I have a goalpost Stand that I use either with or without the lighting posts depending how much lighting I take out, but this is not the problem. I am looking at a front covering to hide all the cables and mess and was wondering what other people use and if there was any particular fabric that worked best (ie the baize that hotels use).

Any and all ideas greatfully recieved.

Many thanks



Vinnie

I use a DIY starcloth which almost gave me a nervous breakdown to make, but the end effect is worth the effort.

Previous to that, I used black drape material which I got from a local Theatrical group (who owed me a favour). Similar stuff is available off the roll, from staging suppliers and is similar to black velvet. Very heavy Duty and rugged and is actually what I made the starcloth from too .

To secure it - use adhesive backed Velcro hook 'n' loop fastening strip around the bars of the stand at the front, so that it wraps around the side of the stand base as well - securing on the DJ side of the stand.

Hi Vinnie,

My console has stick on Velcro (loop side) all around it (as does the lid that I some times use on a stand as a CD table). I made up a piece of black material using iron-on hemming tape and stick on Velcro (hook side) which attaches around to cover the stand, wires and amps underneath.

The material is long enough to go all around the console (all four sides) or will still cover the front and sides when I add the "CD table" (lid) next to it.

Last summer I made up another one in white to look better for weddings. After reading on this forum a couple of months ago about lights behind a white table cloth I tried putting a fluorescent tube covered in pink gel behind it. (See pic below.) This works so well that I am now thinking of possibly using some colour changes instead.

The pic above was at a wedding where the bride wanted a "minimal set up" with no lights showing before the disco started as the actual ceremony took place in the same room.

The pic is just after I set up an hour before the ceremony. There is also a couple of Gladiators on each end of the wide windowsill behind, and two more under the console behind the white cloth. If you look closely you may just see the sub in the corner on the right, behind the plant thing.

Having seen the photo of Chris' star cloth I was very impressed.

I have used a black cloth, 3foot square boxes, but more often than not use a piece of black painted 1/2 inch MDF with my name on the front. This has two sides 12" deep which fold on piano type hinges. Smart and simple, and when folded takes up virtually no space!

Here's the only decent picture I have of the Starcloth so far, and even then its still a little blurry!. However you can see the effect.

just out of interest how wide is that stand chris?? 4ft?


DM

Hi all,

We use a DJ stand with built in goal posts, and have also done the velcor trick to hold up the fabric on the front, generally we use a black cloth but soemtimes chaneg the colour. If its just a normal do, and not a wedding we also have our sign on the front just with the name on it. At weddings we only set up the stand with the black cloth on no signage, but are always willing to fit in with a coulour scheme if requested.

Another trick we cottoned onto was usingthe cd case lids as shelves under the dj stand, we stick those down with velcro too.

Not sure I like the look of that white cloth with the light under it, perhaps the pic doesnt do it justice.

I do know of one DJ who only uses a table at his dos and just puts a table cloth on it, he uses very few lights as well.

Chris, that starcloth looks great! How did you make it? Is it fragile?

Robbie,

The star cloth isn't fragile at all, since it uses plastic fibre optics which can be bent and flexed without the risk of breaking or getting damaged.

There is no power or wires travelling through the actual cloth and so no risk of fire and it is therefore 100% safe. Since the material used is from a stage and costume supplier it is fire retardant in any case, although the risk from self combustion from the fibres alone is nil. The colour changer itself has a motorised colour wheel, so the light actually changes colour!.

There are 100 fibres within the cloth, and the ends of each fibre are simply pushed through a random pin hole in the fabric, then glued in place with a hot glue gun with the excess fibre trimmed flush with the cloth, which in use gives a very intense spot of light. The fibres are then bunched behind the cloth in looms, and all emerge neatly from a corner where they connect to the light box. The loom of 100 fibres are cable tied and then heatshrink is carefully (to avoid melting the fibres) shrunk over them for protection.

I had another identical piece of cloth neatly sewn over the back of the front cloth which sandwiched the fibres, and acts to protect & hide them. The finished project works 100% and looks very effective. After use, the cloth folds neatly, and is stored inside a gym bag along with the colourchanger.

Probably the hardest bit of a custom starcloth manufacture is the patience and time needed to do it. I spread the project over 3 or 4 weekends and all in all it probably took around 7 hours. If you had somebody to help you, then you would probably complete it all in one weekend.

The trick is to work on one fibre at a time, lay the cloth out flat on a large pasting table or similar, and then position one fibre, cut it down to size - allowing a little bit extra, push it through a pin hole, glue it, and then trim down the excess which protudes through the front of the cloth. Then move onto the next fibre and so on. Pretty soon you have a loom of fibres which can be bunched into small groups and then glued to the back of the cloth, to the corner where they all emerge. The result is rather like a roadmap of a motorway with lots of roads branching off it.

The whole thing cost me well under £200, which included the purchase of the Glue Gun - which does happen to come in handy for Jobs around the house, and sticking down ripped vinyl on speaker cabs! .

I thought that might be the case, pics dont always show off lighting effects to their best, usually cos we are in darkened rooms etc, I do much prefer a cloth front to light boxes, I think that they can look very dated these days.

anyone know how much star cloths are then, would likeone for the front of our dj stand

Chris,

my only critisism of your star cloth is that your equipment (CD player / Laptop / Mixer Etc) is still on show, if you look at Eskies (I have bought one as well now), all this is hidden making the presentation a lot more tidier.

many of the hotels etc that I work for insist on this type of star cloth booth

To give you an idea of what ian means check this photo

As you'll see from the photo, this starcloth booth hides all of the cables & control eqpt and also gives space to hide cases etc. If your supplier is nice you may even get the free balloons with it

I concur with what Ian says abour certain venues in the *The City will often only book DJ's that have a starcloth booth or something similar which hides all cables and control equipment.

*For those outside of London and wondering why the reference to 'The City'. This is the financial centre of London and is near to the west-end, and is usually just referred to as 'The City'. It's originally what was London; 1 square mile!! London's grown just a little since those days though

It is also I believe the most expensive square mile in the world for property etc.

I wonder if an abyss would work behind a cloth????? Anyone tried it yet?

I'll concur with ian - there are certain venues ive done in the city at christmas etc which just expect a starcloth as standard. Not really sure why they stipulate a starcloth over a black table cloth etc - i guess they're just used to starcloths so thats what they want to see. I usually nab one of me mates starcloths for the whole christmas period but i'm going to knock one up myself over the summer.
Regards
Steve

very nice eskie m8
ill have to have a go at doing one myself