I’m looking for a cleaner and more professional way to handle power distribution under my DJ booth.
In the past, I used a bunch of basic 3-way power splitters which quickly turned into a cable mess – especially under the booth. Recently, I started experimenting with a new approach: mounting a power strip underneath the booth/table. My hope was to keep things more organized, but the reality is that cables coming from both sides (left/right) now have to route up to the mounted strip – making it actually worse.
Also, I know I should switch out the power strip for one without switches – that’s on my to-do list. But in general, while my WDMX and lighting cable runs look clean and tidy, the bottom part of my booth still looks like chaos. No guest ever sees it, but it’s a pain to clean up and not very pro.
Just to clarify: this setup was temporarily reassembled for optimization – during actual gigs, the power strip isn’t hanging mid-air (it’s normally replaced by multiple 3-way splitters lying on the floor). Also, the live gig photo was taken before the dancefloor opened – the booth gets pulled out a bit after dinner for better presence and spacing.
Any suggestions or best practices?
Ideally looking for:
Let’s start with making al list. What equipment do you use and what cables (power/audio/dmx) do you need?
Two considerations to start:
1- The Prime4 had a USB powered socket. use it!
2- DMX can lead to a lot of wires quickly. Either consider the wireless route (Donner dongles) or a splitter
Hi @Ben-E, I already built lots of cable bundles to make it easier to built everything, but the real problem is the power situation. I did a drawing for you to maybe better understand the setup.
The Prime4+ itself is perfectly cable managed, I only have to plug in on socket and already have include USB-Hubs, 2 Mics etc and Chauvet Wireless handles my DMX wireless, which is great.
Equipment which you see setup an the original post:
2x QSC K10.2 Top
1x EV 118SP Bass
2x Beamlights Left
2x Beamlights Right
1x Denon Prime 4+
2x Wash Front
1x Hazer
1x Fog
1x LED Background Bar
2x LED Backlight
I thought about something like this a power con solution like rigport, but than I have to change all power cables which is going to be super expensive.
Since this is basically a brainstorm there aren’t wrong answers. But I’m thinking along these lines:
First connect the beamlights on the pole together. Either use the power-out on one of the lights or if the fixtures dont have a power output use a Y-cable (example).
Connect the DMX signal wireless. If your dmx dongle needs power take it from either the power output of the fixture or buy a triple-Y cable.
For the main power I was thinking at a : powerconditioner like this one maybe combined with a rackmounted powerstrip. Mount them into a lightweight and cheap flightcase. You could use the flightcase to cary your cables to and from the gig, but also to hide excess cables!
This case can be the “base”. Have either run individual cables into base (and hide some of the cable end in the case) or combine several effects and fixtures together through either the power out of the devices or Y-cables.
Hehe, I did consider Y-power cables, but most of the available ones are pretty clunky - and the beams are using PowerCON, which makes it even trickier Right now I have 3.5m Powercon cables preassamble which is super fast in installation and light in weight, so the beams are more a little bit of that problem.
DMX is all wireless and fully battery-powered, so that part’s already clean and simple.
I like the idea of using a flightcase as a power base! You wouldn’t know this, but I actually try to keep everything super compact and lightweight so it fits into my tiny car That mindset has helped me streamline everything - except for the power setup, which is still a bit of a mess. This challenge is exactly what I needed to finally tackle that properly.
I’d separate your lighting power and your audio power. Personally, I even go as far as separating my powered speakers/amps from my line level audio gear/computer.
I see a lot of different power strips and cables. If you would standardize your cabling, things would look a lot neater. I have a crate full of 1.5m 3-way power strips, and a crate full of 1-way extension cords, in standardized lengths of 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10m, colorcoded by length. This already provides a much tidier setup.
When I look for a speaker system, having something with powercons is high up my wishlist, so I can loop power from the subs to the tops. I even have little boxes with 1 powercon in, 2 powercon outs, and 4 schuco outs. I actually use these for stage power with my coverband, but they are nice to tuck under the DJ booth too…
Maybe have all your lighting in a little truss? Ok, thats more work to setup, but having a bunch of stands with seperate lights does look less tidy. You come into your truss with 1 cable and you tap all the power from it as you go from left to right,
@johan thanks for the input – you’re absolutely right about standardization!
