Panel Lockouts

A lot of other lights, like Mac's and Studio Spots/Colors, have a lock out of the face panel. The way you disable it is holding up and down at the same time for a few seconds so its not a bad idea at all.

As far as recessed power, I haven't seen that on a fixture yet. You should try gaff taping the fixtures on. I do this a lot with fixtures and power strips to prevent them from turning off accidentally.

I thought about gaffing, but knowing the crowds as I do, that just means they can't see what they are pressing!

You did misunderstand one thing I said. As I want the lock-out to be simple, the idea of using a recessed typed slide switch SUCH AS what they use on some computer PSU's might be an idea. However, you can program the button hold into the ROM/PROM and avoid adding physical cost to the fixture that way.

Even for myself, I like my fixtures to be the same every time I use them to the point where I even label them. I wouldn't mind locking myself out just to ensure that consistency factor be guaranteed consistent.

As far as people dinking with power, I think that all lighting going forward that uses IEC connectors should be compatible with locking cables. That would be sufficient to discourage MOST people. My problem here was not that someone jiggled a cable loose, there was a real effort to disconnect it(the cable was taken OUT and then hidden behind the stage skirt).

It gets to the point where "how much idiot proofing do we have to do". Since a good many shows, I wonder why I'm even doing sound services, they just sit crammed at the front of the stage between the mains. But these are smaller shows and security really hasn't been something to be concerned about. By that, I meant there has been security there, but nobody was acting in a manner were security needed to do anything. The crowd was behaving properly.