Dancers live in light as fish live in water. The stage space in which they move is their aquarium, their portion of the sea. Within translucent walls and above the stage floor, the lighting supports their flashing buoyance or their arrested sculptural bodies. The dance is fluid and never static. Designing for the dance has been my most constant love. I have designed the decor as well as the lighting for a good many ballets and I have installed the basic systems with which I have worked in dance repertory. If I leave anything to posterity, it will be, I think, most importantly in the field of dance lighting. My extraordinary good fortune was that I came along at a point in time when Martha Graham was creating and when Lincoln Kirstein was backing George Balanchine to create new and fresh uses of the ballet form. ~~Jean Rosenthal, The Magic of Light

Lighting the Dance

These first few sentences are perhaps all one needs to understand the dance. The rest is style and historical aesthetics. “Dancers live in light as fish live in water.” If you have ever seen a truly first rate dancer glide across the stage effortlessly and with infinite grace, you know what this means. The relationship between a dancer and their light, between a choreographer and their lighting designer, is unique among artistic collaborations. Perhaps the closest analogy would be the relationship of the composer to their conductor. So much of dance, even when dealing with classical story ballet, comes down to the lighting that one must almost unlearn everything you know about lighting in order to learn how to light for the dance.

Dance lighting is unique among performance disciplines in large part because dance is concerned first and foremost with movement. While in all performance mediums our focus is on bodies in space, it is the dance where we focus on where and how that body moves. Perhaps there is a large sweeping arc of an entrance that spirals to center for a pirouette where our dancer is joined by a partner who then jaunts about the stage with her. In short, we are concerned with the whole stage and the quality of movement rather than where someone is standing for such and such a monologue.

My background and training as a designer is in modern ballet and post-modern dance. The following essay is written primarily from the perspective of designing for modern dance forms. While many of these principals can be applied to classical ballet and some post-modern styles, those forms are not the focus as they demand their own unique approach.

For the purposes of this essay I am assuming the use of a conventional modern dance space. This typical dance space has several wings, perhaps four per side, with a boom placed in the center of each just out of sitelines. Sidelights are hung on the booms and point straight across stage. These low hung units allow for color changes between pieces in repertory and allows the entire stage space to be filled, with very few lights. The wings and dance floor are black and there is often a white cyc in the background. Should the cyc not be used for a particular piece, there is a black curtain immediately downstage of the Cyc.

The Angles of Dance

Because our interest in dance is based first on movement, the lighting must be grounded in an approach that seeks out interesting ways to reveal that moving body. While in a play, where our concern is dialogue and plot, we focus on faces through the use of frontlighting. In dance, to show off the musculature and movement, we rely primarily on sidelight positions.

While sidelight is a primary tool in dance lighting, at a more basic level the use of different angles in dance is often treated in a more minimalist or poetic manner than one finds in a play or musical or television. While in a play or television, you might have a key light that is brighter than the myriad other lights used in the scene, for a dance, you might only have that one light or a very few lights from a tightly controlled palette of angles.

Sidelighting

The sidelighting conventions for dance developed out of the twin needs of a body’s movement in a kinesthetically focused art form and a touring repertory. As such this system was devised to achieve the maximum variety in lighting looks with a minimum of instrumentation.

The first lighting position to consider are the shinbusters or shins. As you might infer from the name, these are lights hung at or about shin height. They are typically elipsoidals with shutter cuts taken off the floor and focused to head height at the centerline. With these, it becomes possible to brightly light the dancer without illuminating the floor. The effect is one of making the dancer appear to float as if by magic.

After the shins, the next most important position are the head highs, or heads. These are lights hung at or just above typical head height. They are also focused to centerline, but unlike the shins they do not cut off the floor. While the light does graze the floor, the effect is minimal and allows the dancer to be brightly light while keeping a minimum of notice on the floor

These two positions are so fundamental to dance that many designers, should they find themselves in severely limited situations, would utilize only them. This system of sidelighting was developed by american designer Jean Rosenthal and is covered in more detail in her seminal text The Magic of Light.

Through the use of low angled sidelighting like this a designer may fill the entire stage space with light using as few as 8 or 10 lighting instruments. In a touring situation where venues range from having large compliments of lighting fixtures to incredibly limited options, this system allows the basic integrity of the design to be maintained in virtually any performance space. I discuss the implications of designing in repertory for tour in more detail here.

