AV Production Industry Insights | Professional Technical Guide
The production manager announces that changeover from the opening act to the headliner must happen in eleven minutes. Your lighting design includes forty-three moving heads that need new positions, colors, and gobo selections for the headline set. Programming each fixture individually would take hours—time that exists nowhere in this schedule. The solution lives in the palette system you built during prep, where single button presses recall complex multi-fixture states faster than anyone can explain what’s happening.
The Philosophy Behind Palette Organization
Palettes—also called presets, groups, or references depending on console platform—represent stored fixture data that cues can access through abstraction rather than hard values. A position palette named “Center Stage” might contain pan and tilt data for every moving light in the rig, allowing cues to reference “Center Stage” rather than specific degree values. When the stage configuration changes for a different venue, updating the palette automatically updates every cue that uses it.
The grandMA3 console architecture treats palettes as fundamental building blocks, organizing them by parameter type: position, color, gobo, beam. This separation allows programmers to combine independent palette elements—Position: “Center Stage” + Color: “Deep Blue” + Gobo: “Stars”—creating cue complexity from simple components. The workflow feels intuitive once established but requires careful initial organization that inexperienced programmers often skip.
Color Palette Strategies
Professional lighting designers develop signature color palettes that travel from show to show, adapted for each fixture inventory but maintaining consistent naming and emotional associations. A designer might establish “Warm Wash” as a palette that always produces inviting amber tones, regardless of whether the rig uses ETC Source Four Series 3, Vari-Lite VL6500 Wash, or Martin MAC Aura XB fixtures. The specific color mixing values differ, but the creative intent remains consistent.
The challenge intensifies when rigs mix LED and conventional sources. CMY color mixing on fixtures like the Robe BMFL Spot produces different results than RGB mixing on LED panels. Gel colors from roscolux and Lee Filters catalogs don’t translate directly to either system. Smart palette organization includes separate color recipes for each fixture type while maintaining consistent naming that allows rapid creative work without constant technical translation.
Position Palettes That Scale
Position palettes must accommodate the physical reality that stages vary dramatically between venues. A touring production might play venues where “Center Stage” represents positions ranging from thirty feet to eighty feet from the fixtures. The ETC Eos console family handles this through “Referenced” palettes that can be modified per venue while maintaining cue structure—but this functionality requires disciplined initial setup.
The practice of creating position palettes in logical groups—all front light positions, all back light positions, all side positions—enables rapid focus updates during venue changeovers. Rather than touching every cue, updating a few position palettes adapts an entire show to new geometry. This approach, sometimes called “palette-based programming,” contrasts with “discrete programming” where cues contain hard values that must be individually updated.
Effect Palettes and Speed Control
Effects—automated parameter changes like circles, waves, or pulses—represent some of the most time-consuming programming elements. Building effect palettes that can be applied across fixture groups dramatically accelerates creative exploration during design sessions. The Hog 4 console from High End Systems excels at effect building, with a library of templates that programmers can modify and save as custom palettes.
Speed palettes provide additional abstraction that separates tempo from motion. An effect palette might define circular movement, while a speed palette determines whether that circle takes two seconds or eight seconds to complete. Combining these independent elements allows rapid exploration of timing variations without rebuilding effects—a workflow advantage that compounds across complex show programming.
Building Palettes During Prep, Not Load-In
The critical insight that separates efficient programmers from struggling ones: palette creation must happen before load-in begins. Virtual programming using MA 3D visualization, Capture Sweden, or WYSIWYG simulation allows complete palette structures to be established in calm studio environments. The load-in then focuses on adjusting palettes to match physical reality rather than building organizational systems under time pressure.
Documentation of palette systems enables multiple programmers to work with consistent expectations. A palette list that explains which positions, colors, and effects are available—and what naming conventions organize them—allows visiting programmers to contribute productively without extensive orientation. This documentation, often neglected, represents the difference between one-person dependencies and scalable production teams.
