Quiz: Lighting, Sound, and Atmosphere

Target: 70% or higher. Have a calculator.

Section 1: Multiple Choice (1 point each)

1. The chapter's threshold concept is:

  • A) Lighting should always be warm
  • B) After sunset, light is the list of what the design contains
  • C) Lighting is the most expensive design category
  • D) Every wedding needs a lighting designer
Answer **B).** In daylight a room exists and light reveals it. **After dark nothing exists until something lights it** — the tent wall, the rafters, the faces at table nine, the path to the restrooms. Each is present or absent depending on a fixture decision. **Which makes lighting not a layer on top of the design but a list of what the design contains** — and the cheapest such list. *Reference:* §18.1

2. The five jobs of light are ambient, accent, feature, practical, and effect. Which three make a room look intentional?

  • A) Ambient, feature, effect
  • B) Ambient, accent, practical
  • C) Accent, feature, effect
  • D) Feature, practical, effect
Answer **B) Ambient, accent, practical (1, 2, and 4).** A room with those three done well and nothing else looks intentional. **A room with only job 5 — effect — looks like a school disco**, and job 5 is exactly what the DJ brings. *Reference:* §18.1

3. A DJ's lighting rig is not a lighting plan because:

  • A) It is too expensive
  • B) It does job 5 only, points at the dance floor, and is off until the dancing starts
  • C) DJs are not qualified
  • D) It draws too much power
Answer **B).** It does nothing for the walls, ceiling, tables, bar, or path — **and it is off until first dance, which is typically 60–120 minutes after the room goes dark.** **A wedding lit only by the DJ is a dark room with a bright rectangle in it.** Ask every DJ in writing: what do you bring, where does it point, and when do you turn it on? *Reference:* §18.1

4. The correct colour temperature specification for wedding string lighting is:

  • A) "Warm white"
  • B) 4,000 K
  • C) 2,700 K or warmer, CRI 90+
  • D) Whatever the supplier stocks
Answer **C).** **"Warm white" is a marketing term spanning roughly 2,700–4,000 K.** At 3,500 K against 2,700 K table light you have **two colours of white in one room**, which reads as a mistake even to people who could not name it. **Specify the number.** And CRI 90+ on anything lighting a face or a plate. *Reference:* §18.2

5. The free lighting decision that most often saves a design is:

  • A) Adding more uplighters
  • B) Dimming the string lighting
  • C) Turning things off
  • D) Changing gel colours
Answer **C) Turning things off.** Work lights, venue fluorescents, the rental company's floods. **A single unswitched fluorescent will beat $900 of design.** **And it needs a procedure, not an intention:** walk the space, find every switch, write down which position each should be in, and put it on the run sheet with a time and a name. *Reference:* §18.2, §18.7

6. The two things most often missing from a lighting plot are:

  • A) Position and aim
  • B) Colour and intensity
  • C) Circuit assignment and load per circuit
  • D) Height and rig time
Answer **C).** **And they are what make it a plot rather than a picture.** A drawing that shows where fixtures go but not what supply they are on and how many watts each circuit carries cannot be rigged from and cannot be checked against a generator. *Reference:* §18.3

7. 100 feet of incandescent string lighting draws approximately how much more than the LED equivalent?

  • A) Twice as much
  • B) Four times
  • C) Ten times
  • D) About the same
Answer **C) Ten times** — 600–1,000 W against 60–100 W. **Which means a single aesthetic decision can add a generator size**, at roughly $280–$510 all in for 400 feet. **And the third option most suppliers do not lead with: LED filament-style bulbs**, which look almost identical at 2,200 K and draw LED wattage. Ask for them by name. *Reference:* §18.4

8. The 25% headroom in a power budget is:

  • A) Slack you can spend if you need to
  • B) Derated capacity for startup surge and imbalance
  • C) A margin for the generator hire company
  • D) Optional at small events
Answer **B).** **Do not spend it.** A budget at 97% of nameplate fails at 8 p.m., and when it fails the lights, the DJ, and the restroom trailer stop together. *Reference:* §18.4, Ch.13

