Setting Up a Dynamic Lighting Rig for Medium-Sized Venues: Some Advice

I run lights at a small/med size venue that has anything from Corperate events, plays, movies to large bands and multiple day festivals. to start off I would suggest some Pars and wash lights to give a nice back wash color (moving head wash lights are great and versatile and if they have zoom can be used as a beam light whenever you want. I started with 8 par lights 6 Wash movers 4 moving head spots on the upstage truss and 4 moving head spots on the upstage floor on totems. (you want to have anything on the ground up off the ground a bit if the stage is tight or people will step on or stack gear right in front of it and make it pretty much useless)  For the downstage lights my favorite light is the focus flex L7 it has a nice warm white to bright white channel for illuminating the band or speaker or actors that looks good both in person and on camera. they also have pan and tilt and zoom so you don't have to climb up and aim lights for every show. I have 10-15 preset positions that can handle about any event they can think of and if not i get there a little early and program specific scenes for what they need. I also have some fx lights over the audience along with the downstage wash L7's for dance parties and other events where maybe the movie screen is down and I cant use the upstage lights. a few source 4's or ellipsoidals are nice around the venue for specials or to highlight anything special and those are nice to just have on a dimmer without having to program anything but you got to aim them if they want something specific and that means getting out the ladder UGHHHH. stay in qty's of 2 for symmetry and if you ever think guest LD's will come in and tie into the lights. In reguards to programing for all kinds of shows learn to busk your scenes. have positions seperate from colors and seperate from movements because some shows you wont want movements and others you will use nothing but movements. say a comedy show vs. a EDM show. make it where you can stack scenes to get a cool rock concert show and use simple postion and color scenes for a speaker or singer songwriter event. Theater lighting is not my favorite they want all special lights that are specific for theater stuff but I have found mainly they want an evenly lit stage at times with no shadows and footlights for people wearing hats or props. keep the downstage wash lights at least 45 degrees out and up or shadows will be a night mare if they are to close and above the stage. follow spots are becoming less requested but that is not always the case. if you don't have one then they usually are ok with that if you can do some kind of solo's or have specials on specific areas or people. try and keep all your moving heads the same. trying to program 8 different types of moving head lights can be difficult with mismatched color wheels and remembering 8 different fixture traits. have all the same models and dont buy some thinking you will get more later because chances are they will become discontinued and when you want more they will be hard to find so save up and get as many as you need all at once. 6-8 of each light is a good starting point on a mid size stage 4 is bare minimum on any stage. 6 is hard to get symetrical scenes sometimes and everyone that comes thru the theater wants 8 across of all the different types Beams, spots and wash etc..... If you can afford CMY fixtures I would recommend them because color wheels are not good at smooth color changes and going from one color to another they flip thru all the other colors to get to the one you want and they are rarely beside each other on the color wheel. find a good midi controller with lots of buttons and faders because you dont want to be trying to run a bunch of scenes with a mouse and control dimmers and speeds. I have a midicon pro but they are hard to find and discontinued. Midicraft has some awesome stuff and also if you can find the Midicon 2 or the APC stuff is popular. buttons and faders are awesome but learning all the midi stuff is not always the easiest if you start to get a comples show file. Well thats my quick advice for myself if I were to tell myself what I wish someone told me before I got into this. I learned a lot of this the hard way. ***DON'T BUY CHEAP CHINESE KNOCK OFF LIGHTS*** just buy the best lights with your budget and new with warranty is always nice if you have shows that require dependable lights. I've found great lights on ebay used and i've got lights that were pretty much useless that looked good on ebay. Eliminator makes some decent entry level lights but the options and features are sometimes lacking Adj has some great stuff  and their parent company elation has some really great stuff. avoid the facebook ads for lights that are 1/2 the price of what everyone else is using becuse there is always a catch and it usually involves buyers remorse and having to buy the correct thing the second time around. Good Luck hit me up if you have any questions