I have an image, using Iray. I wanted to simulate a TV, the light coming from it. So, I stuck 6 spots of different colors coming from the TV, at the audience. (Sticking through it, out of the front glass)
I cranked the angle so it would look less like spotlights, but when i renedered it with IRAY, colored balls appear as the source of the light.
I turned off the visual representations, but the balls still appear.
Is this just Iray and spotlight behavior?

Thanks!

No, if you turn Spotlight visibility off, it should not render in Iray at all.

But there is no need to use any spotlights. Use natural emissive light from the screen image to illuminate the room and audience.
First crank Self-illumination for the TV screen and render to see if there is enough light coming from the screen.
Important: TV screen normals must be pointing outside. Inverted normals would create unpleasant effect and would not emit light correctly.

If that is not enough to illuminate the room, create a dummy in front of the TV screen.
Apply GI Emissive Plane_Square place it in front of the TV screen and make it the same size.
Apply the same TV image to the emissive material of it, crank Self-illumination to max.
Then make it a dummy and select Emit GI.
In Iray now it would be invisible but still illuminate the room.
Now you may play with Base Color Map and Emissive Multipliers for the dummy to control amount of light without disturbing the TV screen image.

This is a basic setup:



Iray render of it (no other lights in the scene other than emissive dummy in front of the screen):

Thank you again for the help. That's perfect.  I DID turn spotlight visibility off, but they still render as colored balls. I have no idea why.
Your solution will work perfectly, if I can figure out how to apply it. 
Thank you so much!

Maxx

Okay,
Tried this and failed. I can make the emissive dummy, but it doesn't seem to add light to the scene.
These are a little dark with Iray. I can increase levels in photoshop and they look better, but the best so far is without Iray.
Only lights are the TV screen and the lamp behind the couch.

Regular render

Render with Dummy emissive plane doesnt show, but doesnt help

Render with emissive plane not dummied out

I know it's me, I just don't know why?

Thanks!

I haven't used Iray in a long time, but did you increase the Emissive setting for the dummy in Iray? 

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I think I cranked it up and it whites out the screen. So, I gave up.
Can't really do what I want in Iray. It's nice, results are great, but no effects so it's limited.

Did it in regular Iclone Render and it looks fine.

Thank for the help, though.  Much appreciated.

Maxx

I think I cranked it up and it whites out the screen.

Don't crank it up... just look at my first screenshot and carefully work around those values.

Okay, I'll try that. I do like to learn these nuances and really appreciate the help I get in here.

I don't think (just my ignorant opinion) that people will use Iray until it can do what the regular renderer can do. I understand why it can't use popcorn special effects since those are calculated and there's nothing to bounce light rays off of at any given time (as Iray is written now). But, they can do it with the native renderer so maybe there is hope. Unless you do still lifes, you have to composite everything using another program and add special effects afterward. Must be what everyone does.

Still, thanks again.
Maxx

Took me awhile, but I finally got it to work, but not without a lot of surprises.
1. There is a shadow around the emissive plane, even though it is a dummy.
2. My Christmas Tree with all the lights disappeared completely from the Iray image, leaving some weird reflections on the non dummy TV. (These could also be the spotlights I used previously, even though they are turned off and not showing)
3. Not surprisingly, you can't see any of the particles, fire, sparks, or the Point lights I used to light the tree.
I DID get the emissive plane to look better and you could move it closer to the audience so it looked better, but all in all, IRAY not worth the trouble or time.