While Shins and Heads are the two primary angles utilized in dance, larger companies and dance venues will have a much more extensive lighting system for their home season if not also on tour. A more expanded low boom might have Low Shins, High Shins, Mids, Low Heads and High Heads. Classical ballet companies will also have high booms, typically in a pink and a blue that hang at 3-4 meters above the stage floor. Pipe-ends and other high-side lights may also be employed.

Other Angles and Lighting Options

Dance may begin with sidelight, but that is not to say that other options are unavailable to the designer. Backlighting, toplights, frontlight and foot lights should all be considered part of the designer’s tool kit. In addition to all these, lighted drops and cycloramas play a critical role in dance lighting.

Backlighting and top lighting often play a very prominent role in dance. Because the primary lighting angles keep the majority of light on the dancer and off the floor, the floor is left relatively dark. From this place, the designer has at their disposal any combination of overhead lighting positions to design shadows and patterns on the floor itself. Through the use of color, texture, shadow angle, and intensity, the designer can cause the dancer to appear to traverse entire worlds, while merely crossing the stage from down-right to up-left. For a more detailed exploration of lighting floors, see my essay here.

The use of a cyc in dance, or painted drops in ballet, can be quite effective as well. The color variety afforded by a three color cyc can give limitless variety to a designer when combined with the color options in the low booms.

Beyond the Basics and a bit of History

The advent of modern dance brought with it several changes that would rock the dance world and significantly impact the lighting designer in the process. The first was the elimination of toe shoes and ballet slippers. While not directly impacting lighting, this did lead to radical new explorations of form and movement, thus shifting the aesthetic center of the field. The second change, and one directly relevant to lighting, was the elimination of scenery.

With scenery gone, or relegated to a few gestural sculptures, lighting no longer had to contend with pesky walls that would block it. This freed the lighting designer to use whatever tool they saw as necessary to light the dance. It also shifted lighting to a more primary role in the creation of a visual space.

Lighting now had double duty of creating mood and atmosphere as well as setting. Lighting as scenery is commonplace in the dance world today. Be it through the use of toplight boxes, texture and color, or a partially obscured cyc, there are limitless ways to define the dance space architecturally with light.

Dance, in many ways, allows light to exist in its purest form. With little to no scenery and a focus entirely upon lighting a body in space, the medium lends itself to the poetic essence of what stage lighting can be. While theatre production can use quite a number of lighting instruments and angles to construct the various looks, dance is often content with a few clean, clear, simple gestures. Dance is an opportunity for the lighting designer to let their inner poet run free. To take light as a formal art and dance on stage with the performer. The lighting designer constructs the aquarium wherein a dancer may swim in their light.

Images are courtesy of Lucas Krech. The main photograph is copyright Julie Lemberger.

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So, there we were in the middle of a series of tutorials on the Cham Sys MagicQ when something unexpected happened. Something totally out of the blue. A rumour went around that some students in Bath had used the MagicQ PC and PC Wing as part of a recent show – and didn’t like it! They didn’t get on with it and eventually gave up and swapped it for another controller. The other controller was (wait for it) a Pulsar Masterpiece! (Igor, I thought I told you to round up all the DisasterPieces and crush them?) How could this happen?

At first, this seemed like a case of youthful exhuberance vs. RTFM but I was assured that the User Manual was consulted on this occasion. A further conversation on Twitter brought up the whole question of what makes a good User Interface (UI) for a lighting control. I realised that current console interfaces that work so well for me were evolutions of desks that I already knew, with concepts that are rooted in lighting control history. What if you didn’t have a lighting console history?

What if you had never used a Strand Galaxy or a Celco Gold? Or even a Hog II? What if you only ever used a computer with a Windows style GUI? Would any of these flippin’ desks make sense to you?

What do you want from a lighting control?

• Speed – You want to be able to do as much as possible in the short time available.
• Flexibility – You want the console to give you the flexibility to control your specific show, and there are many kinds of show with different control needs.
• Control – Well, duh.
• To Spend As Much Time As Humanly Possible Looking At The Stage And Not Fumbling With Buttons And Other Input Hardware - Er, like I said.

There are two types of lighting controller: Those you know. And those you don’t.

The first type ticks all the boxes because you can use it’s many functions quickly, mostly without looking at the thing. The second kind is what makes you question the UI and can turn you off that console early on.