9. The most common serious production failure at a wedding is:

  • A) The DJ playing the wrong song
  • B) A generator trip
  • C) Nobody could hear the vows
  • D) The lighting being too dim
Answer **C).** **And it costs $150–$300 and thirty minutes to prevent.** Outdoors has no acoustic; sound drops ~6 dB per doubling of distance. Wind destroys a mic signal. Nobody projects. **And the most common configuration puts a mic on the officiant and none on the couple**, so guests hear the officiant clearly and the couple not at all. *Reference:* §18.5

10. The ceremony sound item most often skipped is:

  • A) The speakers
  • B) A microphone on one of the couple
  • C) Music playback
  • D) A mixer
Answer **B).** **One lavalier between two people standing eighteen inches apart carries both.** It costs almost nothing and it is the difference between a hundred people hearing the vows and a hundred people watching two people appear to speak. The second-most-skipped: **a handheld on a stand for readings.** Readers are rarely miked and are the second-most-common inaudibility. *Reference:* §18.5

11. Sound drops approximately how much per doubling of distance outdoors?

  • A) 3 dB
  • B) 6 dB
  • C) 10 dB
  • D) 20 dB
Answer **B) ~6 dB.** A dance floor at 100 dB(A) at 3 feet is roughly **76 dB(A) at 50 feet** and **58 dB(A) at 400 feet**, before any screening by buildings, hedges, or terrain. **Which is why an open field carries and a walled courtyard does not** — the same band at the same level is a complaint at one venue and not at another 200 yards away. *Reference:* §18.6

12. An uplighter placed flat against a wall:

  • A) Gives the most even coverage
  • B) Lights a bright oval and leaves the wall dark
  • C) Is the correct placement
  • D) Uses less power
Answer **B).** **Pull it 12–18 inches out and angle it 10–20°** and the same beam rakes across the surface, lighting perhaps three times the area and showing the texture of timber or canvas rather than flattening it. **It costs nothing, takes ten seconds per fixture, and almost nobody does it.** *Reference:* §18.3a

Section 2: True/False with Justification (1 point each)

13. A rental company's "lighting package" includes a lighting plan.

Answer **False. It is a quantity of fixtures with a delivery attached.** It typically does not include: **focus** (aiming each fixture at what it is supposed to light) · **dimming or control** · **an operator after the delivery driver leaves** · **cues** · **bases, stakes, or sandbags** for outdoor uplighters · or weatherproofing beyond whatever the fixture happens to be rated for. **Ask in writing: "does this include focus, and who is on site when it is dark?"** The honest answer is usually *no* and *nobody* — which is fine, **as long as somebody else is doing it and has been named.**

14. Lighting can be handled by a competent amateur; so can sound.

Answer **Half true, and the half that is false matters more.** **Lighting can largely be rented and plugged in.** Fixtures either work or do not, the failure mode is visible in daylight, and a mistake is fixable at 4 p.m. **Sound cannot.** Feedback, gain structure, and microphone technique are skills, and **the failure mode is that a hundred people cannot hear a wedding** — at the one moment that cannot be repeated. **Two lighting tasks a competent amateur should still not do:** anything overhead (rigging is a load question with people underneath), and anything involving mains electricity outdoors without RCD/GFCI protection.

15. A venue contract that says "no amplified music after 10:30" tells you what you need to know about sound limits.

Answer **False. Read it for what it does not say.** It sets **no level limit before 10:30**, it does not define **"amplified"** (does a speech PA count?), and it does not say **who enforces it or what happens at 10:31.** **And it is a different instrument from a licensing or planning noise condition**, which binds the venue to an authority, is frequently a dB(A) limit at a boundary, and exists whether or not the contract mentions it. **A venue can be contractually compliant and in breach of its own licence at the same time** — and the second lands on them, so they will enforce it on you.

16. "Warm" and "moody" are the same request.

Answer **False. They pull in different directions and couples ask for both.** **Warm** wants many small even sources at low colour temperature. **Moody** wants contrast — bright and dark in the same room. More sources means less contrast; more contrast means darker gaps, which reads as cold unless the sources are warm enough. **The resolution:** warm sources, fewer of them, further apart, at low intensity — with real light on the tables so the pools have somewhere to be. **And the tie-breaker whenever two design words conflict: reversibility.** Give them warm first and moody second, because turning things off is free and adding fixtures at 7 p.m. is not.

