Rigging for Events: Part 6 — Scaling Up to an LED Mini-Stadium Rig

Welcome to another edition of the Rigging for Events series. This time, I'm looking at how to rig a larger venue entirely with LED fixtures. If you'd like to catch up on the journey so far, you can check out the previous posts in the series.

In the realm of lighting, I'm guided by my Theory of (Lighting) Everything, which now lives on its own dedicated page. Over time, I intend to enrich it with further details drawn from my experiences as a lighting technician. It's a work in progress, and I'd love to hear your thoughts or get you involved too!

The Venue: A Modified Classic

Moving on to the task at hand, I plan to utilize the Theory of (Lighting) Everything to expand our LED theatre lighting setup to accommodate a larger, mini-stadium-sized space. The architecture for this project is heavily inspired by Bridlington's Royal Hall, albeit with several major modifications: a significantly wider stage and the addition of a second balcony.

I've deliberately adjusted the stage width. The original venue's stage was roughly 10 to 12 metres wide (according to a non-scaled plan), with the remaining space occupied by an old dimmer room and a dressing room.

Because we are switching entirely to modern LED lighting, a massive, dedicated dimmer room is obsolete. By removing it and relocating the dressing rooms, we gain a wider performance area and open up the fly floors. This gives us the vertical clearance needed to fly our bars completely out of sight, neatly hiding any set pieces. Should a specific production necessitate a narrower look, we can simply draw curtains on both sides to effectively reduce the visible width.

Rigging & Truss Infrastructure

The rig features two primary zones: the stage and the auditorium. Crucially, every single truss in this venue will be mounted on motorized hoists. This allows for immense flexibility in rig design, which you'll notice is somewhat unconventional in my plan. Motorized hoists not only expand our truss placement options but also dramatically simplify the fixture rigging process.

The system implemented at the original venue was quite unique—and frustrating. Because the motors were concealed deep in the ceiling void, it necessitated a manual Deadman Switch at each suspension point up in the roof. Moving a single truss required at least two technicians in the ceiling and a third person on the floor to rig or focus.

My goal is to simplify the workflow by keeping an open ceiling. This enables the rig operator to quickly spot any travel issues before repositioning a truss or tweaking a mount point, akin to the efficient setups used in touring productions or temporary arena installations.

1. Stage Rigging

The stage features ten lengths of 2-point ladder truss spanning its entire width:

• The Header Bar: The foremost truss accommodates a large fabric header, beautifully concealing the space between the truss's hanging point and the ceiling to keep the front of house neat.
• Lighting Bars: Three of these trusses serve as dedicated supports for hanging our overhead fixtures.
• The Backdrop Bar: The furthest truss from the front supports either a cyclorama or a performance LED wall.
• Scenic Bars: The remaining five trusses are utilized for suspending legs, drapes, or various set pieces that can be raised or lowered on cue.

2. Auditorium Rigging

The auditorium layout is split into two distinct structural zones above the audience:

• The Balcony Zone: Suspended directly over the balconies are eleven 2x2 metre squares constructed from 2-point truss. These primarily serve to add decorative architectural lighting to illuminate the auditorium, though they also hold a few hidden fixtures to supplement the front lighting.
• The Dance Floor Zone: Situated directly above the main floor are ten 4x4 metre squares of 2-point truss, organized into a clean two-by-five grid. The foremost edge of this grid provides our primary front lighting angle, while the rest of the structure supports a sea of moving heads and LED Parcans for mid-air effects.

The Fixtures

To keep the ecosystem efficient, I'm repurposing the core fixtures from my existing Theatre Rig. A major advantage of this approach is absolute cross-rental and software compatibility across different spaces:

I'm incorporating the Chauvet DJ EVE P-160 RGBW units as our workhorse Parcans. Although they lack the advanced RGBAL (Red, Green, Blue, Amber, Lime) colour mixing arrays of the premium Virtuoso fixtures, skin-tone accuracy isn't their job here. These lights are intended to punch through the haze with vibrant splashes of color, driving high-energy effects and chases rather than overall wash lighting.

