What is a Gobo?

A Gobo is best compared to a stencil or photographic slide. They are used in all manner of stage lights, automated lights and projectors. Gobos can be used to project logos, patterns or photographic images.

They can be made of metal, black and white glass or coloured glass and range in size from 22.5mm to 100mm in diameter. We have a range of adaptors to fit all types of lighting equipment and projectors.

What types of Gobo are available?

• Metal

• Black and white glass

• Coloured glass

Here are some photos of the different types of Gobos and the projections they achieve:

Metal vs Glass

Metal Gobos are the cheaper option, this is because they are made of a cheaper material and can more easily be mass produced. The drawbacks of metal Gobos are:

a) Tagging

b) Only black and white images

c) Limit on detail

d) Longevity

We manufacture all our metal Gobos using super-high quality brass alloy. This material has superior thermal characteristics, making our metal Gobos much less prone to heat distortion and burning out than standard steel gobos.

Glass Gobos

We only use the highest quality materials. All of our glass is supplied by Beacon AB of Sweden, whose thermally robust borosilicate glass substrate coupled with high density sputtered coatings make for the best gobo material. Beacon Black Line gobos incorporate a unique dark mirror coating on the reverse side of the Gobo, this drastically cuts down on internal reflections within the lamp and produces a sharper projection with much less glow or ‘halation’ around the projected image.

Black and white Gobos

These allow for very fine detail images to be realised, even on small gobo sizes. Using the most advanced imagesetting technology available, we can produce extremely small text and images which are pin sharp. We can also produce high resolution greyscale images with fine shades and blends and photographic quality images.

Colour Glass Gobos

We use the patented Beacon Full Colour Gobo™ process. This uses ultra thin zero expansion dichroic layers producing a very thin finished Gobo which will actually fit in modern automated fixtures. It also keeps all the layers of the image effectively in the same focal plane, this is particularly important in the many fixtures now available with high quality projection optics. This process uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK (CMYK) colour mixing. This allows us to produce a very wide range of colours as well as full high definition photographic style images. We produce three main types of colour Gobos:

1) Single colour, clear and black.

These allow you to have for example text and a coloured logo on the same Gobo or to have a coloured background with clear and black text or graphic elements. Colour in this instance refers to flat colour and does not include gradients.

2) Two colour, clear and black

These allow you to have for example text and a coloured logo on the same Gobo or to have a coloured background with clear and black text or graphic elements. Colour in this instance refers to flat colour and does not include gradients.

3) Full colour

Your imagination is the limit, we can reproduce multiple colours, shades and gradients and extremely fine detail. Complex graphics, realistic colour photographic images are all possible using this method.

More about Projected Image

Projected Image was established in 1999 to address the need for a reliable and affordable custom Gobo manufacturer with a fast turnaround and great customer service.

We are the UK and Europe’s premier gobo manufacturing company and our reputation has become synonymous with the highest standards of finished products and excellent customer service. All our gobos are manufactured in-house in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, we are also 100% British owned and operated.

Our dedication to customer service and providing leading edge products has made us a trusted and go to business name in the live event production industry. We supply gobos to a global market, of Theatre shows, Commercial trade shows, company launches, bespoke events, re-branding, Live music shows and intimate weddings.

To find out more about Projected Image visit their website www.projectedimage.com or find them on Twitter @projectedimage and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/projectedimage