17. Raising the light level fixes a room that feels gloomy.

Answer **Usually false, and it frequently makes it worse.** A guest who calls a room gloomy is usually reacting to **cold colour temperature or overhead-only light**, not to intensity. Raising the level of cold overhead light produces a brighter room that feels worse. **The fix is to warm it and add low sources** — table light, uplighters, anything below eye level. **"Bright" almost always means "not gloomy," not "high level."**

Section 3: Short Answer (2 points each)

18. Compute a power budget: DJ 1,600 W · 400 ft LED string · 12 uplighters at 25 W · restroom trailer 2,200 W · caterer 3,200 W. Then recompute with incandescent string and state the cost of the difference.

Sample Answer **LED:** | | W | |---|---:| | DJ | 1,600 | | String, 400 ft LED (80 W/100 ft) | 320 | | 12 uplighters × 25 W | 300 | | Restroom trailer | 2,200 | | Caterer | 3,200 | | **Subtotal** | **7,620** | | +25% headroom | 1,905 | | **Required** | **9,525 W = 9.5 kW → a 10 kW generator** | **Incandescent** (400 ft at ~800 W/100 ft = 3,200 W, replacing 320): | | W | |---|---:| | Subtotal | **10,500** | | +25% | 2,625 | | **Required** | **13,125 W = 13.1 kW → a 15 kW generator** | **Cost of the aesthetic decision:** | | | |---|---:| | Generator upgrade | $180–$320 | | Additional fuel, ~11 hrs | $40–$70 | | Heavier distro and cable | $60–$120 | | **Total** | **$280–$510** | **What to say:** *"the filament look is about four hundred dollars, and it's entirely yours to spend. Here's what four hundred dollars is elsewhere."* **Not "we can't" — a price.** **And offer the third option:** LED filament-style bulbs at 2,200 K, which look almost identical and draw LED wattage. *Rubric:* Both budgets correct with headroom applied; must size both generators; must price the difference across all three components; full credit gives the price rather than a refusal and names the LED-filament option.

19. Write the outdoor ceremony sound plan for 140 guests with no power within 200 feet.

Sample Answer **Kit:** | | | |---|---| | **Battery PA**, 4–8 hrs runtime | **0 W and no cable run.** The whole reason this is easy | | **2 powered speakers on stands, flanking, angled in** | Two sources beats one at 140 guests. **Not behind the guests** | | **Lavalier on the officiant** | Hands free, consistent level | | **A second lav or discreet mic on one partner** | **The item everyone skips.** One lav between two people 18 in apart carries both | | **Foam windscreens on everything** | $4, and it prevents the most common outdoor failure | | **Handheld on a stand for readings** | Readers are the second-most-common inaudibility | | **A music feed** | Processional, recessional, signing | | **One person who operates it** | The DJ, **present at 4:00, having tested it** | **Cost: $150–$300 rented.** Most DJs include it. **The test — and this is the part that matters.** At the rehearsal, put the **actual** officiant and the **actual** couple in the **actual** positions and have them speak at the volume they will actually use, which is quietly and with embarrassment. **Walk to the back row.** Not a technician saying "one, two." **The couple, saying words.** *Rubric:* Must specify battery PA and say why; must include a mic on the couple, not just the officiant; must include windscreens; must name an operator; full credit describes the rehearsal test with the real people at the real volume.

20. Write a lighting cue sheet for an evening with sunset at 7:20, first dance at 8:45, and an amplified-music curfew of 10:30. Include the free cues.