Modern consoles have evolved from older consoles and older operators have evolved with them. In stage lighting control we have some versions of our own standards, but they are incomplete and not always obvious to the newcomer. And first impressions count.

Long term vs short term usability

The new generation of techies have grown up in a world full of standards. Across software apps, the File menu has always been Top Left and it’s contents are pretty predictable. Standards are great because they allow the new, the lazy and (let’s face it) the stupid, a better chance of being able make at least some progress. Most PC apps give three or four ways of doing something in an effort that you will find at least one of Keyboard Shortcut / Right Click Menu / Top Menu / Toolbar.

The trouble with these standards is that they have led the world to believe that anything technical can be used, if you just “have a go”. Someone recently asked me to turn the ring tone on their phone off but I had never seen this phone before , how hard could it be? After a couple of unsuccessful attempts (I hung up on their mother and probably deleted at least one of their Contacts) the ringer was sorted. I could use the phone but only to the low standard.

When you become familiar with a UI, your muscle memory tunes into it and things happen automatically. Speed and accuracy are increased, freeing your mind up to concentrate on the end result while forgetting about process. Looking for functions vs. looking at the stage.

Who is the UI working for, the casual prodder or power user - or both?

A Cham Sys problem?

Cham Sys seem to have a great idea – Make a good console with loads of familiar features, add some more and create a platform with possibilities for the future. Make a PC software version that is compatible with cheap DMX output devices and hope to build a fanbase, proficient in your console and specifying the top models in your range.

But…

The first time I saw the MagicQ it was real and was accompanied by the man who designed it. And I had a history of using the Hog II, which the MQ shares many concepts. I liked the Cham Sys as a lighting desk and the fact that it came as a free PC app was a bonus.

Perhaps you and I had a different experience of the MagicQ UI. Perhaps you downloaded MagicQ PC, read the help, tried to make sense of an already alien world. No one can pretend that a lighting desk plonked on a computer screen is the ideal UI for anyone. Hell, I defy anyone to download Grand MA onPC and work out that it’s a half decent lighting console. However, the MA has the kudos of being “the” desk on those shows you read about in L&SI, it doesn’t have to introduce itself to you via a PC screen.

The trouble is, many people encounter tghe MagicQ via the PC version and perhaps with little console history. Is this the best first impression? Is there the tiniest possiblity that what seemed like a great idea to spread your message might actually backfire when you can’t put your best UI face on to the newest users?

Where are we GUIng now?

(ok, enough UI puns for today)

While trying to empathise with the guys struggling with an alien interface, I started to question the future of lighting interfaces and their ease of use for all kinds of users – casual and dedicated.
A lot of my initial thinking on this subject was centered around the physical aspects and I asked a question over at the Blue Room that provoked some interesting opinions. Are we using the right hardware and software? Do current lighting controls only work for me because they were designed by my contemporaries? Would it be better if all UI were further standardised?

So what do you think? What kind of UI do you think would take us into the future of lighting control and cater for all users?

Image by Zach Klein on Flickr

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Handling Channels

The key to setting up scenes on any control is handling fixture data. As we only have conventional dimmers in our rig, we only need to worry about Intensity levels. There are number of options for controlling channels on the MagicQ, here’s a few:

Command Line Entry

A traditional style of entering fixture data, command line programming involves typing instructions into a keypad and hitting ENTER to action them. You can type in a channel number, followed by an @ symbol, and then an intensity level - > 10 @ 50 ENTER sets fixture 10 at 50% and enters this into the programmer. On a laptop without a separate number pad, command line entry is a bit fiddly.

Intensity Window Entry

As we are only controlling conventional dimmers today, using the Intensity Window is quite an attractive option – it’s a bit like having traditional fader banks. Open the INTENSITY [INT] Window and you will see a graphical representation of faders with Name and Colour information. You can grab the slider and adjust the level which enters the information into the programmer. Filtering the window by Name or Colour helps reduce the number of sliders on view at any one time.

Group Entry

Using the Auto groups set in Part 1 of our tutorials, we can easily select fixture groups and adjust their level as a group using the bottom right encoder or use it’s softkey to toggle between 100% – 50% - 0. It’s possible to use the GROUP area to toggle multiple group selections, to do this might requires it to be set. SETUP > Prog > Select Mulitple Groups.
Adjusting individual fixtures in a group is often achieved by using the NEXT HEAD or PREV HEAD buttons to bump through the fixtures and adjust the levels with the encoder.

