I bought a cheap laser a few years ago and barely used it because it was awkward and impossible to control where the beam landed, which drove me mad. It was only £45, so complaining felt pointless, but it definitely killed my enthusiasm for using lasers in shoots. I still wanted to play with the idea again, so I recently picked up an app‑controlled unit and, even just testing it, it was immediately obvious how much easier and more usable this one will be. I’m using it properly this weekend, so I’ll be able to share a more informed opinion soon.

This new laser is hefty. It weighs around 2 kg, has a built‑in battery, and can run battery or mains. The cheap one is mains only, weighs basically nothing, and is tiny in comparison. If I were rigging these on a truss, a simple C‑clamp would be perfect: clamp, hang, done. But I’ll be travelling with this and most studios don’t have truss, so I needed another solution. I wanted to mount it on a C‑stand (which most studios do have), so I can move it easily instead of being locked to a fixed overhead bar. I also wanted the yoke underneath the laser rather than having to mount it from below, just to avoid that whole headache.

There are loads of traditional mounting options for lights and lasers—standard theatre and DJ hardware would absolutely work—but that wasn’t the setup I wanted. I nearly bought a regular C‑clamp, then an Amazon search threw up a speaker mount. A bit more scrolling and I found something close to perfect. The catch: the mount has a 35 mm opening for DJ speaker poles. Gorilla stands are around £45, which isn’t awful, but I wanted to keep using C‑stands and boom arms with smaller posts.

The solution was to pair the speaker mount with an old Manfrotto umbrella adapter. It nearly worked out of the box. I removed the original locking knob and swapped it for the one from the speaker mount, which let me screw into the umbrella adapter for extra bite. It was solid, but there was still a tiny bit of play I wanted to remove, and I still needed to attach the laser yoke to the speaker plate.

A quick run to the local hardware store sorted the rest. I grabbed M8 x 30 mm bolts and nuts, M8 washers, some larger M10 washers, and a handful of M6 washers to shim the gap between the mount and the umbrella adapter if needed. In the end, only a single M6 washer would fit, but it wedged in perfectly. When tightened, you can see the metal on the mount has ovalled slightly at the weakest point, but it’s tight and should be totally fine in use. Pairing the yoke with the plate was simple: large M10 washer against the plate on both sides, with the smaller M8 washers against the M8 bolts. I’ve thrown a small safety cable on the back of the laser and through the plate for now, but I’ll be upgrading to a longer, thicker one for peace of mind.

Mounting this kind of kit can be a pain. I could have just sat the laser on flat surfaces and avoided all this, but that would kill the flexibility. This setup gives me the freedom to place it exactly where I want, with plenty of manoeuvrability. With the weight, I probably wouldn’t hang it sideways off a boom arm long‑term, but it could likely handle it. The whole mounting solution cost around £20 in parts; if you had to buy the umbrella adapter as well, the total would be roughly £35–£40. For the flexibility it gives, that feels well worth it—even if it no longer fits in the original bag unless I remove the mount each time.

Laser mounting

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