Sample Answer | Time | Cue | Owner | |---|---|---| | 07:00 | Generator on; **work lights on** (5,000 K, load-in only) | Rentals lead | | 13:00 | String rigged, tested, **then switched OFF at the distro** | Rentals | | 15:00 | Uplighters focused and tested, left at 30% | Lighting | | **16:00** | **ALL work lights OFF. Every one. Walk it** | **Planner** | | 16:25 | Ceremony PA live, levels confirmed | DJ | | 18:30 | Bar and practical lighting on | Bar lead | | **19:20** | **★ STRING LIGHTING ON.** Nothing else changes | **Named person** | | 19:35 | Uplighters to 100% | Lighting/DJ | | 20:40 | Second-space festoon on; work lights confirmed off | Named person | | 20:45 | First dance; DJ rig live | DJ | | 22:25 | **House/practical lighting up 20% — the gentle signal** | DJ | | **22:30** | **Amplified music off** | Planner | | 22:30 | Path and parking lighting confirmed on | Planner | | 23:15 | Work lights on for strike | Rentals | **The three that cost nothing and matter most:** **16:00 — every work light off, walked and checked.** The single highest-return line on the sheet. **19:20 — the reveal.** It only exists because 13:00 switched them off. **A design decision that is entirely a scheduling decision.** **22:25 — lights up 20%.** A social instrument, not a technical one: it tells a room the evening is ending without anyone saying so, and makes 22:30 expected rather than abrupt. *Rubric:* Must include the off-before-on pairing for the reveal; must include the all-work-lights-off sweep with a person; must name owners; full credit includes the pre-curfew lift and explains it as social rather than technical.

Section 4: Applied Scenario (5 points)

21. A wedding for 180 guests in a converted mill with 24-foot ceilings, exposed brick, and industrial windows. Ceremony 4:00 in a walled courtyard (power available). Dinner inside 6:00. Dancing 9:00 to 1:00 a.m. Sunset 8:40. A 5-piece band. The venue's own lighting is 4,000 K downlights on a single non-dimmable circuit. There is a noise condition: 62 dB(A) at the boundary after 11 p.m., and the nearest house is 80 feet from the courtyard.

Design budget for lighting: $2,800.

Produce: (a) the lighting plan by job; (b) the power check; (c) the sound plan; (d) the cue sheet's five most important lines; (e) the noise problem and what you do about it.