Lighting Design & Plotting

Since I don't have access to a physical stadium space to test this, I'm using Blender alongside CAD software to simulate the environment and render the beams.

The Main Wash

The Front-of-House (FOH) wash is designed to be lean, efficient, and versatile. Because every single fixture features internal color mixing, there's zero need to double-hang fixtures for warm and cool looks.

First, we position the Virtuoso 2000 Fresnels on the overhead stage bars, mounting six fixtures per bar. The trio on the left is cross-focused toward Stage Left, while the right trio targets Stage Right. The fixtures on the furthest upstage bar are directed straight forward to act as a punchy backlight and hair light. Because the stage is so wide, the beams are systematically overlapped to ensure seamless, gap-free coverage across the deck.

Next, we layer in the FOH Virtuoso 1000 Profiles to crisp up the edges. The profiles mounted directly in front of the stage on the square trusses are fitted with wide 25–50 degree variable lenses to handle the steep down-angle. The profiles mounted further back at the rear of the auditorium utilize narrow 15–20 degree lenses to throw cleanly over the long distance.

Instead of cross-lighting, these rear profiles shoot straight down the barrels. By positioning one profile at the exact center of each audience truss square, we get beautiful front coverage. We then use the internal framing shutters to cut the light strictly off the proscenium arch and balcony fronts, preventing distracting light spill.

The Cyclorama (CYC)

Lighting the cyclorama follows a similar philosophy to a standard theatre setup, but scaled up for intensity. We have distributed 24 Virtuoso 700 CYC units evenly across the upstage truss.

A Note on Simulation Substitutes: In my CAD visualization software, I had to utilize a substitute fixture with a narrow 35° beam angle. The real-world Virtuoso 700 CYC actually features an ultra-wide 70° beam angle. In a real-world venue deployment, you could safely cut the fixture count exactly in half (using 12 units instead of 24) and still achieve a flawless, hot-spot-free color blend across the entire back wall.

Parcans: The Fan Effect

With the utilitarian washes locked down, we can introduce the high-energy elements. The Chauvet EVE P-160 Parcans are rigged in distinct groups of three across the onstage bars. By splaying the three fixtures in each cluster roughly 10 to 15 degrees away from one another, they create a spectacular, wide radial fan effect through the haze.

Years ago, I recall utilizing about 60 traditional analog Par 32 fixtures for a summer show's Take That medley, arranging them in random clusters of five. They looked absolutely incredible. It is remarkable how stunning a simple, single-source lamp can appear when grouped symmetrically with others.

Moving Heads: Adding Dynamics

To inject motion into the design, the Maverick Force S Profiles are scattered evenly throughout the entire architecture. Although designated as profiles, these units are true Swiss Army knives; using the internal iris and zoom creates a razor-sharp mid-air beam, while combining the zoom with the internal frost filter transforms them into a high-output wash light.

I've interspersed four Mavericks onto each of the overhead stage bars between the Fresnel clusters, mounted one directly in the center of each front audience square, and hung a final pair on the far outer edges of the rear auditorium trusses. This layout guarantees total spatial coverage: the onstage and forward units handle dramatic specials and aerial textures, while the rear pairs can split focus—one framing the stage performers while the other pans out to wash the audience in color.

Summary & Future Expansion

This concept provides a robust, highly modular LED foundation that can be easily tailored for any performance style. Because the entire system hangs from an open ceiling on motorized hoists, transforming the space for a rock concert, a corporate event, or a traditional theatrical production is incredibly straightforward.

To scale this rig up even further, the next logical step would be integrating a comprehensive ground package (floor fixtures tucked along the downstage edge, side wings, and upstage deck) to provide low-angle fill. I am also keen on the idea of incorporating modular LED video walls directly into the scenic design to serve as digital legs and borders—a concept I plan to dive into deeply in a future post once I expand my video infrastructure research.

What are your thoughts on this mini-stadium LED layout? Would you alter the truss geometry, swap out the Chauvet Parcans for something different, or choose a different venue archetype entirely? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or reply to the social post that brought you here!