Lighting design glossary

A working glossary for producers, venues and performers — the terms that cause the most confusion when they appear in a rider or a tech spec.

The rig

• Fixture / lantern — any individual light in the rig.
• Moving head — a motorised fixture that pans and tilts. Usually described as a spot (sharp, gobos), a wash (soft, broad) or a beam (narrow, punchy shaft).
• PAR — a simple fixed fixture producing a soft-edged oval of light. The classic rock'n'roll look.
• Profile — a sharp-edged fixture that can be shaped and can project gobos.
• Fresnel — a soft-edged fixture with a stepped lens, common in theatre and studio.
• Truss — the aluminium structure fixtures hang from.
• Trim height — how high the truss is flown. It decides angles, and therefore the whole look.
• FOH — front of house; both the audience-facing lighting positions and the control position.

Shaping the light

• Gobo — a metal or glass cut-out placed in a fixture to project a pattern, such as breakup or a shape.
• Gel / colour — coloured filter in front of a lamp. LED fixtures mix colour electronically instead.
• Wash — broad, even coverage across an area.
• Special — a fixture doing one specific job, such as lighting a soloist at one moment.
• Back light — light from behind the performer. Separates them from the background and creates silhouette and depth.
• Key light — the main light shaping a face.
• Haze — fine atmospheric particles that make beams visible. Distinct from smoke, which is thicker and used for effect.
• Follow spot — a manually operated spotlight that tracks a performer.

Control

• DMX — the standard control protocol. One universe carries 512 channels.
• Patch — the map linking each fixture to its control channels.
• Cue — a recorded lighting state. A cue stack is the ordered list the operator runs through.
• Palette / preset — a stored value (a colour, position or beam setting) referenced by cues, so one edit updates everything using it.
• Busking — operating live and reactively rather than running a fixed sequence.
• Timecode — cues triggered automatically against a running clock, so the show repeats identically.
• Pre-visualisation (previz) — programming against a 3D model of the rig before arriving at the venue.

In the room

• Get-in / get-out — loading the show into and out of the venue.
• Rig check — testing every fixture before a performance.
• Focus — aiming and shaping each fixture.
• Plotting — the session where lighting states are built and recorded.
• Tech — the rehearsal where all technical elements run against the performance.
• Plot / plan — the scale drawing of the rig.
• Rider — the document specifying what a production requires from the venue.