The Proper Way To Effectively And Safely Wire A Stage

For any frequent concert attendee, seeing wires littered across a stage has become the norm. A lot of people think it’s done for aesthetics (and sometimes it is) but it’s actually the result of poor planning and execution on the part of the technicians. Poor planning and execution that can lead to a lot of problems like:

• Someone tripping over a stray wire which could lead to injury. (And also, damaged equipment.)
• The inability to quickly locate a faulty cable if there’s a problem with the sound check or worse, during the actual show.
• Difficulty in loading out.

Follow these guidelines on how to properly wire stages. Because the last thing you want is a video of an artist performing at a concert you organized going viral because they tripped on a cable and fell off the stage.

Mains Cable

Heavy main cables are to always be kept off-stage. They should be kept under the stage in a figure of eight patterns if there’s enough space or literally anywhere else that isn’t a walkway. Use the shortest possible length when running lighter gauge cables to avoid large coils of extra cables in places where stagehands are likely to work. Under or behind amplifier racks are where short lengths of any extra cables should be put.
It’s best to have and upstage (the part of the stage furthest from the audience) and downstage (the part of the stage closest to the audience) feed when running electrical cables to power drops on stage.

Signal Cable

Line systems (multis, “snakes” etc.) should preferably be flown from stage to the front of house mix position where possible. Other solutions include rubber mats, cable ramps or creating an audience free zone in the centre of the auditorium. Many venues have cable ducts designed to quickly run line-systems and other control cables to the front of the house. Modern Ethernet, fibre and lightpipe solutions have greatly simplified this part of cable management. Onstage, the keys to quick, tidy and accurate signal cable patching are sub-stage boxes and a bit of planning. If you have a stage plan, identify where the main cabling areas are going to be.

Finally, leave any excess neatly coiled under microphone stands. Always keep excess as close to the source – this makes it easy to move a mic later on. Always start by running your mic cable from the main stage box or the sub-stage box. There are two good reasons for this:

1) it means the excess will always be by the mic and

2) if you are working in a team, there is no chance of one of you accidentally plugging in the wrong mic into the wrong channel. Lastly, keep a few cables handy onstage as replacements if needed. Don’t close the cable box and stash it in some hard-to-access place.

Loudspeaker Cable

Follow the same line as the other cable for onstage monitors. Use the shortest possible lengths, never leave coils of cables beside monitors and also, keep the excess of the stage.

As experts say; load-out begins at load-in. Following these rules will give you more time to tune the audio and troubleshoot any problems that may arise. It also makes the stage safer. Because the last thing you want is a video of an artist going viral because they tripped on a wire and fell off the stage at an event you worked on.

That’ll be hilarious.

For everybody else though.

Not you.