Designing a rig and papering a show

The Lighting module is the lighting designer's all-in-one office: design the rig, paper the show, manage the equipment inventory, and (soon) drive the console live. Built for events, theater, film/TV, concerts, and houses of worship.

What "rig," "plot," and "paperwork" mean:

- **Rig** — the physical inventory of fixtures, dimmers, cables, control, and trussing your org owns or has rented for a show.
- **Plot** — a top-down or perspective drawing showing where each fixture hangs, what angle it's aimed, and what color/gobo is in it. The deliverable a lighting designer hands the master electrician for hang.
- **Paperwork** — the printed (or PDF) documentation that accompanies the plot: fixture schedule, channel/dimmer hookup, color/gobo lists, magic sheets, cue sheets.

What's built in:

1. **Fixture library** — a catalog of every fixture make/model with photometric data (beam angle, lumens, weight, DMX footprint). Add a fixture to your rig once and it's typed correctly everywhere.
2. **Rig builder** — drag fixtures onto a stage diagram, set hang heights, aiming angles, color, gobo. Fixtures auto-number per the plot conventions.
3. **Paperwork generator** — clicks one button → PDF set with fixture schedule, hookup, magic sheets, cue sheets, color/gobo lists, all in the standard formats (USITT D5 plot, hookup printout, magic sheet).
4. **Cue list** — for shows that run on console cues (theater, film, concerts with a follow-along design): build cues with fade times, link conditions, notes for the operator.
5. **Inventory** — track every fixture, dimmer, cable run, accessory across multiple shows. Mark items as on-rental, in storage, in maintenance, broken.
6. **Pre-production checklist** — gels ordered, gobos cut, batteries charged for wireless, console programmed — the checks every LD does before a load-in, in one place.

A typical show flow:

1. **Create a show** — name, venue, dates, performance count. Pick a stage template (theater proscenium, cathedral, concert hall, outdoor stage, conference ballroom).
2. **Build the rig** — drag fixtures from your inventory onto the stage. Or load a saved rig template ("standard rep plot," "concert rep plot," "Easter service plot").
3. **Aim and color** — set each fixture's aiming target on the stage and assign a gel color from the L-system or R-system color libraries. Gobos similar.
4. **Generate paperwork** — one click. PDFs ready to email the master electrician.
5. **Program cues** (theater / concert / film) — define cue numbers, fade times, link conditions. Export to console (ETC EOS Family, MA Lighting, Avolites coming).
6. **Run the show** — for now, the console is the console; the platform manages everything around it. (Console-direct control is in development — see the "Coming Soon" article.)

Multi-venue orgs:

If your org runs shows at multiple venues (a touring company, a multi-campus church, a regional theater), each venue is its own stage diagram. The fixture inventory is org-wide. A traveling rig moves between venues with you and the show paperwork follows.

Permissioning:

- **Designers** can edit shows, build rigs, generate paperwork.
- **Stage managers** can view paperwork and cue lists, mark fixtures as functional or broken.
- **Operators** can view cue sheets and mark cues as triggered (for show reports).
- **Inventory managers** can edit the master fixture inventory but not specific shows.

Pricing:

The Lighting module is free to enable. Heavy use (large inventories, many shows simultaneously) doesn't change pricing — the platform-wide chargeback applies only to financial transactions (rental income through the module, etc.), not to design surface use.