Design Lighting Programmer?
- Thread starterAxlD1234
- Start date
Sorry, i was not aware of that. i was only aware of it being used as a Computer based program....In the sense i do live under a rock....at my work we use all Hog and at my school we used ETC, So i have never had ewxperience with it.
dthomas32308
Member
I said that jokingly and intended no offense. Unfortunately, ChamSys has that reputation that it can't seem to shake free of as they are one of the newer contenders in the marketplace. If you ever do have an opportunity then do give ChamSys a chance. Before I was forced to use one because my consoles PSU went out, I never gave them a second thought because I listened to what everyone else said but within 2 hours in front of one I had figured it out well enough to program a good enough show no one else would have known it was my first time on the desk. Also, as you're familiar with Hog on the ChamSys consoles/software there is a "Hog Warp" mode which makes the console act more like a Hog.
themuzicman
Well-Known Member
As far as video walls go, on rock shows I used to see a lot of MA controlling the video aspects of stuff. On Broadway and NYC theater in general I haven't seen any consoles programming video, usually it's D3 controlling the Video Walls being programmed from their computer interface, sometimes Watchout, and when the show opens they MIDI link the program to run off lx or sound.
As far as programmers go, in NYC I have never seen anything but the programer program a desk, the designer and their associates never touch the desk. Generally before first preview there is a handoff from the programmer to the board op, and the programmer remains for day notes until the show freezes.
Interested to hear your thoughts on the dual programmer thing. I've been doing multi-programmer shows on and off since the 90s, when we'd put white light on the Expression and movers on, well, whatever we could..
It slowed down a bit around the time the Hog 2 started becoming viable and people started making me run movers and conventionals at the same time, stayed single-programmer through the early MA days, but then media servers started showing up and we split apart again.
These days I spend a lot of time programming theatrical projections, where my console is an island : separate cue calls, no shared infrastructure, nobody else in my session. (I run MAs almost exclusively). Typically the lighting guys have some kind of Eos-family console to deal with and I'm very happy they're there for that. Occasionally I'll steal scenic LED fixtures from their rig and tie them into my system, but I try to avoid anything with an arc source because after 12 hours of banging on servers in that context I'm pretty likely to totally forget to douse the rig.
The rest of the time, I'm doing big nasty industrials. The vast majority have boiled back down to single-programmer shows, typically a couple dozen universes of movers and LEDs, pixel map data coming from a server and spitting back into the console. Occasionally if there's no time they'll throw another console and programmer at the show. If it's someone I know and trust enough to share a showfile with, we live in the same session and can help each other out if necessary, but the vast majority of the time I prefer my rig broken apart from anyone else's.
In the projection world, what passes for previz for us is a monitor per output as we sit in a stuffy room somewhere and build cues. The ideal in this case is to get a skeleton into the board so that when we hit the first rehearsal (don't even talk to me about load-in schedules) I can at the very least hit GO and see something happen when the SM asks for it. In this case I typically preprogram everything as single 1080p outputs and then split them apart to converge, warp, mutilate, etc once we get into the space.
In the industrial world, I live and die by previz. They've cut load-in and tech time so significantly that without having time to pre-cue/write palettes/suss out positions/look for issues in in previz we would end up giving them a severely compromised show. Nobody's paying for dedicated previz suite time anymore, for the most part, but we've had great luck finding a corner and setting up the system during load-in. That way we're a short walk or radio away if the PE has any questions, and we can watch the progress of the actual rig as well.
dthomas32308
Member
I'm jealous of you all up there and any big house for that matter... Do what you know and like/love without having to do much of the load in/out. Down here for bigger shows it's generally all hands on deck all the time and if I don't get to pre-viz then I end up busking the show after enough deck time to set position palettes before the house opens. Theatrical is different since most theaters have their plots available to do some pre-viz/programming with and enough rehearsal time to update and add cues.
I think that for the vast majority of theatrical (Broadway) shows, having two lighting programmers isn't a good use of resources. Consoles (and programmers) are fast enough and have enough storage space to store all the information needed.
As soon as you add video to this situation (and at that point you're adding another designer) you really do need two programmers - whether they're both on the same style of console is another discussion. For theatre where everything is a "special snowflake" look, being pulled in two directions by two designers isn't something you want to experience.
Understandable. But to make those "special snowflake" we're creating in theatre, previz isn't precise enough.
Yeah, my broadway knowledge is pretty dated. Last time I worked with KBA it was still Obs for conventional sand MA1 for the wiggles.
However, I feel you're wrong about the value of previz in theatre. If your designer has his crap together (or if you're determined enough to drive a sloppy LD) you can still get your cues and palettes into the board before you hit the stage. If I'm under the gun (and when aren't we?) I'm much happier updating existing palettes within my showfile than I am building new ones on the fly. Give it a try sometime - you may be surprised how useful it is.
dthomas32308
Member
Color/Beam palettes are already built and imported from show to show based on instruments used - focuses need to be updated anyways. And as long as the mover is quick enough (I'm glaring at you Revolution and AutoYoke) it's quick enough to build a new focus.
Getting the LD, the associate, the assistant, and myself together in a room together before tech is hard enough. I can't imagine trying to get us all together to pre-viz.
It's also not something that I feel producers would be willing to pay for - especially when GMs still think they should hire a combined Head/Programmer. And none of the stuff at my scale gets drafted in 3D - someone would need to do that for both lighting and scenery.
I would love to try it on a show! You offering one up?
jxgriffi
Active Member
I use it very frequently. Does it work well? Depends on what you want to do with it. I use it like a magic sheet and also for pixel mapping. It's one of the easiest pixel maps to do. Takes a little time to get them set but then it's very easy to deal with.
