Show dictionary · Rigging & Staging
Truss
Truss is the modular aluminum structure of live production: welded lattice sections (commonly 12-inch box truss and up) that pin together into spans, towers, and grids carrying lights, audio, video, and scenery. Its strength comes from the chord-and-diagonal geometry, not the tube gauge.
In practice
Truss is specified by profile (box, triangle, ladder), chord size, and the manufacturer’s load tables, which give allowable loads per span; the same stick that carries a heavy rig at 20 feet allows far less at 40. Corner blocks, sleeves, and hinges extend the vocabulary into grids, goal posts, and circles.
Handling is craft: pins and clips seated, spreader-bar pickups where the table demands, and loads placed with the span math in mind (the truss calculator does the reactions). Aluminum forgives nothing it was not rated for, and the tables, not optimism, are the rating.
How you’ll hear it
"Sixty feet of twelve-inch box on two motors, movers at the third points per the table."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.