Allen and Heath SQ Stage Plot Guide for Live Sound Setups

About the SQ Series

Allen & Heath's SQ Series (SQ-5, SQ-6, SQ-7) is a common workhorse on club and mid-size venue stages, popular for its compact surface and per-channel processing at a lower price point than dLive or Avantis. If your venue runs an SQ, you have likely already handed a printed input list to the house engineer at some point.

Current export status, honestly

Stageplot Pro does not offer a file-based channel name export for the SQ today, and we are not going to promise a date for one. Here is why: SQ show data is stored in an opaque .DAT file with no documented, publicly available CSV or text format for channel names. The one path that does exist, pushing names live through the third-party Mixing Station app over a network REST connection, is a live, in-the-room workflow, not a file you can generate ahead of time and hand off. Building a guessed .DAT writer risks loading a malformed session on a real console at a real gig, so we have not shipped one, and will not until there is a verified format to build against.

What actually works today

You do not need a native export to make an SQ session move fast:

1. Build your stage plot and complete input list in the editor.
2. Export a watermark-free PDF with your channel list clearly laid out.
3. Share the plot link or PDF with your engineer ahead of time so they can pre-build the SQ session by hand from an accurate list, instead of guessing at load in.

A clean, well-ordered input list handed over the day before still saves most of the time a native import would. Our working with sound engineers guide covers how to package that handoff so it actually gets used.

What would change this

If Allen & Heath publishes a documented SQ name import format, or a verified sample export surfaces from an SQ owner, that is a real target we can build and test against. Until then, guessing at an undocumented .DAT layout risks a session that loads on the console but assigns wrong names to wrong channels, which is worse for your engineer than no import at all. We would rather tell you the truth about what does not exist yet than ship something that might silently misfire on a real show.

Common SQ stage plot setups

SQ desks are common behind small to mid-size line ups. The jazz quartet stage plot and blues trio stage plot templates both reflect the channel counts typical of an SQ-5 or SQ-6 gig, and are a fast starting point to adapt to your own setup.

Getting the most from a PDF handoff

Even without a file import, a plot that clearly marks mic type, phantom power needs, and monitor assignments per position saves an SQ operator real setup time, since most of that data currently has to be re-derived from a phone call or a scribbled note. Treat the PDF as the source of truth you send ahead, not an afterthought printed at the venue door.

Try it

Open the editor and build a stage plot and input list your SQ engineer can work from today, even without a native import.