Design What's the 'best way' to document lighting console parameters

[Frank]

I'm curious what folks do for documenting their designs. Our lighting guy will generally program the console (ETC Smartfade) so the operator is just hitting the "go" button for each cue. This works for simple shows with a smaller number of changes. I'm wondering how safe this is though and how we might recover in the middle of a show, ex. something fails and we don't necessarily have a good handle on which mems are in the stack, which dimmers are related to which slider, etc. Is there a standard worksheet that might be used to document all this?

thanks for any tips, ideas, etc.; I hope my question is clear.

 

[shiben]

I'm curious what folks do for documenting their designs. Our lighting guy will generally program the console (ETC Smartfade) so the operator is just hitting the "go" button for each cue. This works for simple shows with a smaller number of changes. I'm wondering how safe this is though and how we might recover in the middle of a show, ex. something fails and we don't necessarily have a good handle on which mems are in the stack, which dimmers are related to which slider, etc. Is there a standard worksheet that might be used to document all this?

thanks for any tips, ideas, etc.; I hope my question is clear.

Yeah. First, save to a disk or USB thingy or something so that you dont have to have a worksheet. Otherwise, the LD will often provide a cue sheet, which generally shows what parameters are at what level at each cue, and where the cue goes in the script. If your worried about which handle having which dimmers, get a submaster list and use that to document where they go.

 

[Les]

This is pretty common. Generally, a backup disk is made which can be reloaded if need be. If the console has crashed and you can't load a disk (lock-up or what-have-you), odds are you will be turning on the worklights. As far as a worksheet goes, what you describe is a magic sheet or dimmer schedule. This would allow you to bring up specific channels, but it won't make the show pretty. As Shiben said, program submasters with nice, general looks if you're worried.

Key looks can be programmed in to submasters or architectural stations for quick recall. In general, a console failure is not a pretty thing, and it's hard to gracefully recover no matter which way you do it. Luckily, console failures are rare. Have two backups of the show handy. This is the best advice I can give.

Setting up the racks to "hold last look" is a good idea in the event of a signal loss. Some racks also allow you to set up scenes from the CEM, which is a good idea since it bypasses the console entirely. As I said earlier; any failure that wipes out your ability to run cues and/or reload them will probably prevent you from keypad/submaster entry as well.

 

[jglodeklights]

Generally, I attempt to create:

1. A dimmer schedule that is essentially the soft patch, it tells me what each fixture(S) is/are patched at.

2. Circuit schedule. This tells me what each unit is actually plugged into. When you are working with touring style dimmer racks, you may have between 1 and 24 or more mults run. Knowing what units are plugged into what circuit runs helps immensely when you need to changeover in less than 24 hours.

3. Instrument Schedule. This I use as a catch all. It tells me channel, dimmer, circuit, color, position, unit number and purpose. Essentially, I use this to memorize Channel, Position, Unit, and Purpose to do my dimmer/channel checks

Having these three things along with a plot and magic sheet would allow me to set the board back to the plot without any problems. Additionally, I will have:

4. A back up of the showfile. As long as your computer can read the media the console can back up to, you can back up any show file, regardless of having a program or not having a program that can read the show file. A file is a file as long as it can be seen by the computer. With the correct floppy drive, I can back up my Expression and Colortran Encore files. With EOS family, HOG, Chamsys and other current consoles, the USB drive back up makes it even easier to export files to an off site location.

For the SmartFade, specifically, you can export the console file to an SD card. In my experience with older versions of the software, only patch, memories and chases are saved. Stack and Stack states were not saved. Newer versions of the software may or may not have corrected this.

Fleenor also has a 10 scene preset that records snapshots of what is on stage. Slighty a not cheap option, it is useful in the case of total failure. Disconnect the main board and run up to 10 cues as a preset fade time.

 

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I always leave a backup show file and a dimmer schedule (soft patch) and instrument schedule (gobo, color, etc information) with the show.

 

[Frank]

Thanks everyone. Are the various schedules hand-written notes or do you use some sort of row/column worksheet?

 

[sclausenETC]

<snip>

For the SmartFade, specifically, you can export the console file to an SD card. In my experience with older versions of the software, only patch, memories and chases are saved. Stack and Stack states were not saved. Newer versions of the software may or may not have corrected this.

<snip>

This is not true - the entire show is saved to the SD card, or to the PC via SmartSoft, otherwise there would be little point in saving the show. I am unaware of any version that behaved the way described above.