Entry using the Virtual Plan

Selecting fixtures via the virtual plan we created in the OUTPUTS window, either individually or dragging a multiple selection, we can set the levels using the bottom right encoder. This is handy if you know where the fixture is and just want to tweak it – no need to know which number it is.

Setting up a look

Having seen some methods of entering data, we are going to create some simple memories for the band using each one.

Command Line

Let’s start by creating a look which is the Beam Fans at 100% using the command line.
Make sure that you are working in the Custom Prog workspace we created and clear the programmer with CLEAR [CLR].
Type 13 > 24 @ # (# is Full on the PC) and watch it appear in the command line before pressing ENTER. You will see the back PARS turn blue on the plan and the data appear in the programmer. To save it to Playback 1, hit RECORD , type in Beam Fans and select the S button above the first fader. CLEAR the programmer and try out the fader.
You might find that there is a fade in time when you raise the fader. In that case, you can double click on the S button to open the CUE Stack window where you will see the Beam Fans cue information. Set the fade to 0.00s in the field but selecting it and typing 0 ENTER. Now, you have the fade time controlled by fader only.
While we are in the CUE stack window, we can set the default fade time by choosing View Defaults (top) - > Step Times and setting them all to 0s. CLOSE the CUE stack window.
We simply entered a range of fixtures and a level but the command line can handle complex syntax such as:
1 > 24 – 1 > 13 + 13 @ # which is an over engineered version of our previous command. There are some more details on the command line on the useful shortcuts sheet by Cham Sys. Personally I am not that keen on command line entry, especially not while using the PC software.

Intensity Window

Let’s set up a custom view to help us work in the intensity window. Close all Windows with SHIFT + CLOSE and re open the OUTPUT window in the bottom half of the screen. Open the INTENSITY (INT) window and size it to fill the top half of the screen. Now we can use the Intensity sliders and see the result so save that view – RECORD > Type in INTS then CRTL + select an unused view button.

Grab a slider and see it working on the OUTPUT window. What you can’t see is that values are also being placed into the programmer, the top of the INT window says Intensity (programmer). Any fixture currently in the programmer turns red, even if you wind the fader to zero, the fixture remains in the programmer at 0%. With conventional fixtures, this doesn’t matter to much, with complex fixtures like moving lights - it does. Remove fixtures from the programmer by selecting their slider, then Remove Cursor (top right).
Changing the INT window to View Presets (top left) displays faders like the real faders on a conventional lighting desk. These are not related to the programmer and are good for controlling specials while busking a show, setting fixed levels for houselights or controlling fixtures you don’t want programmed, if the crew is focussing for example.

Go back to the Programmer intensities with View Prog. With the INTENSITY window set to MAX, we could see all 36 dimmer channels but with only half the screen to play with we need to be able to zone in on the faders we want. This is where the labelling and colour information comes in.
The left hand encoders are used to set different filters to the displayed faders – Head type (we only have Dimmer on this show), Gel, and Head Name. The bottom left softbutton toggles back to view All. Using these filter, we will set up submaster for out 2 band spotlight positions.
CLEAR the programmer and scroll through the Gel filter until you find L202, our spot colour. Push up the SR spot slider to 100%. Save that spot to PB8 using RECORD, typing in SR Spot and choosing the S button. CLEAR the programmer once more and repeat with the two DSC spots and save onto PB9. CLEAR again and finally save the SL spot onto PB10.

Toggle the window filter back to All with the bottom left encoder. Next we are going to record a Blinders memory, so scroll through the Head Name filter until you hit Blinders. This brings up our 4 Blinder faders. Choose Select All from the top row of softbuttons and use the bottom right encoder (Selected Heads) to bring them to 100%. Hit RECORD then the S button on PB2.
You will notice that we didn’t name the look before choosing the destination and that it now has a number like CS ##. We can name it now by pressing SET which pops up the QWERTY keyboard before typing in the name and hitting enter. Naming things after they have already been recorded, including custom views, is done using this SET method.

