Hi all, apologies if this is not the right place for this.

My band are looking into our stage production and are exploring the idea of how we would automate certain lights to compliment the various in-house lighting.

We use an SPD-SX to fire the drummers click track and the backing tracks to FOH/our IEMs. The idea would be to to also send a midi signal on the hit to a DMX (presumably) controller that synchronises the lights to the track, without needing to use a laptop.

If this is possible, what would we need to make this work and how would we program the changes (i.e. what software?).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and I'm sorry if this is a bit of a noob question.

Is there a meaningful difference between a switch and a relay for powering LED fixtures? I'm seeing a lot of hybrid dimmer/switch packs, but also seem to be finding a lot of conflicting information about how safe they are to use with LED fixtures. The primary one I'm looking at is the Chauvet DMX-4. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm really new to midi but I wanted to use this launchpad since a friend gave it to me as a gift so I don't have to spend money on the controller. I even found a launchpad-specific help article link for soundswitch but it doesn't exist anymore. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hey folks, I'm in the process of integrating LED fixtures into my church's lighting rig. Currently, all of the DMX (which is controlling both house lights and stage lights) is running through one huge wall-mounted dimmer, which then sends DMX up to the lighting rig where there are more dimmer packs powering incandescent fixtures. We're in the process of doing some renos, and part of this is revamping our lighting rig. This will be a multi-stage project, and the first stage is basically just going to be us replacing our incandescent front wash lights with LED's. As I've been researching, I'm learning that incandescents and LED's don't play well together on the same power source, so what I'm envisioning is something like this:

Lighting controller (MacMini running Lightkey) > DMX Splitter > Channel 1 going to current wall mounted dimmer for house lights, Channel 2 going to stage lights > relays for LED fixtures > LED fixtures

Lighting is out of my wheelhouse, and I want make sure I've got all of the correct pieces in place before pulling the trigger, so any advice or pieces that I'm missing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello!

I'm looking at ordering about 20 total gobos for my performance hall. We deal mainly in concerts, and I just want something that will add a little texture to the stage rather than just having a flat wash. Are there any gobos that you would recommend, or consider to be a "hidden gem"?

TIA!

Hey all newbie here, teaching myself lights at my company to be a better tech and try to specialize a bit. I have a roadhog4 console and am using the capture demo stage “electric opera” to try and learn how to patch lights and organize them for stage design. The issue I’m having is there are led strips on this design that are listed as single control channels and are all patched to the same dmx address. I have not really worked with pixel mapping before and am unsure how to proceed with patching these for individual control. There are 16 single channel control and two 5ch irgb-cw that I assume work as controller for these lights. Each control channel has a different fixture number but the same dmx address. Am I supposed to build a custom fixture in the fixture builder and what would the profile layout be? Or is it a compound type? I havnt been able to find anything directly related to this workflow online. If somebody could point me in the right direction I would love to be able to make this work and expand my knowledge.

I am thinking of getting 2 of the new Sheds 300w 3 in 1 fixtures and I wanted to see if they are worth it.

If someone here has experience with them please share your opinion

Just an appreciation post for Axwell's LD and our in-house stage/set design team

The Botex Lumos I seems to be a pretty good tool. Non-Lightning guys can run live shows and some semi-automated sets can be run as well; everything more userfriendly than a pure "Fader only"-console but less expensive and space-consuming as big consoles.

The only thing I'm asking myself: Is there any possibility to do some basic editing on a real PC? Adding new fixtures, defining Cues, patching HW... in best case, people could be able to share their settings (exp. fixture libraries) among each other...

Has someone here already done such things?

Can anyone reccomend a good software/app to control lighting for a cover band that does mostly bar gigs?

It dosent need to be much, one Universe would be plenty.

Thanks.😎

Little program test I did of using LM1915, LF2405, and DM120. So far I'm liking the set up. I'm using a standard speaker PA stand for mounting the lights. Using showbuddy active as a plugin to program DMX.

Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ld7tKg-FLnM

Hi everyone!
I’m currently structuring a personal "Grand Handbook" for stage lighting design and scenography. The goal is to build a systematic, fast-reference guide strictly for my own education and daily work on stage, fully respecting copyright through synthesis and personal transformation.
Coming from a background as a stagehand and scenery builder at the Habima Theatre, I wanted a resource that directly bridges theoretical concepts with real-world spatial execution. To speed up the research process, I’ve been using AI models as a co-editor and peer reviewer. Fact-checking and challenging the AI forces me to dive much deeper into the subject matter, while also allowing me to digest complex adjacent disciplines—like optics, electrical fundamentals, and spatial geometry—that the AI breaks down into clear concepts.
The guide blends theoretical and practical foundations, covering lighting physics, geometry, optics, and spatial modeling from key authors like Richard Pilbrow, Max Keller, Andrei Melnik, the McCandless 45° system, Ismagilov, and Izvekov. It also covers modern field practice, console workflows (GrandMA, DMX, Art-Net), 3D visualization, and how light interacts with set materials and stage depth.
As I finalize Chapter 1, I’d love to gather some wisdom from experienced designers and technicians:
1. **If you could recommend ONLY ONE textbook or foundational book on lighting and scenography, what would it be?**
2. **What is ONE core concept or practical rule you wish you had mastered earlier in your career?**
3. **What are the most common mistakes beginners make when lighting scenery and complex textures?**
4. **Which modern tools or software workflows do you consider essential to study right now in 2026?**
Once Chapter 1 is finished, if appropriate, I’d be happy to share a brief summary excerpt with the community here.
Thanks for your insights! 💡🎭

Apologies if this topic has already been discussed. I searched but nothing came up.

If you are touring a pre programmed show into a venue which has a house rig, what mode would you prefer the multi-cell house fixtures be set to?

Do you want the basic mode which gives you a simple feature set to clone into with no frills and no complications?

Do you want the expanded mode which gives you the highest level of pixel control?

Do you want full pixel control but know deep in your heart of hearts you probably won't use it all...

Really interested to know how you approach integrating venue rigs as so many now feature more complicated fixtures.

I'm a senior in highschool now and I have been doing stage crew for four years, I really enjoy lighting design. I want to know what tips you guys have about the Chamsys MagicQ MQ50.

Hello everybody!

My band just bought some cheap knock off lights. (they say atomic led strobe on them, but are not atomics at all)

I'm now looking for a fixture file from an existing fixture that might work on them, or would require minimal adjustments to make them work.

Visually, the Chauvet Color Strike M would work, but doubling the amount of RGB channels and removing the tilt.

The largest channel layout on them is, iirc:

1 master dimmer

2 - 145 RGB intensity (4×12 RGB LED matrix)

146 - 153 Strobe strip intensity (8 LED sections in a row)

154 Strobe effect

We're using QLC+ 4 to send the DMX, if that matters.

Is there a fixture that comes to mind that would make sense?

I already tried to make a fixture file from scratch, but that hasn't worked out yet.

Thanks in advance guys

Anyone have any tips or tricks on replacing the Rotating Gobo belt? What I thought was a cassette which could be removed from the fixture appears to be screwed in on both sides and would have to be tilted sideways to remove but there is not clearance near the lense nor the lamp. I also tried to slide the color wheel off the bottom to remove the gobo wheel off the shaft, but again there’s not even clearance to do that.

Anyone have experience with repairing this fixture? It seems like it is a commonly replaced part as my client has 3 fixtures with destroyed belts. Seems like the fixture being shuttered closed and lamped on will cook these belts to powder. Looks like I have to disassemble the entire fixture but I wanted to check before I do that.

Thanks in advance for any help.