Sample Answer **(a) The lighting plan.** **The governing fact: 4,000 K non-dimmable downlights.** They are cold, they are overhead-only, they cannot be dimmed, and if they are on, nothing else in this plan matters. **So the first decision is free and it is the most important one: they go off at 6:00 and stay off.** Everything below assumes that. | Job | Spec | Cost | |---|---|---:| | **1. Ambient** | **6 runs of warm festoon**, 2,400 K, across the 24 ft ceiling at 14 ft AFF — **low, so the room reads intimate rather than cavernous** | **$1,150** | | **2. Accent** | **18 uplighters**, 2,700 K amber, on the brick at 8 ft centres, **pulled 15 in off the wall and raked** | **$630** | | **3. Feature** | 2 pin spots — the cake and the head table | $110 | | **4. Practical** | Bar light · courtyard path · restroom corridor | $340 | | **5. Effect** | **The band's own rig**, dance floor only, from 9:00 | Included in band fee | | **Control** | **DMX pack + operator for the evening** — see (d) | **$450** | | **Held** | | **$120** | | **Total** | | **$2,800** | **Note the two big calls.** Festoon at 14 feet under a 24-foot ceiling **deliberately builds a lower ceiling out of light** — the single most effective thing you can do in a tall industrial room. And **$450 on control rather than on more fixtures**, because this event has four distinct looks and no way to change between them otherwise. **(b) Power check.** Mains venue, so the question is circuits rather than a generator. | | W | |---|---:| | Festoon, 600 ft LED @ 75 W/100 ft | 450 | | 18 uplighters × 25 W | 450 | | 2 pin spots | 80 | | Practicals | 200 | | **Band with PA** | **3,500** | | DMX pack | 50 | | **Subtotal** | **4,730** | | +25% | 1,183 | | **Required** | **5,913 W** | **At 1,920 W usable per 20-amp circuit, that is 3.1 circuits — so four**, and **the band must be on its own** (3,500 W is 1.8 circuits by itself). **The question to ask the venue in writing: how many independent 20-amp circuits are available in the main room, and where?** In a converted building the answer is frequently "three, all on one breaker," which is a different problem entirely. **(c) Sound plan.** **Ceremony, courtyard, 180 guests, power available.** 2 powered speakers flanking and angled in · lav on the officiant · **second lav on one partner** · windscreens · handheld on a stand for readings · music feed · **the band's engineer present at 3:30 having tested it with the real people.** **Dinner, inside.** Brick and a 24-foot ceiling is a **long-reverberation room** — it will sound enormous and speech in it will be mush. **Toasts need: a mic on a stand at a fixed height, speakers flown or on stands near the speaker rather than at the room ends, and level kept low.** Do not use the band's dance-floor PA for toasts if it is aimed at the floor. **Dancing.** The band's own system. Agree a level in advance and a hand signal. **(d) The five cue lines that matter.** | Time | Cue | Owner | |---|---|---| | **17:45** | **★ VENUE DOWNLIGHTS OFF.** All of them. Walked and checked | **Planner** | | 18:00 | Festoon on at 70%; uplighters on at amber | Operator | | **20:35** | **★ Festoon to 45%, uplighters to 100%** — the sunset shift, five minutes before | **Operator** | | 20:55 | Pin spots off; practicals confirmed | Operator | | **22:55** | **★ Doors and windows closed; level check at the boundary** — see (e) | **Planner** | **(e) The noise problem, which is the real content of this scenario.** **62 dB(A) at the boundary after 11 p.m., and the nearest house is 80 feet from the courtyard.** **The arithmetic:** a band at 100 dB(A) at 3 feet is ~72 dB(A) at 80 feet in open air. **That is 10 dB over the limit**, and 10 dB is subjectively about twice as loud. **This is not a marginal problem.** **But the dancing is inside, not in the courtyard** — and that changes everything, because a masonry building with closed windows gives roughly **20–30 dB of attenuation.** Inside at 100 dB(A), with the windows shut, the boundary sees perhaps **45–55 dB(A)**, which is compliant. **So the plan:** 1. **Nothing amplified happens in the courtyard after dark.** The ceremony at 4:00 is fine; there is no evening courtyard music. **This has to be told to the band, in writing, because "can we do an acoustic set outside" is a question that gets asked at 10 p.m.** 2. **Industrial windows close at 22:55**, before the 11 p.m. threshold, and it goes on the cue sheet with a name. **Not at 11:00 — before it.** 3. **Point the band away from the courtyard-facing wall.** Free. 4. **Take a reading at the boundary at 22:40** with a meter, so you know rather than hope. **If it is over, you have twenty minutes.** 5. **Confirm with the venue, in writing, who is responsible if the condition is breached** — and note that the consequence lands on their licence, which means they will enforce it. **And the scheduling move from §18.6: the loudest forty minutes go at 21:30–22:10, not 23:00.** A complaint at 21:40 is fixable; one at 23:10 is a shutdown with two hours still on the booking. *Rubric:* | Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | |---|---|---|---| | Plan (a) | Lists fixtures | Organised by job to budget | By job, **and identifies the venue downlights as the governing decision**, and builds a lower ceiling out of light | | Power (b) | Sums loads | Adds headroom, converts to circuits | Both, **plus the band on its own circuit and the right question to ask a converted building** | | Sound (c) | Specifies a PA | Ceremony and reception separately | Both, **plus the reverberation problem in a brick room and what it does to toasts** | | Cues (d) | Lists times | Names owners | Owners, **plus the off-before-on discipline and a change cue timed ahead of sunset** | | Noise (e) | Notes the limit | Computes the boundary level | Computes it, **recognises that indoors changes the answer entirely**, closes the windows before the threshold, measures rather than hopes, and schedules the loud part early | *Scoring: (a)=1, (b)=1, (c)=1, (d)=1, (e)=1.*

Scoring and Next Steps

Score Assessment What to do
Under 50% Needs review Re-read §18.1, §18.4, §18.5. Redo Part A and B.1.
50–70% Partial Do B.1 and B.7. The power arithmetic and the cue sheet are the chapter.
70–85% Solid Proceed to Chapter 19. Do C.2 first — ten minutes with a camera.
Over 85% Strong Proceed. Deep Dive: case-study-02.md, then C.3 and E.2.

Regardless of score: do C.2. Photograph one room with everything on and then with only the warm low sources. It takes ten minutes and it is the whole chapter in two images.