Groups selection

Next up, we are going to create a colour wash using the Group method and adjust individual levels using NEXT / PREV. CLEAR the programmer and return to our Custom Prog window using CRTL + view softbutton.
In the GROUP windows, select All Red and bring to Full using using the encoder. Now, we want the backlight to be stronger than the front light. Hitting NEXT HEAD selects just the FOH Pars and turns the others off (Highlight mode) but we want to adjust them while seeing everything so turn off HIGHLIGHT using the hard button. Knock 20% off the FOH Par channel then hit NEXT again and take 10% off the Mid Par channel – Hmmm, the whole thing could do with lifting a touch, hitting ALL reselects the entire group and we can wheel on another 5% before RECORDing it to a playback as RED WASH. So, the whole group incremented relative to their starting value and are now at 85% and 95%.

Record another look, this time a Cold Wash using both Dark and Light Blues by toggling each group on and controlling them in tandem. If you can’t multi select them, make sure that Enable Multiple groups is set in the SETUP / Prog menu as mentioned earlier.

The last thing in this section is to create an Odd/Even Chase on the Beam Fans using the selection tools. CLEAR the programmer.
Select All Beam Fans from the GROUP window and click and hold ODD/EVEN (right), selecting ODD from the menu. Take the selection to 100% and RECORD “Beam Chase” to a spare Playback. CLEAR the programmer and repeat using an EVEN selection, RECORDing the programmer to the same fader. Hit CLEAR again.

By saving two looks to one fader, we have started a Cue Stack – a list of cues that run in sequence. When the MagicQ creates a cue stack, it defaults to being a chase that advances automatically rather than a theatre style cue list . Fire the chase of by raising the playback and you will see the chase running in the OUTPUT window. As you are probably keen to mess about with the chase timing, double click on the S button of the playback and fit the Cue Stack window to the top half of the screen. Play about with the Chase Xfade and Chase Speed until you are happy.

The last method of entering information into the programmer we mentioned was using the virtual plan. This is pretty straightforward, you select fixtures in the OUTPUT window and set the levels using the encoder. Have a play around with that too, if you like.

Organising Playbacks

In case you hadn’t already guessed, there is a standard syntax when Moving, Removing and Copying data on the MagicQ. This can be used when patching, setting out palettes, making cues and organising playbacks. The workflow of Move and Copy has 3 stages:

• 1 – Select the action – Move or Copy
• 2 – Select the data
• 3 – Choose the destination

We can use Move to layout our playbacks exactly how we want them. Try moving a currently recorded playback : MOVE [MVE]- > “S” button of existing playback - >”S” of a free destination. Stacks can be moved between playback pages and this method can be also be useful to reorder playbacks on a full page, temporarily parking a stack on another page to free up some space on the current page before shunting playbacks around.

Copying

Copying stacks can be used to create other instances of a stack or to create the basis of new programming. The difference is between a Linked Copy or an Unlinked Copy.
Linked Copy – The default Copy function, the Linked Copy takes the data from one playback and copies it to another. Altering any instance of a playback changes all copies. This is used for making the same cue/stack appear elsewhere on the playback and only one instance needs editing. Action : COPY - > “S” That - > “S” There.
Unlinked Copy - An Unlinked Copy takes copies from the original playback and creates a new one. Edits to the original are not reflected in the copy, nor vice versa. Unlinked copies are useful for creating a whole new cue or stack, using existing data.

Action : Shift + COPY - > “S” That - > “S” There.

Cues, Cues Stacks and Playbacks

Now we have nearly filled up a page worth of playbacks, we better take a while to understand cue storage on the MagicQ.

Cues

When we created a look and stored it to a fader we actually did two things – saved a cue and assigned it to a fader. Each cue created is stored in the Cue Store, a bit like a back cupboard where things can get lost. Deleting a cue from a Playback using REMOVE + S button actually only removes it from the fader, the cue lives on in the Cue Store and can only be completely deleted from there. This is good news if you accidentally delete a look from a fader and it turns out that you wanted it.
Delete the cue RED WASH from it’s playback with REMOVE [REM] + S and confirming at the popup. Next, open the CUE STORE (right) window. You will see all the cues recorded in this show file, find the RED WASH cue and copy it back to it’s playback with COPY > RED WASH > Playback S button. There, no harm done. You can check the contents of a cue live on stage by using Test Cue (top) in the CUE STORE window.

Stacks

When we created the Beam Fan chase, we made the first Cue Stack – a series of connected cues. Cue Stacks also have their own cupboard, found by pressing STACK STORE and this can be used to pick a stack and assign it to a fader in the same way. You can test the stack in the cupboard too.
NB. If a cue is part of a cue stack, it cannot be deleted via the store while it’s stack still exists. But let’s not get too hung up on that now.

Recap

In this part, we have learned to:

• Select and control fixtures
• Enter data into the programmer using different methods
• Record, Name and Move scenes
• Create a Cue Stack to be used as a chase.
• Create Copies and Linked Copies
• To find and organise Cues and Cue Stacks in the store

Next time, we will be looking at creating another page of playbacks with other types of memory including a theatre style cue stack, FX engine driven dynamic effects and setting up the desk to run our show.
Here’s the sneak preview.
Creating another page of playbacks just requires a page change using the NXT button (bottom left) and recording new scenes to the empty slots.
A theatre style cue stack is stored like a chase, with multiple records on one playback. The timing is changed by double clicking the S button to open the Stack window and choosing Cue Timing (top) instead of Chase Timing. While in the Cue Stack window, take a look at the data fields for each cue such as Delay, Fade etc.
The FX engine is applied by choosing a Group like All Beam Fans, Add FX (top) and choosing a fade like Ramp ^. Adjusting the encoders marked FX gives you direct control over different elements of the effect such as timing, spread and size. See if you can work out what they all do, using the output window to view the results.

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You might like to take a look at Introduction to the MagicQ which takes a tour around the desk . This tutorial is intended to be easy to follow with only a version of the MQ PC/Mac software from Cham Sys (we are running 1.4.00 today) and a single screen PC/Laptop with keyboard and mouse. I tend to run MagicQ PC with the Norm. screen mode, as the button layout is closest to the actual console which is more familiar. If you intend to mainly work with a tablet laptop or touchscreen, you may want to run in Touch mode from the start – this doesn’t matter but some notes about the positioning of the buttons may not be accurate.

Notation: Hard buttons on the console are written in CAPS such as CLEAR, softbuttons (around the screen) have a capital letter such as New Show (top). Buttons sometimes have a rough location after them such as (top right) so you can find them. Hard buttons may also have the abbreviated version as it appears on the MagicQ button in CAPS afterward: RECORD [REC]. This information in this tutorial is as accurate as possible, but please bear in mind that (confession time) I have not spent a lot of time reading the user manual. One of the plus points of the MagicQ is that it uses many concepts available on other consoles so reading the manual is not a necessity for programmers with some experience.

What are we going to do?

So, we are going to light a 3 piece band with 36 ways of dimming, 36 Pars, some Source 4 specials and 4 blinders – a nice simple rig. We are going to visualise our progress onboard the MagicQ using a virtual plan and discover some pretty useful features along the way. Here’s the plan (PDF for printing):

“Surely the MagicQ is a moving light console. Why aren’t we using any moving lights?”

Moving lights add a level of complexity to programming that we don’t need right now. Many of the functions of the MagicQ can be demonstrated with generic fixtures and only having to deal with one attribute (Intensity) gives us a clear head to get to grips with the desk. Conventional lighting also is simpler to visualise without a “virtual” rig using Capture or WYSWYG and having to worry about connecting up and patch a visualiser. We’ll run some shows that way in a future tutorial.

Start a New Show

Having downloaded and installed the MagicQ PC/Linux/Mac software from Cham Sys, run the program. I think the first time you do this, the help file loads but forget that for a minute and hit CLOSE [CLSE] (top right) and open SETUP. First, choose New Show (top softbuttons) and select Normal mode – don’t worry about the other modes at the moment. Agree to the popup about erasing existing show from the memory (for reference, this only removes the current show from the app – if you have saved a show, it doesn’t delete it from the store).

A note about Contextual Softbuttons: The buttons around the screen of the MagicQ are contextual, meaning that they change to show the tools you need at a given time. Confusion can strike when you can’t see the softbutton you expect. This is because the contexts are often derived from the “active” window. The active window is the one highlighted by a darkened colour strip along the top, where the window label is. Making a window active can be achieved by either clicking the top bar, clicking within the window or pressing the associated hard button such as GROUP. I have tried to remember to make sure that this tutorial tracks the active window but if you can’t see the right set of tools, check see if you have the correct screen live.

