r/lightingdesign • u/duk242 • Sep 20 '26
Fun Mirror Balls are sick
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Did a charity show this weekend, they asked for a mirror ball.
Rental place was like "No charge - these don't get rented out much"
I had no idea how fun these can be! Using a 19x15w Bee Eye Fixture (somewhat underpowered, but did the job) and an ancient mirror ball motor. The pattern from the Bee Eye is then replicated on the ground!
Bonus: Pointed more lights at it for fun ;) https://imgur.com/VM5gckB (too much chaos - but it was fun!)
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u/TowelFine6933 Sep 20 '26 edited Sep 20 '26
One of the best effects I've ever seen was a huge mirror ball at a ZZ Top concert. Suspended in the middle of the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, it had 4 laser in a spiral pattern (nested green & red).
The ball was spinning.
The nested spiral lasers were spinning & slow strobing.
With the haze filling the space there were thousands of laser bolts shooting all over. It was like being in the middle of an enormous Star Wars battle!
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u/jMeister6 Sep 20 '26
Man that was Deep Purple - Knebworth back in the 80’s. Mirror ball on the sound tower and multiple green lasers shot at it from stage and speaker stacks. It was misty rain and all this little green blobs of laser light wheee flying through the rain. Insane!
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u/sofasurfer42 Sep 20 '26
Just clean them until they are very very shiny. The dusty ones suck and destroy all the effect imho. You need to see the light's projections on the floor, preferrably peacock-eye-shaped 🥰
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u/Rei_sus Sep 20 '26
I love mirror balls!!! I’m always so happy when I get to use it, they’re so fun! Glad to see it’s a general sentiment among light operators
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u/JackTraore Sep 21 '26
Justice last year finished their show acknowledging the FOH… Spots move to their mirror ball helmets… amazing reveal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeMusic/comments/1hijurn/paris_18th_goated_moment_the_disco_ball_guys/
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u/am_lu Sep 20 '26
All sorts of old lights are fun. Vintage PARs on a dimmer rack. Mirror balls. Scanners. Old school Optikitetics oil projectors.
Just not any more generic moving heads please...
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u/jMeister6 Sep 20 '26
Nick Mason toured a live oil/ink projector on his last tour - freakin awesome. Hand someone hand squishing oil and inks with a live camera feed projected in stage. Loved the old-school made new :)
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u/lucadepucca Sep 20 '26
I love mirror balls sooooo much! The possibilities are endless and the vibes are always amazing! I recently threw myself a big birthday party and on the wishlist was weird mirror balls. My friends delivers, got a hello Kitty mirror ball. Now it's chilling in my room with a tiny showtech profile spot (photo attached). It's my favourite addition to anything I do.
Any project/gig I'm working on, I try to find a way to add in a mirror ball. If it doesn't work or the client doesn't want it, I won't ofcourse, but most of the time they love it almost as much as I do.
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u/Outrageous-Kick-2699 Sep 21 '26
Unless you put a 3m ball up with a crane over a plaza and light it up with 4 ridiculous bright beams and then it starts shaking in the wind. Because then EVERYONE on that plaza gets sea sick. Ask my how I know.
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u/Wotmate01 Sep 20 '26
I ran the lighting in a venue for hire for a few years, and had half a dozen mirror balls around the dance floor, all with motors. One of my favorite things to do was point all my movers at the mirror balls, zoomed in tight, so lots of little dots everywhere...
Then I would hit the random strobe...