Actually, all of my cables are already bundled in pre-prepared cable sleeves, so the runs themselves are super tidy. The real mess starts at the ends, where everything comes together in multiple 3-way power strips on the floor.
If I could somehow reduce the number of those splitters, it would already make a huge difference. I’ve been thinking: maybe there’s a way to combine the ends directly – like cutting off the regular plugs and creating a single connector that goes into a central power distribution unit? Kind of like DIY daisy-chaining without using three separate plugs?
Has anyone tried something like that? Or is there a safe, semi-professional way to merge 3 cables into one connector for a tidier main power input?
That sounds like a solution specific to your setup, and is the opposite to standardisation, no? I worked a few years in AV rental, and there we stick to standard 3 way boxes and standardized cables. No “specials”, because you can forget these in the warehouse…
I agree. Don’t make anything unique/custom, because if anything goes wrong with one of the cables when on site and you need to swap it, unique wiring and/or connectors will be a problem.
Again, if you’re looking for clean power distribution separate your lights and speakers power on separate legs. You have WAY too many things powered off of one or even two plugs.
Thanks for the heads-up! I actually went through a full power load calculation with a colleague who’s a professional event technician. Since all fixtures are LED and the power strips are appropriately rated, we’re operating well within safe limits.
Beyond the wattage, though, my whole approach is about reducing gear - not adding more. The goal is to build a compact, efficient setup with as little clutter as possible. Separating everything onto different legs would technically be “cleaner” on paper, but in practice it would just introduce more cables, more routing, and more bulk - especially for a mobile DJ setup.
That’s why I’m focusing on smarter consolidation instead of just splitting things up. Cleaner builds through less gear, not more.
You’re both absolutely right - a unique or custom connector might sound smart in theory, but it would probably just cause issues in real-world use, especially if something fails on-site or needs replacing quickly. Definitely not worth the risk.
I think I’ll just stick with my standard 3-way power strips for now. They may not be fancy, but they’re reliable, easy to replace, and flexible enough for my setup.
Thanks a lot for all the input! Maybe the whole thing is already just optimized enough
My point about keeping things separate is even more important in a mobile setup, considering you never know the power situation at any given venue. Way easier to troubleshoot hums, brownouts and blown circuits.
With over 10 years of experience, I totally get where you’re coming from - and you’re absolutely right in principle. Fortunately, I’ve only encountered one problematic situation (which was horrible - but could not be solved through separating circuits) out of hundreds of gigs, and that one was clearly due to the venue’s faulty wiring.
That said, I’m based in Germany, where electrical setups are generally very reliable and must legally be installed by certified professionals. Especially for events, you usually work with vetted venues and service providers, so the risk is pretty low.
I still appreciate your point, though - it makes perfect sense, especially in less regulated environments.
That’s no guarantee: a run-of-the-Mill professional electrician doesn’t know jack squat about power requirements of an audio installation. They know all kinds of stuff about securing high power installations with PV, batteries, large industrial buildings with lighting, DALI, PWM-drives on large machinery, RCD devices, power losses on a long cable, and what that means for the characteristics of a fuse, you name it. But I can tell you that they really don’t realise the fridge of the catering, the heatpump of the building or even the dimmer of the venues main lighting can really be heard through your PA system. For them, power quality and harmonics on the grid is some theoretical thing which is left over to the grid company. For us DJs, sound techs and musicians, power quality is a very audibly thing in the form of hum…
(I live in Belgium, our regulation regarding electrical installations is pretty stringent too…)
I always split my audio and lighting, preferably from 2 wall outlets on separate fusing, if possible separate phases. Even with LED lighting: the last time I didn’t separate audio from lighting (I was with the coverband, and power was provided to me by the AV rental company), I had to turn off the AV rental’s LED-star backdrops, because they created a hum on the guitars….. and that was in the VIP room of a large, relatively new, soccer stadium, fed by a private 10kV substation… I suspect the electrician really did know what he was doing there…
Right now I have 3.5m Powercon cables preassamble which is super fast in installation and light in weight, so the beams are more a little bit of that problem.
