Teknoloji

How do light and screens make a stage bigger?

Front, side and back light on a small stage; DMX, the control protocol; pixel pitch on LED screens. With big examples such as Sphere and the Eras Tour.

WyvOne Editör · 06.11.2026

Sphere, which opened in Las Vegas on 29 September 2023, hosted U2 for its first show. Its inner surface has an LED screen of about 15,000 square metres with a resolution of 16,000 x 16,000; the venue seats 17,600 people. U2 played 40 shows there between 29 September 2023 and 2 March 2024. This scale is not something most of us can reach, but the ideas there, light and image as part of the stage, can be brought down to a small stage too.

Light first: see the face, then depth

On a small stage, the first job is that the artist's face can be seen. In a piece published in Church Production magazine in February 2026, media director Bryan Bailey says that for front light he mostly chooses a type of spotlight (ellipsoidal) that can shape the light onto specific areas, and that PAR-type lamps can also do the job for front lighting if used correctly. For front light, Bailey prefers adjustable white to colour: being able to adjust from warm to cool is enough. Colour is more useful in side light; for that he uses RGB-type lamps.

Back light separates the artist from the background and adds depth. The same piece says he prefers lamps called Fresnels for back light, and that strip lamps can be an option on stages with low ceilings. The numbers of lamps recommended in vendors' blog posts vary widely, from two front lights and one back light up to six lamps. So it is more accurate to look at the width of the stage, the ceiling height and the distance to the audience than at the number.

What runs the lights: DMX

Once you start using more than a few lamps, you need a control system. The standard name for this in stage lighting is DMX512. The protocol was developed by USITT in 1986 and later became an ANSI standard (E1.11). Each 'universe' consists of 512 channels, and each channel takes a value between 0 and 255. This means controlling a lamp's brightness, colour or movement with numbers. Up to 32 devices can be connected on a single line; splitters are used for more.

On a small stage you can work without going into this detail, with a simple controller that recalls pre-programmed scenes. But when buying lamps, checking whether they are DMX compatible makes it easier to expand the system later.

LED screens: pitch and distance

When choosing an LED screen, the first value to look at is 'pixel pitch': the distance between two pixels, given in millimetres, and the smaller the number, the denser the image. The real question is how close people will view the screen from. Sources are not consistent here. According to a rule often seen in vendor posts, pixel pitch (mm) is roughly equal to the nearest viewing distance (metres). The table on Christie's page gives the 'ideal' viewing distance as pitch x 3 metres; for example, 7.5 metres for 2.5 mm. So 1 m/mm is roughly the near limit where the screen's pixels start to become visible, and 3 m/mm is for comfortable viewing. Christie also writes that these are only guides for planning and can vary with ambient light and content. The safest approach is to take the closest seat as your basis and, if possible, test the screen on site.

What happens on big stages?

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour began on 17 March 2023 in Glendale and ended on 8 December 2024 in Vancouver; 149 shows were played in 51 cities in 21 countries. The stage had three parts: a main stage with a curved wide screen, a centre stage and a T-shaped extension. There were also light beams, smoke, lasers, fireworks and PixMob LED wristbands on the audience's wrists. The wristband idea is notable because it stops light from being something that only goes from the stage to the audience.

The lesson for a small stage is this: big tours follow the same basic order; the audience being able to see the artist, then defining the space with light, then strengthening the story with the screen. The screen is a layer that should come after the light. If the face cannot be seen on stage, the screen will not rescue it.