Products
How To Pick Your Overhead Lighting (House Lights)
Jan
Choosing House Lights
Springtree is one of the industry leaders in LED house lighting solutions. This guide will help you pick which house lighting solution is right for you.
“House lights” is a theater term referring to the lights that illuminate the auditorium.
Springtree House Lighting can be divided into two categories:
1. LED Spatial Pendants
2. Lo-Vo Architectural Lighting
LED Spatial Pendants are standalone fixtures, while Lo-Vo is a comprehensive system of low-voltage fixtures powered and controlled by a Power Driver. Both LED Spatial Pendants and Lo-Vo are DMX controllable. The Lo-Vo system includes our popular Spatial Flats, Spatial Flat Pendants, and LED Spatial Bars.
You can easily determine the right Springtree lighting solution for your needs by considering the following factors.
Height
Height is typically the primary consideration when selecting house lighting. The following measurements are general recommendations and should be used as guidelines rather than strict rules.
| Fixture | Recommended Height | Recommended Spacing |
| LED Spatial Pendants | 15’-30’ | 10’-16′ |
| LED Spatial Bars | 15’-30’ | 20 feet: 8’-12’ spacing, 30 feet: 6’-8’ spacing |
| 30Watt Spatial Flats | 7’-14’ | 6’-8’ |
| 50Watt Spatial Flats & Spatial Flat Pendants | 8′-20′ | 6’-8’ |
For applications over 20’, LED Spatial Pendants or LED Spatial Bars are required. Many facilities with varying ceiling heights use a combination of fixtures. A popular choice for churches is to pair LED Spatial Pendants for high ceilings with 30-Watt Spatial Flats for drop ceilings under balconies.
Power
If you are replacing incandescent fixtures, and you already have power in the ceiling where the new fixtures will be installed, and the height and spacing align with our recommendations, choosing LED Spatial Pendants is the obvious choice.
Gymnasiums
Many auditoriums are multi-purpose and also serve as gymnasiums. If you have an open-ceiling facility where basketballs or volleyballs may be flying through the air, we recommend using LED Spatial Bars. This helps avoid the risk of a ball hitting a pendant-style fixture. LED Spatial Bars are part of Lo-Vo.
Control
Both LED Spatial Pendants and Lo-Vo are DMX controllable, making them completely comparable in terms of DMX control. Both can be used with any DMX console and are fully compatible with our extensive range of DMX Control Stations.
Click here to learn more about DMXDIY
Another important consideration is the ease of self-installation. Lo-Vo fixtures were designed to be safe and straightforward for a handy person to set up, and in many states, you don’t need a permit for low-voltage fixtures (check your local codes). We’ve had customers whose venues would otherwise be ideal for LED Spatial Pendants choose Lo-Vo instead, simply because they couldn’t afford an installer or electrician to run armored cable. Even though they had to use more Lo-Vo fixtures to achieve the required brightness, it was still more cost-effective than going with LED Spatial Pendants.
If this is your situation and your venue’s height exceeds our recommended limit for Lo-Vo fixtures, contact us. We’ll help calculate how many fixtures you’ll need to achieve the required brightness for your space.
Price
Both the LED Spatial Pendants and Lo-Vo House Lighting offer incredible value—you could nearly buy three LED Spatial Pendants for the price of a single DMX pendant from other manufacturers. That said, Lo-Vo remains the more affordable option overall.
Try Them Yourself!
More than just photos and photometric data, the best way to determine which Springtree House Lighting solution is right for you is to see them in action! Our demos include two fixtures and the necessary power drivers for Lo-Vo—at a discounted price—so you can try them in your own facility. If you love them, keep them at the lower price and order more. If they’re not the right fit, return the demo within 30 days for a full refund. All you pay for is return shipping.
Demo Lo-Vo! Demo LED Spatial Pendants!Other Considerations
You Can Mix Lo-Vo Fixtures
When using a Lo-Vo Architectural Lighting System, you’re not limited to a single fixture type—you can mix multiple fixture types on a single Power Driver.
Color vs. Warm White
Regardless of whether you’re using LED Spatial Pendants or Lo-Vo, it’s important to note that Warm White lights produce a much brighter white than the warm white created by the Full Color lights because dedicated Warm White fixtures can utilize all of their LEDs for that purpose.
Retrofitting Your Own Fixtures
If you’re looking to retrofit your own fixtures, Lo-Vo is the perfect solution. With our Lo-Vo LED modules, you can retrofit most incandescent fixtures where the light source isn’t visible. Check out the video above to see how we converted ordinary pendants from Home Depot into low-voltage fixtures with smooth 0–100% DMX dimming!
Spatial Minis
If you need to light a table, bar, or piece of artwork, our Spatial Minis are the perfect solution. Part of the Lo-Vo line, these compact 25-degree LED spotlights fit right in the palm of your hand. They can be hung as pendants, flush-mounted in a drop ceiling for recessed lighting, or used with a U-bracket as a mini spotlight. Despite their size, these powerful fixtures can create thousands of vibrant colors and lend themselves to countless creative applications.
We hope this guide has simplified your choice of Springtree house lighting. If you have any additional questions, feel free to give us a call at (615) 599-1505.
Thanks for reading!