Cold Spark Machine for Concerts: Stage Production Guide | CryoFX
Running Cold Spark Machines for Concerts, From the Truck to the Cue Stack
A cold spark machine for concerts travels as part of a cased effects package, lands on fixed positions the permit names, runs on its own DMX universe with its own controller and cables, and gets fired by a licensed operator standing at side of stage with direct sight of every unit. Four things break tours with these on them: granule supply, wind on outdoor dates, patch errors, and DMX connectors chewed up by nightly load-ins.
The effect itself is incandescent metal particles thrown by a blower out of a heated chamber, with no combustion and nothing pressurised, which is why the machines can sit closer to a performer than a gerb can. The how cold spark machines work guide covers the chamber and the granule side. This page covers what happens once the machines are on a truck and a show has to happen 40 nights in a row.
CryoFX has supplied and operated cold sparks for Brett Michaels and the Goo Goo Dolls on the rock side, Tiesto, John Summit and Skrillex on the electronic side, and festival builds including Ultra Music Festival, EDC, HARD Fest California, other Insomniac events, and Burning Man.
[INSERT FESTIVAL MAIN STAGE COLD SPARK WIDE SHOT HERE, EDC OR ULTRA, APPROVED FOOTAGE ONLY]
What travels with the effects package
The flight case is the line item nearly every buyer forgets, and it's the one that decides whether the machines survive the routing. Cases run $197 to $597 depending on size, and the right one depends on machine count and model, so it's a conversation rather than a checkbox. In the box from most manufacturers you get the machine, a power cable, and a controller. Granules sometimes ship with it. A DMX cable usually doesn't.
Spares ride with the tour because a machine down at 4pm in a city you leave at 2am is a machine down for the rest of the run. There are no loaner or emergency replacement machines in this category, from CryoFX or anyone else, though under specific circumstances CryoFX can put a rental unit on a truck at a discounted rental cost. The realistic answer is a spares kit: DMX cables, power cables, a heating element, a hopper, a blower motor, and an electronics board. CryoFX stocks all of those and mostly ships same day, which is the difference between losing a cue and losing a leg of the tour.
DMX connectors fail before anything else on these machines. They get connected and disconnected every single day, often in the dark, often by whoever is closest, and the strain lands on the connector shell and the solder joints behind it. Inspect cable jackets and connectors as a pre-show item alongside granule flow, the same way you'd check a power cable on a moving light.
Production companies running long routings usually stop renting after the second or third tour and buy instead, because rental at $250 to $450 per machine per 24 to 48 hours adds up against a working tier machine at $1,000 to $2,000. If the math is close on your routing, the current lineup and pricing sits on the cold spark machines for sale page.
Granule stock travels sealed, dry, and off the trailer floor. Moisture ruins granules, and a damp pack reads on stage as weak or absent output, which is the fault that gets blamed on the machine. Indoor rooms take the smaller grain sizes and outdoor dates take the larger ones, so a tour that alternates arenas and amphitheatres carries both grades and labels them so a tech at 7am doesn't guess.
Patching into the rig without inheriting the lighting rig's risk
Special effects go on their own DMX universe, with their own controller and their own cables. Fire prevention bureaus frequently require exactly that, and CryoFX has been held to it in California, in other states, and in Clark County, with the specific requirement varying by packet reviewer and by whoever shows up as the on-site inspector.
The reason is a failure mode rather than paperwork. A patch error, a corrupted show file, or a console reloading garbage into a few slots on a shared universe can put a live value on a firing channel while nobody is looking at the stage. On a moving light that costs you a look. On a spark machine that's an unattended device throwing glowing metal into a room.
Where a universe is shared, it's shared only with other special effects run by the same company, so one person owns every fixture on the line and knows what every address does.
Machines patched to the same address fire together, which is a tool rather than a limitation. A wall look wants one address across the whole line so the whole line hits on one frame. A chase across the stage wants separate addresses. Decide that before the plot is drawn, because the addressing decision is baked into how the cable run gets built.
Channel structure is 2 channels on most machines: one arms the unit and brings the heating element up, the other fires it. The maps are not identical between brands, and the DMX control and channel setup page carries both plus the warning about patching a mixed rig from a single fixture profile.