Check Output Devices

Before we can connect up real life kit to the desk, we need to define what the outputs actually do and as this is a low budget gig, we can imagine that we are going to use the Enttec Open DMX USB as an output. Not having a real DMX USB does not effect this tutorial but you need to remember to set outputs up on the MagicQ in the real world.

In SETUP, choose DMX I/O (top) and you will see a spreadsheet showing a DMX universe list. Double click on the Out Type field of DMX universe 1, and choose Open DMX from the list. Make sure that the output is set to Enabled and we have DMX universe 1 firing down the dongle.
Window Colour Scheme:The images here show yellow and blue windows, rather than the MagicQ default grey ones. I prefer them and they make better screen shots. If you want to use the same colour scheme: while still in SETUP, you can hit View Settings and choose the Windows tab. Double clicking in the Colour Scheme field (Grey – default) and changing it to High Brightness does the trick. Close the SETUP window with CLOSE.

Patching the MagicQ

Before we can control anything, we need to patch up our dimmers on the MagicQ, so open the PATCH window and hit Choose Dimmer (top). In the command line (bottom right of touchscreen) it says Choose Dimmer >. Now we type in the number of dimmers @ which DMX address they start at. We are only using one DMX universe which is currently 1 so just type 37 @ 1 Enter and select Patch It from the popup.

To patch to a different universe such as DMX 3, you can type @ 3-1 but we only need one today. We can now see all our dimmers and their DMX addresses in a spreadsheet which can be navigated using the scroll bars or arrow keys. We can also Shift+select fields for multiple data edits like a normal spreadsheet application.

You might have noticed that we patched an extra dimmer by mistake – No 37. We can delete that now by hitting REMOVE [REM] and clicking in the row of dimmer 37, confirming the delete in the pop up. So that’s gone away. If we needed to make any changes, to addresses for example, that could be done easily via that spreadsheet in this window.

Now we have a patch, let’s save the show before we go any further. SETUP ->Save Show (top) and type in a name. The default location is the SHOW folder of the MagicQ installation and this is also where the auto backup files are stored.

Test the fixtures, Label and Colour up

Having patched our 36 dimmers on Universe 1 to the Open DMX,we ought to test the rig. Highlighting a field in the Dimmer 1 row, choose Head Test on (left) which takes the dimmer to 100% and makes the row turn red. Moving the arrow down the patch list tests each fixture. If you haven’t got a real rig in front you open the OUTPUT [OUT] window(top right) and see the current dimmer on at 100%. Not only does this flash out the rig, it also helps us to label up the fixtures and assign gel colours to them on the MagicQ. This is worth doing for reasons you will see in a minute.

Labelling

We know that our first 6 Dimmers are our FOH PARS, so let’s select all the Name fields of fixtures 1-6 using a Shift select. Watch the command line > as we type in “FOH Pars” and hit Enter. The Name fields all change to FOH Pars. Dimmers 7-12 are our “Mid Pars” so we can set that too along with Dimmers 13 – 24 which are “Beam Fans” In real life, we might need to check where our Source Four profiles and Blinders are so with Head Test still on, arrow down through the Name fields and label each one as they appear on stage. SL Spot, 2x DSC Spot, SR Spot with Blinders on dimmers 33 – 36.

The other dimmers are genuinely spare so it is good practice change their names from “Dimmer” to “Spare” in case you need to find spare channels later. Leaving the label set to Dimmer means that it might get lost among other dimmers that you just haven’t got around to naming. With a larger dimmer count, being able to find a label like “Spare” or “Spare Truss 1″ quickly.

A note about naming: There is little to be gained from giving each dimmer a unique label and it takes too much time. Deciding on labels depends on your rig but it’s a good start to use the fixtures “job” group like Blinders or position such as FOH PARs.

Assigning a colour to each dimmer

Like labels, setting the gel colour of each of our channels helps us visualise the rig on the MagicQ for the tutorials but also really pays off when programming later on . Again, assigning colours can be done easily by scrolling down in Head Test mode and looking at the stage before typing in the gel number. At the Gel field of Dimmer 1 type in 119 and hit Enter. You will see that the field changes to L119 Dark Blue with a blue icon. If you need to enter a Rosco #gel just type R followed by the number. Neat, huh? Work down through the patch list setting each colour as per the plan. You can Shift-Select the Beam Fans before typing in 201 to set them in one go.

