I just sent the OP a private message but thought that others here could benefit, or shoot holes in, some of my suggestions so I will repost part of the message here.
I am intrigued about the design for the
truss, have you considered doing square
truss set up in an overhead square, with 4 square
truss legs? This setup would give the look of a rock and
roll stage while offering great support and many different levels of use. If you have a
house band in that preforms just with the
house system then you have it already hung. If you have touring shows in that bring their own lights (or you rent some for their show) then you have an infrastructure to handle said show. A similar setup to this,
http://www.bridgat.com/files/singlerow_trusscircular_trussroof_truss.jpg this can even be setup with a removable
cover (as seen) for the nice nights that you would like to be able to have a
clear sky overhead! This is one of many different setups that I would be glad to discuss at length. Another thing to consider with the
truss will be access. Do you have man lifts available (
boom or mast)? Or would you design the
system so the upper
truss can be lowered. Even if the upper
truss can be lowered I would still consider looking into a
man lift as they will be extremely handy if you would like to hang anything on the support towers.
It would not be difficult to design a booth that could have weather proof covers for all the equipment. That way when the show is over, you can
cover the equipment and not need to worry about moving it inside (and hoping that no one forgets to move it in!)
Also the board I would recommend is the
ETC Ion. This is a
bit larger than what you may seem to need at first, but I feel this offers the most features for the cost as well as being used throughout the industry. I just did a show on
Sunday at a local theater that the touring company used the same board for their show! And as stated before a
programmer could program some simple effects for the board to get you started quickly, while you learn the
system.
And before finishing this off I am going to ask if you are designing and installing the audio
system as well as the lighting? This is something that should have just as much attention as the lighting
system and should not be brushed over either.