Concert Lighting Rig Checklist — Live Music Setup

If you're booking a touring band at The Independent, planning a multi-act bill at the Fox Theater, or rigging a festival stage in Golden Gate Park, your lighting rig is the difference between a memorable show and a flat afterthought. This checklist walks through the truss architecture, fixture count, console routing, and front-light strategy that separates amateur overhead cans from a touring-grade concert lighting package. We've built these systems for 200-cap clubs and 2,000-person outdoor stages across the Bay Area, and the same load-bearing math, DMX universe planning, and fixture zones apply whether you're hanging 10 moving heads or 40. This guide is written for venue managers who need to spec a house rig, touring techs evaluating rental inventory, and festival directors building multi-stage lighting plots.

Truss Anatomy: Front, Mid, and Riser Spans for a 24×16ft Stage

A band-grade lighting rig distributes weight across three primary truss positions: front truss (audience-facing downstage edge), mid truss (center or upstage-center), and drum riser truss (if applicable). For a 24-foot-wide by 16-foot-deep stage — common at venues like Bottom of the Hill or The Chapel — your front truss typically spans 26-28 feet to allow 1-2 feet of overhang per side. Mid truss runs parallel at 10-12 feet upstage, carrying backlight, aerial effects, and half your moving-head count. If the drummer sits on a 6×8ft riser, a dedicated 10-foot truss section above the kit handles cymbal backlights and drum-specific specials. Each aluminum H-frame truss section you hang must account for distributed load: eight LED par cans plus two moving heads on a 10-foot span equals roughly 120 pounds, well within spec for 12-inch box truss but pushing it for lightweight triangle truss without mid-span support.

• Front truss: 26-28ft span for a 24ft stage width, hung 12-14ft above deck, carries front washes, audience blinders, and up to 4 moving heads for key light and front specials.
• Mid truss: 24ft span at 10-12ft upstage, carries backlight par blocks, 4-6 moving heads for aerial beams and band backlighting, plus haze machine if flown.
• Drum riser truss: 10ft span directly above the kit, holds 2-4 LED pars for cymbal washes, 1-2 moving heads for drummer specials, total load under 80 lbs.
• Ground-supported side truss: Two vertical towers at stage left and right, each 12-16ft tall, carry side wash par cans and additional moving heads for cross-stage coverage.
• Weight per truss section: Budget 15-20 lbs per LED par can, 35-45 lbs per moving head, 8-10 lbs per DMX cable and safety run — a 10-fixture mid truss span hits 180-220 lbs total.

Moving Head Count Math: 6, 10, or 16 Fixtures Across Room Sizes

The number of moving heads you hang scales to both stage width and audience sightlines. A 200-cap club with a 20-foot stage needs 6-8 moving heads minimum: four on front truss for key and fill, two on mid truss for backlight, two on side towers for cross-wash. Step up to a 400-cap venue with a 30-foot stage and you're at 10-12 fixtures: six on front and mid trusses, four on side positions, plus two dedicated followspots if the headliner demands tight iris control. For a 1,000+ outdoor festival stage, 16-20 moving heads is the baseline, split evenly between 380W beam moving heads for aerial punch and LED beam-spot-wash hybrid moving heads for face light and gobo projection. Beam fixtures deliver tight 2-4° beams that cut through haze and read clearly from 100 feet back; hybrid spot-wash units give you 4-50° zoom range, CMY+CTO color mixing, and dual gobo wheels for texture. Budget $350-500 per moving head per day for touring-grade LED hybrids in the Bay Area.

• 200-cap club (20ft stage): 6-8 moving heads — four front/mid for key and back, two-four side for cross, one haze machine, 12-16 LED pars for stage wash.
• 400-cap venue (30ft stage): 10-12 moving heads — six front/mid, four side, two manual followspots, 20-24 LED pars, two haze machines for even coverage.
• 1,000+ festival stage (40ft+ stage): 16-20 moving heads — eight beam fixtures for aerials, eight hybrid spot-wash for face and texture, 32+ LED pars, three haze machines, dedicated front COB array.
• Beam vs. hybrid placement: Beam moving heads go on mid and side truss for backlight punches; hybrid spot-wash units go on front truss where zoom range and framing shutters matter for face light.
• DMX universe planning: Each moving head consumes 18-32 DMX channels — 16 fixtures at 24 channels each = 384 channels, fits one full DMX universe with room for par cans on universe two.

How many par cans do I need to light a four-piece band stage?

For a standard four-piece (drums, bass, two guitars/keys) on a 24×16ft stage, budget 16-20 LED par cans minimum. Allocate six pars across the front truss for audience-facing wash and band downlight, eight pars on mid truss for backlight color blocks (two per band member), four pars on side towers for cross-wash fill, and two pars on drum riser truss for cymbal isolation. Each LED par draws 180-220 watts and delivers 10,000-12,000 lumens; six front pars at full white output will evenly wash a 300-square-foot stage area. If you're lighting a cyc or backdrop, add another four pars as groundrow uplights. This count assumes moving heads handle all face key light and specials — if you're running a par-only rig without moving heads, double the front and side counts to 12 front, 8 side, for adequate modeling and separation.

