Musikmesse 2013: American DJ WiFly Portable LED Lighting

You know how we love doing things in new ways here at Digital DJ Tips. We love clever portable, good value and modern ways of doing things. So we fell in love instantly with the American DJ WiFly lighting concept. Basically, WiFly replaces lighting cables with a wifi system. You have a small DMX mixer (DMX is to lighting what Midi is to audio), that connects wirelessly to your lighting system. the lights themselves would probably be modern, compact LED and battery driven, although this system can work with any lighting via various “breakout” boxes to have wired lights involved too.

Using such a system, you can use front-of-house lights, uplighting, washes and so on as part of your personal lighting system for your shows, all lightweight, portable and without having to install tens of metres of heavy cable. This means you can take and set up lights at your shows with a fraction of the hassle of before. With DJing becoming increasingly about differentiating yourself from the next guy, adding a portable lighting rig to your set-up would for many DJs be a smart move, and modern LED lights combined with wireless control could be set to make that a possibility for millions of DJs who previously couldn’t afford or weren’t attracted to the available lighting systems.

We’ll ask American DJ if they can put together a typical starter rig for review, so watch this space for that, but meanwhile here’s a video with a bit more explanation and a look at some of the gear:

Video

Does this kind of system tempt you to add some lighting to your rig? do you already have a lighting system that works for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments.