in water. The light is attached to a cable that ends in 12 to plug, and has mode switch with seven different color choices. Unfortunately, white is not one of the color choices, and at $ 25 it's a bitexpensive. Still, a few of these lights combined with room lighting could draw viewers into your booth and toward your most dramatic displays.

LEDS also include tube lights, flexible, linear lights, lights and bulbs. Superbright LEDs (www.superbrightleds.com/edison.html) has a collection of 120-volt screw-in LED bulbs for accent and other low-lighting applications, as well as a host of other fascinating products such as plant up-light fixtures.

At this writing, the search was still on for accent lighting to give my booth an extra special glow. Stay tuned for a future article on the results.

Online Resources

The following list is not an endorseMent, but rather a starting point for research on lighting systems, cable ties, and accentlighting.

http://www.ccl-light.com-inexpensive and many choices, has Bulb Photometrics page to help determine how much light and what kind you want from a bulb

http://www.direct-lighting.com-stem-mounted and track lights

http://www.usalight.com-large selection of lighting and bulbs

http://www.bulbs.com – quick visual comparison of PAR bulbs (halogen section)

http://www.cabletiesplus.com-Cable (zip) ties for securing track lights to pipe

http://www.mkdigitaldirect.com-LED lights for jewelry cases

http://www.american-image.com/products/lights/lights.html-a nice selection and visual layout of stem-mounted and other lighting (but not cheap)

http://www.brightmandesign.com/products/wash-super.html-goodtechnical information and images of lights set-ups for trade shows; several stem-mounted clip-on designs

http://www.superbrightleds.com-LED accent lighting, including screw-in bulbs and light bars

Lighting at the end of the Craft Trade Show Booth-Options for the Budget-Conscious Artist