Console Choice: GrandMA2, Avolites, and Quartz for Touring Shows

Your lighting control console determines how quickly a touring LD can program cues, busking speed during live performance, and whether the console file travels between vendors. For a 16-fixture moving-head rig with 24 LED pars, you're managing 400-500 DMX channels across two universes. GrandMA2 remains the touring standard for festival and arena shows — its command-line syntax, effects engine, and cross-fade timing are unmatched, and every LD who's toured nationally knows the interface. Rental runs $600-900/day for a grandMA2 Light console with two universes and motorized faders. Avolites Tiger Touch is the European touring preference, slightly faster for busking color bumps and strobe chases, $500-700/day. For corporate shows and smaller club gigs, a mid-tier Quartz console at $200-300/day handles basic cue stacks and fixture control without the learning curve, but you sacrifice effects layers and timecode integration. If the headliner is bringing their own LD, confirm console preference and file format three weeks before load-in — a grandMA2 LD won't thank you for a surprise Avolites desk with no showfile converter.

• GrandMA2 Light: Two-universe console for 1,024 DMX channels, motorized faders, effects engine, timecode sync — standard for touring bands and festival main stages, $600-900/day.
• Avolites Tiger Touch II: European touring standard, faster busking palettes, pixel-mapping built in, 16 universes expandable, $500-700/day, best for LDs who live in color bump workflows.
• Quartz mid-tier console: Single-universe console for smaller rigs, simplified cue stack programming, no timecode, $200-300/day — works for corporate galas and club shows under 12 moving heads.
• Console placement: Front-of-house position 60-80 feet back from stage, sightline to all fixtures, direct ethernet or DMX over Cat5 to stage racks, backup console or laptop with DMX interface mandatory.
• File prep: Request console showfile format and fixture library versions two weeks before show — grandMA2 uses .show files, Avolites uses .shw, no native cross-compatibility without export conversion.

Front Light: The Most Underrated Piece of a Concert Rig

Every LD who's shot live video or stood in the photo pit knows this: without dedicated front light, artist faces go flat, camera exposures hunt, and the audience sees silhouettes instead of expressions. Front light is the low-angle, high-CRI illumination that models faces and reads clearly from 20 feet. Moving heads on front truss help, but their narrow beams and saturated colors don't provide the even, neutral fill that makes a guitarist's face readable during a quiet verse. The fix is a dedicated array of COB front lights or LED tri-color panel lights hung 6-8 feet off deck on front-of-house truss or groundstacked on road cases at the stage lip. For a 24-foot stage, four COB fixtures at 120 watts each deliver 48,000 combined lumens of tungsten-balanced front wash — enough to key faces at f/2.8 ISO 800 for live video. Panel lights give you RGB mixing for color correction against stage backlight, essential if the band is lit in deep blue and you need neutral faces for broadcast. Budget $80-120 per COB fixture per day; panel lights run $100-150/day. If you're shooting a live album or streaming the set, front light is non-negotiable.

• COB front light array: Four 120W COB fixtures on front truss or groundstacked, tungsten 3200K balance, 12,000 lumens each, $80-120/fixture/day — essential for face modeling and camera exposure.
• Tri-color panel lights: RGB mixing for color correction, flicker-free at 1,000fps for high-speed cameras, even field illumination, $100-150/fixture/day — best for broadcast or livestream shoots.
• Placement angle: Front light hung 45° off stage deck or groundstacked 6-8ft off stage lip, aimed at center-stage faces — too high and you get top-head shadows, too low and you get uplighting horror.
• Intensity balance: Front light should measure 60-70% the intensity of backlight at artist positions — use a light meter at head height, aim for 300-400 lux at face level for clean camera exposure.
• Manual followspot backup: One 330W followspot at front-of-house gives the LD manual iris control for lead vocals during ballads — $120-180/day including stand and DMX dimmer.

Haze Distribution and DMX Routing Across Two Universes

Concert lighting without haze is a tragedy — beam effects, aerial looks, and gobo projections vanish without suspended particulate to catch the light path. For a 20,000-cubic-foot venue (50ft × 40ft × 10ft ceiling), one 1000W haze machine on mid truss delivers adequate atmospheric density at medium output, consuming 1.5 liters of fluid per 90-minute set. Scale up to a 60,000-cubic-foot festival tent and you need three haze machines: one on each side truss, one on mid truss, all DMX-controlled for synchronized output bursts during beam cues. Each haze machine occupies 1-2 DMX channels; run them on the same universe as your LED pars to keep moving heads isolated on universe one for faster board response. Cable runs from front-of-house console to stage racks use 5-pin DMX over Cat5 with Neutrik etherCON connectors — budget one DMX-over-Cat5 adapter pair per universe, $40-60/pair rental. Always spec a backup DMX cable path: if the primary Cat5 run fails mid-show, a stagehand can hotswap to traditional 5-pin XLR in under 60 seconds.