CryoFX doesn't use wireless DMX on cold spark machines and avoids it unless there's no alternative, partly because some jurisdictions forbid it outright and partly because an RF dropout on a firing channel is not a failure anyone wants to explain afterwards.
[EMBED youtube.com/watch?v=YJGE5Mwp9Ms DMX WITH SPECIAL EFFECTS HERE]
Control sits at side of stage
Whoever fires needs direct line of sight to every machine and to every performer who can walk into a fallout zone. From front of house you're looking at the back of a lighting rig, across a crowd, at a stage that's 150 feet away and half obscured by haze. You cannot see a downstage artist take two steps left into a position, and that's precisely the thing the operator exists to catch.
Side of stage keeps the abort call with someone who can see the hazard. It also puts the operator inside earshot of the stage manager, which matters when a set runs long or a song gets dropped.
Nevada requires 2 people: a licence holder whose licence covers that machine type and that use, plus a separate operator running the machines. Other states let one person hold both roles. Budget and advance for the state you're actually in, because discovering the 2-person requirement during a plot review costs you a day you don't have.
Operators are 21 or older and assistants 18 or older under NFPA 1126. The lighting designer doesn't fire these off the lighting desk, and the call sheet should say who does, who the licence holder is, and who has abort authority when the operator is blocked.
Building the cue stack
Warm-up is the timing constraint that catches new productions. Showven units come up in around 5 minutes and some machines take up to 8, and both figures move with supply voltage and ambient temperature, so a cold amphitheatre at 6pm runs longer than the same rig in a warm arena at 11pm. The arm channel comes up well ahead of the cue, which usually means one song earlier rather than one cue earlier.
Most machines cut off at 30 seconds per activation for thermal protection, and there's a slight dip in height when the operator re-triggers. Write the long looks as multiple activations with the gap landing on a musical hit. A gap timed to the music reads as design. A gap timed to the machine's thermal cutoff reads as a fault.
Timecode works, and on a live show a skilled operator reading the room beats rigid timecode most nights, because the effect has to land against what the artist actually did rather than what the programmer assumed. Where a show is locked to timecode anyway, the operator still holds the abort.
Rehearse in a non-live environment before the first audience sees it. Every time. Granules cost $53 to $69 for a 200g pack, which is cheap against firing an unrehearsed cue into a moment nobody blocked.
[INSERT INFOGRAPHIC: SIDE-OF-STAGE CONTROL POSITION WITH SIGHT LINES TO 6 MACHINE POSITIONS AND FALLOUT ZONES MARKED]
Granule logistics across a tour
Budget by runtime, not by show date. A 200g pack gives 12 to 15 minutes of cumulative runtime on a standard machine. A mini running from a 50g pack gives 3 to 4 minutes. High-output units burn roughly 70 grams a minute, so a single pack is under 3 minutes on those. Packs above 200g are a custom order, and indoor and outdoor grades cost the same at the same weight.
Do the arithmetic per date and then per leg. A festival stage running 8 machines with 4 activations of 20 seconds each is about 11 minutes of cumulative machine time a night, which is a different restock cadence to a headline arena run with a single 30-second wall moment.
RFID metering is a touring constraint, not a detail. All Showven units require RFID cards, cards ship one per granule packet, black cards cover 50g packets and white or grey cover 200g, and certain cards only work with certain machines. Showven's system meters time: a 200g card adds about 20 minutes of machine working time with a maximum recharge of 30 minutes per session. Lose the cards and you have machines you can't run. Several iSparkFX models skip the requirement entirely, with the M1 NO RFID and the CSF-01 being the card-free options.
Restock lead time is what a routed tour has to plan around. CryoFX stocks granules cross-brand and ships same-day to 2-day, and iSparkFX granules run in other machines including JMaz and Blitzz, with a no-card option usable in almost any machine. Ship to the venue two dates ahead rather than the date you need them.
Contaminated or damp granules are the expensive mistake. Sand or debris in a pack, granules left in a hopper until they compact, or the wrong grade for the machine will damage the chamber and the auger, and none of that is warranty work. 95 to 98% of faults reported on these machines turn out to be operator error of exactly this kind.
Run the clear-out function after every single use, which activates the chamber auger and the blower without feeding new material. Full teardown cleans go every 8 to 10 uses when the clear-out is being run properly and every 5 when it isn't, and the maintenance and fault diagnosis page has the sequence.
