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Power, Cabling & Connectors
From the 13A plug to Powerlock, and every connector on a stage.
Comparisons
Buying Guides
UK Rules & Licensing
How To
About Power, Cabling & Connectors
Power and cabling are the least glamorous part of a show and the most likely to stop one. These guides cover getting electricity to a stage safely, getting signal across it reliably, and looking after the cable that does both.
Mains first. Event power distribution works up from a 13A plug through 16A, 32A and 63A ceeform to Powerlock, explaining what each connector is for, why the colours and pin counts are not interchangeable, and where an RCD belongs. For bands and small events, stage power for bands is a practical checklist rather than a theory piece: what to take, what to test and what to do when the only supply is a domestic socket at the back of a pub.
Once a lighting rig grows past a handful of fixtures, individual leads stop being sensible. Socapex explained covers 19-pin multicore, breakouts and how the six circuits are used in practice, which is how most touring rigs feed dimmable and switched fixtures without a spaghetti of separate runs.
On the signal side, pro audio connectors covers XLR, jack, speakON, powerCON and the rest, including the pairs that physically fit each other and should never be used interchangeably. Dante against analogue multicore deals with the bigger decision: when replacing copper-per-channel with a network genuinely pays off, what a switch has to do to carry audio properly, and what you take on in exchange.
Finally, the cable itself. Cable care and repairs covers coiling that does not damage the core, testing before the truck rather than on stage, storage, and the reason a cable drum left fully wound under load is a genuine fire risk rather than an old wives’ tale. Cable is bought once and lived with for years, so how it is handled decides most of what it costs over its life.
