See, the only world I see this as even remotely useful is one where you use every
dimmer and your lighting goes sequentially.... I'm not talking about patching for every show persay but at least a
house patch. Leading number is
focus point trailing number is
fixture number, evens come from
stage left odds come from
stage right, something like that at least.... So
downstage left would be 11 and 12 if you just had a basic cross shot. Those two lights without a patch could easily be 6 and 23 otherwise...
Well, to each their own I guess
Nope. There's no one who benefits in our
theatre from that. Then we get people coming in who need a piece of paper to cross-reference
circuit numbers with
channel numbers. I've found it a real PITA with a patched
plot when someone calls out "
Circuit 149" for that light they just added or were just troubleshooting. If the light isn't patched, I have to take the time to patch it. If I'm working on an
RFU, that means running up to the
console in the both. If it is, that probably still means running up into the booth because there's not a snowball's chance I'm going to remember what I patched that as. Either way, there's lost time waiting to get the light turned on, and if I'm the only one in the
theatre at the time and I'm in the
scissor lift, it now means as much as an extra 10-15 minutes getting the thing patched before I can turn it on and focus it.
Our rep file in the
console does include a graphical
light plot in it. If someone asks for the "third red
fresnel on the end", I can either grab my group for Down Red and then quickly Next through it to get to my light, or I can just use the trackball on my
console to arrow to that
fresnel, click on it, and bring it up.
Elaborate patching systems are great for touring acts that have to worry about doing the same show on different dimmers each night. They're also great when you're
console is as dumb as bricks and you need to compensate for that by having an encyclopedia's worth of useless numbering schemes logged in your head. For us, our
console, and our shows, we stand only to waste time with those numbering schemes though. I know this from experience because for a few months I tried and only found it to make my life a rotating cycle of listening to people come to me and say "Why doesn't this work?" and "That's...uhhhhh...
channel.....51?...61?...maybe?" and "Bollocks! I need to run up to the booth to patch that new
circuit in before you can bring it up on the
RFU."