• Haze machine count: One 1000W unit for venues under 25,000 cubic feet, two units for 25,000-50,000 cubic feet, three units for festival stages over 50,000 cubic feet — $80-120/machine/day including fluid.
• Fluid consumption: Budget 1.5 liters per machine per 90-minute set at medium output, 2.5 liters for continuous high output — haze fluid costs $30-40 per gallon, comes in 1-gallon jugs.
• DMX universe split: Universe one carries all moving heads (384 channels for 16 fixtures), universe two carries LED pars, haze machines, house lights, and any pixel-mapped LED tape — keeps moving-head response lag under 10ms.
• DMX cable backup: Run dual DMX paths from console to stage racks using both Cat5 etherCON and traditional 5-pin XLR — if Cat5 fails, flip the rack input switch to XLR without interrupting the show.
• Haze timing: Program haze bursts 8-10 seconds before beam cues hit — haze takes 6-8 seconds to distribute evenly across a 40ft stage width, mistimed haze leaves one side clear and the other opaque.

FAQ: Concert Lighting Rig Checklist

What's the load-in and strike time for a 16-fixture moving-head rig at a 400-cap club?

With a three-person lighting crew and house truss already hung, expect 3-4 hours for load-in: 60 minutes to hang and circuit all fixtures, 45 minutes to run DMX and power, 60 minutes to patch console and program basic cue stacks, 30 minutes for focus and haze testing. Strike runs faster at 90-120 minutes: fixtures come down first, then cable coiling and road case packing. If you're also rigging truss from scratch, add another 90 minutes for motor chain hoists and truss assembly. The Independent and The Fillmore both have permanent front and mid truss, which cuts load-in to under 3 hours. Venues without house rigging — like temporary stages in Golden Gate Park or Fort Mason outdoor spaces — require full ground-support truss systems and push load-in to 6-7 hours for the same fixture count.

Do I need a lighting designer for a local band show or can the sound engineer run lights?

If your rig is eight LED pars on static color washes and no moving heads, a sound engineer can trigger pre-programmed scenes from a basic console between songs. Once you add moving heads, haze timing, and dynamic beam cues, you need a dedicated LD — running sound and lights simultaneously guarantees both suffer. A competent LD programs 40-60 cues during soundcheck (intro walk-on, verse looks, chorus builds, breakdowns, outro), then busks color and strobe variations live during the set. Budget $400-600 for a local LD day rate in the Bay Area, $800-1,200 for an LD with touring credits and their own grandMA2 console. If the headliner is bringing their own LD, your job is to provide console, fixtures, and stage access three hours before doors — their LD handles all programming and showfile prep.

How do I calculate power requirements for a 20-fixture lighting rig?

Add up fixture wattage plus console and haze machine draw, then multiply by 1.25 for headroom. Sixteen LED spot-wash moving heads at 350 watts each = 5,600 watts. Twenty LED par cans at 200 watts each = 4,000 watts. One haze machine at 1,000 watts. One lighting console at 150 watts. Total = 10,750 watts, multiplied by 1.25 = 13,438 watts or 13.4kW. At 120V single-phase, that's 112 amps — you need at least two dedicated 60-amp circuits to avoid tripping breakers. Most Bay Area club stages provide two to four 20-amp Edison circuits; you'll need a distro box to split those into individual fixture circuits. Outdoor festival stages typically provide 100-amp or 200-amp Camsplitter distro; confirm available amperage with the venue or generator company two weeks before load-in to avoid day-of power shortfalls.

Can I use the same moving heads for both face light and aerial beams?

Yes, if you're using hybrid spot-wash fixtures with wide zoom ranges. An LED beam-spot-wash hybrid moving head zooms from 4° to 50°, so the same fixture can throw a tight 8° beam for aerial punch during choruses, then zoom to 40° for even face wash during verses. Pure beam moving heads at 2-4° stay in beam mode and don't provide useful face coverage — they're for aerial effects only. The tradeoff: hybrid fixtures cost $450-550/day vs. $350-400/day for dedicated beam fixtures, and their maximum lumen output is 10-15% lower due to the added optical train for zoom and framing. For a 10-12 fixture club rig, rent all hybrids for maximum flexibility. For a 20+ fixture festival rig, split the order: eight hybrids on front and side truss for face and texture, twelve beam fixtures on mid and back truss for pure aerial effects.

What's the difference between LED pars and tungsten pars for stage wash?

LED pars draw 180-220 watts, output 10,000-12,000 lumens, offer RGB or RGBWA color mixing, weigh 8-10 pounds, run cool to the touch, and cost $25-35/fixture/day. Tungsten pars draw 500-1,000 watts, output 12,000-18,000 lumens from a single tungsten filament, require gel frames for color, weigh 12-16 pounds, run at 400°F surface temp, and cost $15-20/fixture/day. For modern concert rigs, LED pars are the default: lower power draw, instant color changes via DMX, no gel swaps between songs, and no risk of burns during focus calls. Tungsten pars persist in theater and some legacy rock rigs for their warmer 3200K color temperature and higher CRI (98 vs. 85-92 for LEDs), but the power and heat costs rarely justify the aesthetic gain. Stick with LED pars unless the artist specifically requests tungsten for a retro visual or the LD is programming a throwback 1980s arena rock tribute show.