[EMBED youtu.be/aMaMYAOry9M DIAGNOSING FAULTS HERE]
Outdoor dates and the wind call
Somebody has to own the wind call by name, in advance, on paper. CryoFX judges it case by case on sustained speed and gust behaviour, and the question being answered is whether sparks would leave the intended pattern and travel into people, set pieces, or equipment. Deciding that at the downbeat is how a cue becomes an incident.
The reason it's a hard cut rather than a judgment call about looks is the approval basis. The plot was reviewed against 15 feet or twice the fallout radius, whichever is greater, plus the separate rule keeping glowing particles 10 feet clear of the audience. A crosswind moves the fallout footprint outside the geometry the permit was issued on, and the effect is no longer the effect that was approved. The cold spark safety guide covers where those numbers come from.
Write the alternative into the show file before you need it. A lighting look, a CO2 hit, or nothing at all, decided in advance, so the operator's only decision on the night is whether the number is over the line.
Cold sparks outdoors are a night effect. Daylight flattens them to almost nothing, so an afternoon festival slot is spending money on something the crowd can barely see. Most machines aren't waterproof, a few carry a rating good enough for rain during a set, and none of them can be soaked.
Ground surface disqualifies positions on festival sites more often than ceiling height does indoors. Never over dry grass, never on wood decking, never over anything combustible, and expect the fire marshal to walk the fallout zone before doors and to ask what's under each machine.
One more item that belongs in the site survey rather than load-in: confirm machine voltage against the venue supply before anything is plugged in. Many stages carry 208V, which will run some 220V machines and will destroy a 110V machine's power supply. Dedicated circuits with nothing else on the run are a CryoFX contract requirement, and the power requirements page has the load math.
Frequently asked questions
How are cold spark machines integrated into a touring production?
They travel in flight cases as part of the effects package, get placed on the plot at fixed positions the permit names, patch as simple fixtures over standard XLR, and run on their own DMX universe with their own controller and cables. Control sits at side of stage with a licensed operator. Positions can't move once the plot is filed.
Who operates cold spark machines during a concert?
A dedicated effects operator, 21 or older, working separately from the lighting designer. In Nevada you need 2 people: a licence holder whose licence covers that machine type and use, plus an operator running the machines. Other states let one person hold both roles. The LD doesn't fire these off the lighting desk.
Why is cold spark control at side of stage instead of front of house?
Whoever fires needs direct line of sight to every machine and to the performers in the fallout zone. From FOH you're looking at the back of a lighting rig and a crowd, and you can't see a downstage artist step into a position. Side of stage keeps the abort call in the hands of someone who can actually see the hazard.
How many machines does a concert stage need?
6 to 8 for a festival stage or large concert is the common spec, and clients almost always book even numbers so positions stay symmetrical. Smaller club-scale stages run 4. Count follows stage width and how many looks you want, so a single wall moment and a per-song accent package need different numbers.
How do touring productions manage granule supply?
Budget by runtime rather than by show. A 200g pack gives 12 to 15 minutes cumulative on a standard machine, and high-output units burn about 70g a minute. Carry sealed stock, because moisture ruins granules and a damp pack gives weak or no output. Outdoor dates use larger grain than indoor rooms, so tours carry both.
Can cold spark machines be used at outdoor festivals?
Yes, and they're a night effect. In daylight you can barely see them. Most machines aren't waterproof, some carry an IP rating good enough for rain during a set, none can be soaked. Never fire over dry grass, wood decking, or anything combustible, and expect the fire marshal to walk the fallout zone before doors.
What happens to the effect if it's windy?
A crosswind carries sparks outside the calculated fallout zone, which puts them outside the 15 feet the plot was approved on, and the effect gets cut. Build the wind call into advance: who makes it, at what measured speed, and what the show does instead. Deciding that at the downbeat is how a cue turns into an incident.
How are cold spark cues programmed into a show file?
Machines patch as 2-channel fixtures: a safety and heat channel that has to be raised before anything fires, and a firing channel. Warm-up runs 3 to 8 minutes, so the safety channel comes up well ahead of the cue. Most machines time out at 30 seconds per activation, so long looks are re-triggered rather than held.
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Updated - 08/08/2026.