The production world needs inverted lighting like up needs down, black needs white, and yin needs yang. Some luminaires, like automated fixtures, come with their own built-in floor stands and need no accessories to stand in an inverted position. Others, like PAR cans and Lekos, not so much.
One of the rites of passage for an aspiring lighting professional is to come up with a way to floor mount fixtures that weren’t intended to be mounted on the floor. The impro-vised solutions might include a boom base or a large square piece of metal or aluminum through which a hole is drilled to fasten the yoke. (Be sure to countersink it so it doesn’t wobble!)
But a new solution from Staging Dimensions could change the way we think about inverted lighting. The Kickstand, developed in conjunction with Levy Lighting NYC, is a dual-yoke mount-ing kit that can be attached to any ETC Source Four fixture. It’s a clever accessory that allows you to rig the fixture in the truss or to use it on the floor without having to find, carry, and attach an-other accessory like a floor stand or boom base.
The dual yoke can be set up to provide a stable base that doesn’t easily tip over, or it can fold back on itself and be adjusted to act just like a single yoke with a clamp. The second yoke has a cutout to accommodate the neck of the clamp so that the two yokes align with each other and act as a single yoke. You can even leave the clamp on the yoke and split the two yokes to mount the fixture on the floor. In that setup, the clamp and two points on one of the yokes provide a stable three-point base that can save the time that would ordinarily be spent re-moving the clamp.
The Kickstand includes a braking clutch that is easy to use and locks in place. It is made of aluminum finished with black powder coat, but other colors are available by custom order.
The Kickstand from Staging Dimensions can work as a floor stand for an ETC Source Four fixture with a clamp…
…or without a clamp.
{mosimage}The dual yoke can also fold back on itself and mount to a truss.
