Performance Lighting Calculator

The calculator models light spreading with the inverse-square law: lux per fixture falls off with the square of throw distance, while the coverage area per fixture grows with that same square. A longer throw means each fixture lights a wider but dimmer pool, so it takes more fixtures tiled together to reach the same target lux over your stage area than a shorter, more concentrated throw would.

Close to it. The calculator first computes how many fixtures are needed just to physically tile the stage area, then multiplies that by the ratio of your target lux to the lux a single tiled layer produces at your throw distance. Doubling the target lux roughly doubles the front wash count once you're past the baseline coverage requirement, since the model assumes you're stacking fixture output rather than swapping to brighter units.

A conventional fixture on a dimmer only needs one channel to control its intensity, so the calculator assigns it 1 DMX channel. An LED fixture needs separate channels for red, green, blue, white, and dimming, so it's assigned 6. A moving head adds pan, tilt, color wheel, gobo, and other motorized parameters on top of that, so it's assigned 16 — which is why switching fixture types can push your total channel count past 512 and require an additional DMX universe.

Specials are fixtures the calculator sets aside for solos, set pieces, and focused effects that a general wash doesn't cover — it allocates roughly one per 10 m² of stage area, but never fewer than four regardless of how small the stage is, since even a modest production typically needs a handful of dedicated specials beyond the front wash, backlight, and side light systems.