For about 5 years now I have been stacking mixes. Imagine the following scenario:

3 screens on a stage

For content:
  • Mix 3 is a mix spanning all 3 screens
  • Mix 4 is screen 1
  • Mix 5 screen 2
  • Mix 6 screen 3


For IMAG through phoenix capture:
  • Mix 7 is a mix spanning all 3 screens
  • Mix 8 is screen 1
  • Mix 9 screen 2
  • Mix 10 screen 3


Layer Assignments:
  • Mix 3 Layers 1-5
  • Mix 4 Layers 6-10
  • Mix 5 Layers 11-15
  • Mix 6 Layers 16-20
  • Mix 7 Layers 21-25
  • Mix 8 Layers 26,27
  • Mix 9 Layers 28,29
  • Mix 10 Layers 30,31


In this scenario, the three screens can be any size and any distance between each other including 1 big screen. It's the perfect festival style because a daily workflow is adjusting each mix to each new wall. Then there is practically no reprogramming of palettes.

In all cases, my cue stack had all layers of each mix 4,5,6 pointing to the same stack number from mix three. IE 6,11,16 reference 1, 7,12,17 reference layer 2 etc. Then all it takes is bump buttons and dimmer effects to create dynamics.

This is all programmed from a lighting desk. If you notice I did not use Mix Layer Assigns as it would just over complicate. Actually this is a bit of a lie because I would mix layer assign to group IMAG layers on to mix 7 when I needed more than 2 full screen effects. However, this was only for specific needs.

This is exactly how I programmed GnR six months ago and the show is bullet proof no matter what operator comes on after me because I kept it simple and intuitive.