Marquee Lighting

[Eddie_Brock]

Greetings, I will be building my own cab soon, out of MDF board, using a fairly standard upright layout.
I would like to do a lighted marquee at the top, with some sort of illuminated artwork.

I am curious what is the recommended lighting option? I have seen some people use LED lights, lots of incandescent, and a few flourescents. Personally, I would like to avoid using incandescent lights for this, because of the heat issue. Obviously LEDs are a great option because of the low consuption and unlikely chance of having to replace bulbs. However I'm concerned that a LED light bar would not be enough illumination for my project.

Opinions?

[SavannahLion]

LED light bars have enough illumination. It's what Groovy Game Gear offers.

If you're not into LEDs. Ultimarc offers a cold cathode illuminator.

Note: Follow the directions and do not, under any circumstances, connect either of these products to 120V (as is typical in arcade cabinets with incandescents or flourescents) you will burn them out and everyone here will laugh at you.  

Edit: Oh, before I forget. You might want to look into diffusing the light and reflection. People tend to complain about uneven lighting about any method.

[Eddie_Brock]

You might want to look into diffusing the light and reflection. People tend to complain about uneven lighting about any method.

I've never heard of this issue, although I can imagine... I was reading up on www.arcadecab.com earlier today, and he installed a 12" fluorescent tube in the top of his cab. At the time I too thought the majority of the light would come through the top, but looking at his completed pics, they looked pretty good.

What do most people do to tackle this situation?
(by the way, thanks for the tips)

[Eddie_Brock]

You might want to look into diffusing the light and reflection. People tend to complain about uneven lighting about any method.

Anyone have suggestions?

[SavannahLion]

I would start with an actual installation first and see how it looks. Then make adjustments based on what problems you may encounter. To be honest, I prefer the uneven appearance because that's how I remember most arcade cabs in the wild. Marquees with uneven lighting, burned out bulbs, etc. I like "perfect" cabinets, but there is a point where you quickly reach diminishing returns on your efforts and short of using sheets of EL, it'll be too much work to get absolutely perfect even lighting.

In any case, these are all suggestions other people have offered.

A reflective "mirror" behind the light source. Either polished metal or an actual mirror. The polished metal found behind some fluorescent fixtures is probably what most people think of.

Paint the inside of the marquee box with white paint. The intention of this is similar to the mirrored piece but diffuse the light a bit better. IMHO, this would only work with certain types of paint.

Cut a white diffuser to fit behind between art and light. The idea is to diffuse the light a little more evenly through the marquee. Might not work well if you have dark spots.

For smaller light sources it's been suggested to use more than one.

I think the diffuser is the simplest and most promising. More than a few marquees I have have a white layer on the back, which I presume is meant for diffusing the light.

[Eddie_Brock]

Thanks for the ideas.. I will probably put some pics up when I get my cabinet all complete. 

[Chris]

The rear plexi on my marquee is spray-painted with white enamel, which ended up being quite translucent when lit by a standard flourescent bulb, and the interior of the cabinet behind the lamp is also painted white.

[Eddie_Brock]

So I have primed the interior of my cabinet with White BIN Primer/Sealer. I am happy with the result and I think that it should do a good job of diffusing the light sufficiently. I also found a cheap 23" flourescent fixture at a local electrical shop, and I'm fairly confident it will do a nice job, once properly mounted.

I may resort to getting another fixture if it turns out this isn't bright enough. These fixtures can be daisy-chained together (max 10), and are definitely cheap enough. Once I get some artwork printed up and my marquee mounted, I will report back, for anyone else interested.

Thanks again for the suggestions folks.