I recommend the "always back up to portable media" method, as many have stated here. If your show data is really important to you. as a designer, you might have an assistant track the creation of the show as it's designed/recorded, keeping "track sheets" for every cue, sub, whatever as it's recorded. I'm not sure if anyone actually does this anymore, it's been a really long time since I've had them done, but then you know what you wrote. Most of the time now, though, a copy or three of the show is handed over, as well as the channel hookup, instrument schedule and light plot.

Regardless, keep at least one copy of your show on another disk of some type, and if you're like me, keep three copies on different disks.

Thanks -

Sarah

Sarah Clausen
Market Manager, GmbH (and Product Manager for Congo and SmartFade)
ETC, Inc.

 

[jglodeklights]

This is not true - the entire show is saved to the SD card, or to the PC via SmartSoft, otherwise there would be little point in saving the show. I am unaware of any version that behaved the way described above.

I definitely had it happen with a SmartFade 24/96. Patch, memories and settings were saved to the SD card, I could transition between the REP and my show for them, my stack with my stack states did not. I did not have the older version of SmartSoft installed on my computer with which to archive my show via USB, nor did I have the opportunity to download an archived version. Stack and Stack States recorded were not available even when opened in SmartSoft. Glad to know this is NOT normal behavior for the board. As it was not my board, I was not in a place to update it to the current software, which I only understand was not done because the TD had no idea you could update the software on the board, nor did he even have an SD card in the board for backup. This was sad, because V3.0 worked much more juicily when I played with the SmartSoft for it on my PC. Had it had v3.0 I would have actually enjoyed my experience with the SmartFade, which I feel is an excellent and powerful board for the price.

 

[kicknargel]

Thanks everyone. Are the various schedules hand-written notes or do you use some sort of row/column worksheet?

Most pros are using software designed to handle this paper--Lightwright is very common, and vectorworks and other software that drafts light plots will also produce the paperwork. But, you can do what you need with any spreadsheet. A common setup would have columns for position, unit number, inst type, channel, circuit, dimmer, color, gobo, purpose, focus. Record this info for each light and you can sort the spreadsheet by any of these headings (which is really the only difference between a channel hookup or dimmer hookup).

Note that this all documents the hang and patch, not the cues themselves. As has been said, we pretty much rely on console backups for this. Some consoles will give you a printout of all levels in all cues if you really want it, but it's overkill in your case.

 

[NickVon]

Most pros are using software designed to handle this paper--Lightwright is very common, and vectorworks and other software that drafts light plots will also produce the paperwork. But, you can do what you need with any spreadsheet. A common setup would have columns for position, unit number, inst type, channel, circuit, dimmer, color, gobo, purpose, focus. Record this info for each light and you can sort the spreadsheet by any of these headings (which is really the only difference between a channel hookup or dimmer hookup).

Note that this all documents the hang and patch, not the cues themselves. As has been said, we pretty much rely on console backups for this. Some consoles will give you a printout of all levels in all cues if you really want it, but it's overkill in your case.

I could email you an example of our House's rep plot insturment Schedual if you like Frank, just let me know.

 

[rochem]

It sounds like what you're talking about is a Track Sheet - see this link for some examples from days gone by:

Theatrical Lighting Database

These were used in the past because they were what the board operators followed when they were manually setting channel levels for each cue for each performance. I'd be very surprised if anyone doing a show on a modern memory console still did this. Generally speaking, there's so much data contained in each cue (discreet timings, marking, preheat, focus/color/beam data, links and follows, and so on) that writing everything out would be nearly impossible. On long-running Broadway-style shows, the show file is the only complete record of the cues - generally, the LD and ALD keep one each, the Production Electrician has one, there's 2 or more in the theatre, and at least a few more scattered among producers, stage managers, and maybe a safe somewhere. The idea being that, no matter what happened to the venue or any individual, there would be plenty of copies remaining.

However, most Broadway-style shows will do a fairly detailed tracking of Moving Lights via FileMaker Pro or another similar program. Most ALDs I've met have their own extremely intricate and complicated FileMaker Pro template that they use for tracking every time a ML comes up, where it's pointing, what color it's in, and everything about it. While the console does provide this data, it's usually not clear what the numbers are intended to represent (colors/gobos could be swapped, blocking could change, scenery may be modified, and so on). Often these are also paired with a photo-record of every cue, as well as every ML (and usually conventional) focus and preset.

Hope that helps.

 

[Frank]

I could email you an example of our House's rep plot insturment Schedual if you like Frank, just let me know.

Sending PM (thanks)