Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024 - 34

theatrical production conditions.) If every
instrument is to be subject not only
to intensity control but to control of the
other properties of light, the system will
be extremely complex and without doubt
additional operators will be necessary.
If the operator is to be subjected to
more and more complex operations at
the console, it will be necessary to shift
some of his duties to the machine. At the
present time, the human operator determines
the time at which each lighting
change will occur and the period of its
duration. No one familiar with dramatic
performance and dedicated to the proposition
that a theatrical performance must
be free to vary, will tolerate a machine
which determines when and for how
long a particular lighting effect will occur.
Some thought should be given, however,
to the inclusion of devices which
will sense what is happening on stage
and which will determine the timing of
lighting changes which are cued to these
happenings. As on example, control of
the house lights, opening of the curtain,
and establishment of the initial lighting
distribution might be effected by a properly
programmed machine, leaving the
operator free to control non-predictable
changes.
The machine might also be designed
to perform automatically certain sequences
of operations once the initial move
of the sequence has been performed by
the operator. For instance, after the operator
has blocked out a selection of instruments
using a blackout switch, the
machine might set the controller to zero
and turn itself back on, thereby preparing
for the succeeding fade-in. There may be
other commonly performed sequences
which the machine could be made to
handle without help from the operator.
Productions which are moved from
one theatre to another present a problem
of control system and cue sheet compatibility
not encountered when a production
plays in only one theatre. Professional
productions in general carry their own
lighting systems with them, thereby
eliminating the problem of translating
cue sheets from one control system to
another. Many advantages could accrue
to touring productions if theatres were
equipped with systems which made possible
transposition of cue sheets without
extensive lighting rehearsals. One approach
is the standardization of controls,
A conference attendee at the 1998 USITT Conference & Stage Expo looks at an ETC Expression lighting control
board. | USITT.
dimmer response time, dimmer curve,
systems of notation, etc. A second approach
which permits system development
through installation and use of
widely differing systems is suggested by
computer programmers who have devised
means by which one computer can
simulate the operation of another having
different characteristics. Similar facility
in lighting control systems should make
possible the rapid translation of cue
sheets without stifling standardization.
Probably the most time consuming
and exasperating activity connected with
the lighting of a show is the recording of
dimmer settings, switching and timing for
each cue. During each performance, the
operator is responsible for the reproduction
of these same dimmer settings and
switching. The control information must,
therefore, be organized into cue sheets
which present all information essential
for operation of the control system. It is
usual for cue sheets to record changes
to be made rather than static distributions
to be maintained, thus eliminating
the repetition of control settings which
do not change. As a result, it is often impossible
to reproduce the lighting from a
particular moment of a production without
running all cues from the beginning
of the act. The more closely the recording
process corresponds to the control
34 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | ISSUE 1, 2024
system, the less time must be spent in
recording and reproducing control settings.
Certain of the infinite preset boards
have made the recording simultaneous
with the establishment of light levels
with subsequent use of the record itself
to re-establish those levels. By making
the record of each cue an accurate representation
of all dimmer levels rather than
merely the changes in setting, these systems
have immeasurably speeded up the
lighting rehearsal process and increased
the reliability with which an operator can
be expected to reproduce the lighting for
a production.
The recording of cues is essentially
a process of committing information to
some device which will " remember " until
the information is needed. Typically, the
dimmer settings, switching and the gross
timing of a cue are " remembered " by being
written down while the precise timing
is remembered by the operator. Using
our present methods, it is not possible
for live productions to be so completely
recorded that an operator skilled in the
use of the equipment (but without previous
knowledge of the lighting effects) can
accurately reproduce even the lighting established
in rehearsals, much less create
an optimum presentation of the lighting
design. Here again is raised the question
of standardization, not only of control

Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024

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