Stage plot

About stage plots

A stage plot is the setup sheet the venue audio crew follows on show day. It places the band, backline, microphones, DIs, monitor mixes, power, snake boxes and FOH equipment on a measured deck. Schematex renders matching input and monitor-output schedules from those same plotted devices, so the documents cannot disagree.

stageplot "Four-piece Rock Band" unit ft
venue "The Sound Room"
show-date "August 14, 2026"
revision "Rev 2 · July 27, 2026"
technical-contact "Morgan Lee · production@example.com"
signal-paths on
stage deck "32 ft × 20 ft" at 0,0 size 32x20
equipment drum-kit drums in deck at 12,2 "Drums"
equipment drum-mic kick in deck at 13,5 channel 1 source "Kick" model "Shure Beta 52A" stand short-boom phantom no
equipment overhead oh-l in deck at 11,2 channel 2 source "Drum OH L" model "Shure SM81" stand boom phantom yes
equipment bass-amp bass in deck at 3,5 "Bass"
equipment di-box bass-di in deck at 5,8 channel 3 source "Bass DI" model "Radial J48" stand none phantom yes
equipment guitar-amp guitar in deck at 24,5 "Guitar"
equipment boom-stand lead in deck at 15,15 channel 4 source "Lead vocal" model "Shure SM58" stand boom phantom no
monitor 1 lead-mix in deck at 13,17 "Lead"
monitor 2 bass-mix in deck at 3,14 "Bass"
monitor 3 guitar-mix in deck at 25,14 "Guitar"
equipment snake snake-a in deck at 29,10 "Stage box"
equipment foh-console foh outside at 16,27 "FOH"
signal bass-di -> snake-a -> foh "Bass"
signal lead -> snake-a -> foh "Vocal"

1. Formal sheet metadata

venue, show-date, revision, and technical-contact populate the print-first document header. They are optional for quick sketches, but should be present before sending a plot to a venue.

2. Stage directions

The audience is always at the bottom of the drawing. Stage directions belong to a performer standing onstage and facing that audience:

• page-left is STAGE RIGHT
• page-right is STAGE LEFT
• upstage is away from the audience
• downstage is the audience edge

The renderer prints both side labels with “performer view” so a venue crew does not have to guess which convention the author used.

3. Measured stage and equipment

stage <id> ["Label"] at x,y size WxH
equipment <kind> <id> (in <stage> at x,y | outside at x,y)
  [size WxH] [rotate deg] ["label"]

Coordinates inside a stage are relative to its top-left/upstage-right corner in the declared unit m|ft. Use outside at for FOH or another device off the deck.

The renderer automatically places width and depth dimension lines around the primary stage.

Native equipment kinds:

• Backline: drum-kit, guitar-amp, bass-amp, keyboard, bass-cabinet
• Microphones and stands: boom-stand, straight-stand, drum-mic, overhead
• Signal: di-box, mixer, foh-console, snake
• Monitoring: monitor-wedge, side-fill, iem
• Utility: power-drop, stage-riser, music-stand, set-list

The existing stage, dance-floor, dj-booth, podium, row-chairs, and piano floorplan symbols are reused.

stage-riser is the drum/platform riser. In evacuation diagrams, bare riser still means the fire-service riser safety sign; stage mode safely normalizes the convenience alias riser to stage-riser.

4. Numbered monitor mixes and outputs

monitor 1 lead-wedge in deck at 13,17 "Lead"
monitor 2 bass-wedge in deck at 3,14 "Bass"

The number is the console mix/send and is printed as MIX N. Wedges, IEMs, and side fills must all carry a positive mix number. Schematex groups those endpoints into a derived MONITOR OUTPUTS table containing mix, destination, type, quantity, stage position, and notes. Use output-list off only when embedding the plot without this schedule.

Library consumers can call deriveStageOutputList(source) to receive the same structured rows used by the SVG.

5. Automatic input list

Add channel metadata to an input-bearing microphone or DI:

equipment drum-mic kick in deck at 13,5 channel 1 source "Kick" model "Shure Beta 52A" stand short-boom phantom no notes "Inside kick"

Each node with channel N becomes one row with:

1. channel number
2. instrument or vocal
3. suggested microphone or DI
4. auto-derived stage position (USR, USC, DSL, and so on)
5. stand type
6. 48V phantom power yes/no
7. notes

Rows are sorted by channel. input-list on is the default; use input-list off only when embedding the plot without its twin sheet.

Library consumers can call deriveStageInputList(source) to receive the same structured rows used by the SVG table.

6. Signal paths

signal bass-di -> snake-a -> foh "Bass"

Signal paths connect equipment ids with deterministic orthogonal lines. They are recorded but hidden by default so placement remains dominant. Add signal-paths on for the few operationally important paths such as DI→snake or snake→FOH. The escape-route engine shares only the neutral orthogonal geometry; life-safety rules do not leak into stage plots.

7. Print conventions

Input badges say CH N and monitor marks say MIX N; meaning never depends on blue versus amber alone. The legend explains both marks, while position codes combine up/mid/downstage with stage right/center/left.

8. Related examples

• Four-piece rock band
• Jazz trio
• Full band with a drum riser and six monitor mixes