Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024 - 30

been is primarily the result of work by the
firms specializing in lighting equipment
for the stage. In a very real sense, these
relatively few companies (and their clients)
have borne the development costs
for the many companies who have built
boards without contributing advances in
system design.
Because the major lighting companies
produce relatively few control systems
each year, they have not had the funds to
engage in extensive research programs.
The money which has been available has
understandably gone into the development
of saleable hardware rather than
into investigations of what a control system
could be and what it could do for
an operator or lighting designer. Any research
program which attempts a theoretical
or philosophical basis for control
system design will meet with the practical
objection that the companies cannot
afford it.
The information vacuum indicated by
the conditions I have enumerated leads
inevitably to the repetition of past designs
rather than to broad experimentation.
To help fill this vacuum, the Theatre
Engineering Subcommittee of USITT
and the Technical Developments Project
of AETA have embarked on a " paper
symposium " on the future of lighting control
systems. This symposium is to draw
on the minds of those who do have the
necessary background knowledge both
in dramatic production and system engineering
to discuss present control systems
and to project the possible needs of
lighting designers of the future. In these
discussions, we are not interested in the
construction of currently available equipment
except as it provides a springboard
for advances in lighting equipment. We
are not concerned with the type of dimmer*
or even with particular characteristics
of the dimmer except as they affect
the operation of the lighting during performance.
None of the assumptions on
which the design of contemporary equipment
is based will be accepted without
careful reevaluation. Preset controls,
about which there has been considerable
controversy, and master controls are not
to be treated as inherently useful devices
which can safely be proliferated without
limit. Our attempt will be to find guides to
the number and distribution of controls
which can profitably be included in a
lighting control system. We will consider
Two attendees inspect an ETC Obsession at the 1993 Conference & Stage Expo in Wichita | USITT.
some of the aspects which in the development
from power distribution equipment
have been forgotten or at best only half
remembered in the design of lighting
control systems. Hopefully we will borrow
from the experience of the builders
of data processing machines, since a
lighting control system may be thought
of as a machine far handling and re handling
data. And we must explore the capabilities
of the human operator. Inevitably
some of our speculations will take on a
science fiction quality for removed from
the limitations of present technology and
the ability of theatre managements to pay
for the equipment. It is only by temporarily
freeing ourselves from the limits of today
that we can project the goal toward
which we should strive in the system designs
of tomorrow. The control systems
of the immediate future will continue to
be the result of compromise, but it is our
wish for the symposium that it will provide
a clearer picture of the ideal so that
our imperfect systems may be conscious
steps toward the time when equipment
no longer keeps earthbound the soaring
imagination of the lighting designer.
It will be helpful to divide our discussion
into five broad subject matter areas:
l. the concept of dramatic production and
the role which lighting control plays in
production; 2. the practical requirements
of production; 3. human capabilities and
limitations; 4. machine capabilities and
limitations; and 5. the reliability with
30 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | ISSUE 1, 2024
which the control system must operate.
The function of the essay to follow is to
raise questions concerning these five areas.
Inevitably, the point of view of the
writer will be seen in the presentation.
Hopefully this will not stifle discussion
and may even provoke useful thought and
articulate rebuttal.
* We need to make a clear distinction
between control systems and dimmers.
In the evolution of control systems from
power distribution panels, the dimmers
coupled with on-off switches were the
only control means available. With the
advent of remotely controlled dimmers
come the realization that the control system
and the dimmer are separate parts
of the total control machine. Different
control systems can be devised for a particular
type of dimmer and conversely
different dimmers may be used with the
same control system; a single potentiometer
may control several dimmers and
several controls can be made to operate
the same dimmer either sequentially or
simultaneously.
The Relationship of Lighting
Control to the Goals of Production
Of the possible arguments for the continued
existence of live theatrical performances
in an age and society where
mechanically reproduced performances
offer the advantages of greater reliability
and lower admission prices, the most
important is the conviction that there

Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024

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