Hard Patch

A hard patch is when you create a physical connection between the dimmers and the sockets that fixtures are connected into. In some venues there is also a hard patch between the sound mixing desk or amplifiers and the sockets or other sound devices. There may even be other cables you can patch (such as DMX connections).

Sound
Having a patch bay for sound devices is very useful, as it allows you to leave most of the connections going into and out of the sound equipment untouched, but still have the connections going where you want. One venue which has this is the O'Reilly Theatre. There is a patch bay in the tech box which has the inputs/outputs of the mixing desk, post processors and also the XLR connections around the theatre. This makes it easier to group microphones and select the correct connections without having to work out which cables are which.

Lighting
The most common patch bay for lighting is when you have a selection of 15A plugs and sockets in a room near (usually adjacent to) the theatre. Each plug will be numbered with the socket on the lighting grid and is basically just an extension lead between the two. You can then plug whichever plugs you need into the sockets (which are usually labelled with the dimmer number) or directly into the dimmers themselves. For example, at the Moser Theatre you connect the plugs directly to the dimmers, whereas at the BT Studio, you connect them to a row of sockets. It is common to also have a few NDC at the patch bay.