Socapex

Socapex, usually just Soca, is the 19-pin multipin connector and cable used to carry several lighting circuits in a single run. The pin count explains itself: six circuits need six live conductors, six neutrals and six grounds, which is eighteen, and the nineteenth is normally unused.

Each circuit is a standard 20 amp, 120 volt branch, typically on 12 gauge conductors. At the far end a breakout fan splits the multi back into six individual connectors, so a single cable from the distro to the truss replaces six separate runs.

The argument for it is weight and time. A lighting rig fed on individual cables is a mass of cable to run, dress and roll; the same rig on Soca is a handful of runs. On a rig that goes up and down on a motor, it is also fewer things to disconnect.

The thing to be careful about is heat and derating. Six current-carrying circuits bundled inside one jacket do not dissipate heat the way six separate cables do, which is a real consideration when every circuit is loaded near its limit and the cable is coiled rather than run out. The practice of running cable out flat rather than leaving it on the drum is not tidiness.

A Soca run is only as good as its breakout. A fan left in the sun on a wet deck is the connector that fails, not the multi.

Event lighting — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Power distro The portable box that takes one large feed and breaks it into protected circuits — the thing between a building’s power and every piece of equipment on the show.
• Stage pin connector The flat two-pin-and-ground plug on theatrical circuits — built for heat and repeated use, and not interchangeable with the household plug it sits beside.
• Feeder cable The heavy single-conductor cable between the power source and the distro — one conductor per jacket, run in sets, and governed on site by where people walk.