Control/Dimming The big red button...

[GoboMan]

I am a big fan of both "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice." On both of these shows, the judges have buttons in front of them to say "no" to an act, and to put a contestant through to the next round, respectively. When one of the judges hits their button, an obvious light cue is fired in the form of strobe lights and/or a color/position change in a set of lights.

What I've always wondered is... Are these buttons actually wired to the lighting board and actually send a signal to fire the cue? Or, are they just dummy buttons and the board op is intently watching and waiting for the judges to push them, and then pushes "go" on the board when necessary?

If anyone has any insight on to how that all works I would love to know. Thanks!

 

[ProgrammerInTraining]

dont know for all of them, but the voice for sure has one of the board ops watching closely. I know since I was on it. Also there's a new american idol type show coming up with judges called the taste (huge moving light rig) that I was on that had dummy buttons for elimination, again the board op was there watching and waiting. As a matter of fact that same board op was the one on the voice.

 

[Joshualangman]

John Huntington knows the answer! Doesn't he always?

- John Huntington's Blog - America

 

[Footer]

John Huntington knows the answer! Doesn't he always?

- John Huntington's Blog - America

Besides that show being fixed I do like it. Nearly every act that makes it into the top 10 are scouted, flown to audition, and all that stuff. We just had Lightwire Theatre in my venue, they were contacted by a scout from the show. Back in college we had recycled percussion in a few times, way before they ever got on the show. Even then they were touring with a 24' truck of stuff and a bus.