I am the lighting technician at a school but was not taught by anyone how to use the board and I have a problem with cues. I use a
leviton innovator 48/96. I will record a
cue that is let's say, full
wash out. Then followed by a
blackout. When I go from full to black out the lights stay on at about 10% and it's not a full black out. Does anyone know why this is?? Thank you!!
@Andrew clark Hi Andrew; I don't know your specific board but I'll suggest a few thoughts while you're waiting for an Innovator expert to come along. Boards record in several ways, here are some possibilities:
Some boards record the
level of every
channel every time. This eats memory which used to be expensive.
Some board record only levels which have changed since the previous
cue. Different manufacturers refer to this by different terms.
Another thing to realize is the difference between recording a
level of zero Vs. recording no
level. Some manufacturers indicate the difference between the number zero and the letter O by using different colors.
If a board records in a format commonly referred to as "
tracking", recording a zero will force a
channel to a
level of zero.
Recording nothing for a
channel in a
cue MAY appear as a letter O on the
screen, or MAY appear as no instruction. Either way, no instruction results in no (zero) change. Not necessarily no
level but NO INSTRUCTION thus zero change with the
channel "
tracking" through at whatever
level it was last instructed. Many folks get caught by this when they find LXQ's which were previously known to be blackouts now have levels
tracking through them.
This results as follows: There were a quantity of channels lit when the
blackout was recorded. When the operatpr hit record, the board only recorded zero's for the channels which were lit at the moment of recording. If during subsequent rehearsals changes were made to channels which were not lit when the
blackout Q was last recorded, those channels will "
track" through the
blackout with zero change since no changes were recorded for those channels when the
blackout Q was recorded.
The next thing to learn is the difference between recording a
blackout and recording a
blocking blackout.
Often, when recording a
blackout Q, the board will only record levels of zero for channels which were active a some
level above zero at the moment of recording.
When recording a
blocking blackout, you force the board to record levels of zero for all channels, whether they were previously active or not. Thus the
blocking blackout has a
level of zero recorded for all channels meaning no channels can
track through the
blocking blackout.
Similar to
blocking blackouts are
blocking Q's. Same idea. Recording a
blocking Q will force the board to record levels for ALL channels. Channels with levels will have their levels recorded. Inactive channels will have levels of zero recorded to prevent levels from other cues from
tracking through the
cue regardless of whether it's a
blackout or otherwise.
I hope this gives you a little insight as to possibilities and optimistically an Innovator expert will
roll along shortly if they haven'[t already while I've been typing.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
