Strip lights get their name from their construction--it is a strip of lights. These are usually used to provide a "wash" of light over a large surface, like the cyclorama.Each strip will contain 12-15 separate lights. Every third light is circuited together. Thus, a single strip light will have three plugs. What this allows us to do is insert three different colored gels, and using our dimmers we can control the relative intensity of each color. So, if we put in primary red, primary green, and primary blue (these are the primary colors in light), we can conceivable create any color we want by just controlling the relative intensity of each color.
Thus, these lights are very effective at creating mood lighting on the back drape, or at suggesting things such as a sunrise, or the nightime glow of moonlight.
These lights are virtually always used onstage, either mounted on an electric to shine down, or mounted on the floor to shine up.
