Duck Lights plug & play 101
Our handy-dandy Plug & Play!
“Set & Forget” Light show playback for your next tour!
Q: What Exactly Is Plug & Play, and Why Did We Make It?
A: Plug & Play is our timecode-based lighting system that’s all about giving you big production value without requiring a full-time touring lighting director. After years of working as a concert lighting programmer, I saw way too many artists settling for mediocre lighting because they couldn't afford to bring someone on the road. I wanted to create a system that works like an audio playback rig—but for lights. You set it up, push play on your playback rig, and watch the pre-programmed show stay consistently synced to your music.
Q: Who Is The Plug & Play For?
A:
Music Artists and bands who want a great light show but might not have the extra bunk available for a lighting director. If you’ve been searching “lighting console for rent” or “touring lighting operator for band cheap,” this could be your jam.
Tour / Artist Managers who don’t have the time—or the budget—to bring a lighting guy on tour or wrangle the house LD before every show
Lighting Directors and Programmers who want to program a timecoded show using grandMA2 / grandMA3 without going out on the road.
Fun fact: Halsey toured with a Plug & Play in the early days
Q: How Does Plug & Play Compare to Hiring a Lighting Director?
A: A touring LD is awesome if you have the budget, need someone to handle setup/teardown of the lighting completely, and need constant on-the-fly changes. I mean heck, we are Lighting Directors ourselves! What the Plug & Play does is provide a system and framework to pre-program an artists show with an LD, and deploy it into an easy and compact playback system for the tour. The Plug & Play automates the main job of an LD by syncing lights to music with timecode. So you still work with a pro, and get that pro look —minus the daily operator costs.
Q: What Does It Do?
A: It’s basically a compact & easy lighting console that fires off pre-programmed cues right when the music says so. You load your audio playback rig, everything’s timecoded, and each cue hits perfectly in sync.
The show looks tight every night—no missed transitions, no awkward blackouts.
Q: What’s Inside the Box?
A: The Plug & Play system involves a few main components:
LTC Audio Interface: Listens for that timecode signal with two levels of redundancy.
Touchscreen 15" Laptop PC with an optimized Windows OS: Runs grandMA2 or grandMA3 OnPC software with the timecode, telling the rig when to fire each cue.
grandMA3 OnPC Node: Translates everything into DMX commands—like a universal language for your lights. Can run on MA2 with a maximum of 2048 Parameters, or MA3 with a maximum of 4096 parameters. 4 DMX ports for multiple DMX universes.
All packaged in a 2U flyable rack case. Simple enough for, well, anyone who can handle plugging in some cables.
Q: How Was It Built?
A: We took our love-hate relationship with grandMA consoles and merged it with a timecode backbone. After seeing how audio playback rigs made life easy for musicians, we thought, “Why not do this for lighting?” So we built a “set and forget” system for acts who can’t justify a dedicated lighting operator for multi-week touring.
Q: How Does Timecode Work?
A: Timecode is like a digital conductor for your show. An LD usually manually advances the lighting cues. With timecode, you output special audio tracks that tell any device listening exactly where they are in realtime for any given song (similar to a drummer with slate/click tracks in their ears). If your show has those big hits or epic intros, timecode makes sure the lights slam right on the beat. No human error, no lag. Check out our blog article about timecode!
Q: How Does This Improve My Overall Production Value?
A:
Consistency: No matter the venue (or house LD's mood that night) your show looks dialed in.
Cost-Efficiency: You’re not paying a dedicated operator every night.
Reusable Programming: The show file can be repurposed for future tours—major time and money saver.
Q: What’s the actual setup procedure like on show day?
A: Easy:
Remove the case lids.
Connect the USB & power cable.
Press the power button.
Press the "ARM SHOW" button.
Let it rock!
Q: What costs should be considered?
A: Four Main Elements:
Design: your show will need some kind of design! Due to variations in venues, our clients prefer scalable designs that can be programmed to look balanced on any stage.
Programming: You pay for the custom programming once, and can reuse it as long as you want
Rental package: the plug and play requires a consistent lighting package and cannot control the venue lights
Transportation: the plug and play itself is in a tidy fly-ready case, but the lighting package will require transportation considerations
Our clients are able to amortize the design cost over multiple tours, so the more you use it, the better the payoff!
Q: Can I use it with the venue lights?
A:
Our system is designed to work with a single consistent lighting package that the music artist crew travels with. Although it's technically possible that a lighting package can be patched with a particular venues rig using the industry standard lighting software used, it's not realistically feasible. To add in the venue lights show-to show requires an experienced lighting director / programmer that understands the nuances with all the different flavors of lighting rigs, off-brand lighting manufacturers, and other quirks that you can only find out by programming house lights in-person.
There's three ways that house lights can be integrated:
telling a venue to black them out completely and let the touring package take center stage (with the mindset that a smaller intentional light show is preferred over maximizing quantity of lights)
using a set list with color themes complementary to the pre-programmed show, so the house LD can create a back canvas with the hung venue lights to the more flashy "plug & play" dialed-in show of the ground lighting package.
hiring an LD: even if there is only a few shows that you want to feel like the scaled up version of the tour, we will frequently have an LD use the same grandMA2 / grandMA3 showfile created for the plug & play, and scale it up for important market shows, such as Los Angeles, NYC, Nashville, London, Berlin, etc.
Q: I’m not super familiar with DMX or lighting. Will I be lost?
A: That’s the beauty of Plug & Play—it’s built for folks unfamiliar with lighting equipment. You just plug it in, confirm the cues, and let the system handle the rest. If you can set up a small PA system, you can handle this.
Q: What If Something Goes Wrong?
A: We offer remote support. If you can get the system online, we’ll jump in and troubleshoot. Think of it like having a virtual crew member who’s always on standby.
Q: Where Can I Learn More or Rent a Plug & Play system?
A: Just reach out to us at Duck Lights. We’re happy to talk specifics—like whether your show needs a certain number of DMX outputs or how timecode could work with your existing playback rig (generally you just need to dedicate a single mono audio output). If you have questions, we’ve got answers, and we’ll help you figure out if this “set and forget” system is the right match for your next run.
Get in touch, and let’s see how Plug & Play can transform your show. Because if your music’s top-notch, your lighting shouldn’t be an afterthought.