You can sort through the patch list by choosing Sort (top right) and choosing a filter such as By Gel or By Name. This is great for finding specific information about the patch of a particular fixture or finding all our Spare channels in a multiple complex multi universe rig. Also, try viewing the patch By Channel or By DMX and see the other options available for editing in those sheets like fader curve.

Exporting the patch

Now we have patch information with fixture labels and colours we can export the patch to a .csv file. If you are curious, open up the CSV in a spreadsheet application to see what it looks like. Being able to create a patch using a spreadsheet program and import it into the MagicQ is pretty handy, especially if you already use spreadsheets as part of your paperwork. In the PATCH window, select View Chans (top left) and then Export Heads (top right) and type in a name for the file. By default the file ends up in the MagicQ folder “Shows” (set within the SETUP window).

Creating auto groups

We spent time entering label and gel information, something that you might not have time to do everyday. The great thing about having this information is that the MagicQ can use these labels to create useful fixture selection groups automatically.

Still in the PATCH / View Heads window, select Auto Groups (top) and Dimmer Groups. This has created a series of selection groups based on our naming and gels which save us having to create from scratch. Let’s have a look at what has happened.

Open the GROUPS [GRP] window and you will see a lot of new groups. Some of these (like the colour washes such as Dim L119) are more useful than others so we are going to get rid of some. Most groups with only 1 fixture in are not that useful apart from the SL and SR Spots so let’s quickly delete groups like Mid Pars L172 and FOH Pars L180 etc. Shift and Arrow keys highlight multiple groups before you hit REMOVE [REM] and confirm.

Now we might want to tidy the GROUPS window up a bit. Later on we are going to be using the groups window in it’s small form (a quarter of the touchscreen) so let’s work toward that: With the window active choose the MIN (top right) window button, if it doesn’t size to a quarter of the screen on the top left, you can keep pressing SIZE until it behaves. Now order your groups within the window so they are easily seen and make sense to you – I have moved the least used groups like All Dimmer and Spare down the page and tidied up in a logical format.

To move a group select MOVE (bottom right) then choose the groups to be moved before choosing the destination. You can also shift + arrow select multiple groups (the blocks turn Cyan) before choosing MOVE and placing them where you want. This is what I came up with:

Finally, if group names like Dim L119 don’t inspire you, you can rename them to something like All Blue by hitting SET (bottom right) and choosing the group from the GROUPS window. Type in the name and hit Enter. Next up, creating a workspace by making a custom view. Let’s start by closing all the windows on the MagicQ with SHIFT + CLOSE(top right).

Create a Workspace

The MagicQ has some default views that are a good starting point when you are in a hurry. You can see these by holding CRTL and selecting a programmed view from the top softbuttons such as Pallettes or Output. The empty slots on the right are where we are going to create a custom view to use with this tutorial. We basically set up a view we like, then store it. We want:

• Groups - for fixture selection
• Programmer – to see what’s going on in the programmer.
• Output – a view that let’s us see what’s happening on stage. In reality, you might decide that having a full rig in front of you is enough

Close all windows with SHIFT + CLOSE. Open the minimised GROUPS window and make sure it is in the top left quarter. You can drag it about but I just keep hitting SIZE until it’s in the right place. Next open the PROGRAMMER [PROG] window and size it until it’s sitting in the top right quarter.

Finally, open the OUTPUT Window and size it until it fills the bottom half of the touchscreen area. Make sure that softbuttons View Plan, View Colour and View Grid are selected. Save this view to a softbutton by pressing RECORD [REC] (bottom right), typing in a name like Custom Prog, holding CTRL and selecting an empty slot at the top of the screen area. If it’s worked you should be able to recall CTRL + Palettes (to see the groups and palettes windows) then toggle back to your custom view in the same way. My view looks like this:

Set up a Grid

Next, we are going to help ourselves to see what’s going on by creating a basic visualisation tool using a MagicQ grid. Grids are useful tools for things like pixel mapping but can also be used to create a virtual plan that we can select and view our fixtures on.

With the Outputs window active (top bar is dark blue) select Set Grid Size (top) and type in 25/15. This sets a grid of 25 squares wide by 15 high in the OUTPUT window to place our fixtures onto. What we are going to do now is to place individual fixtures into our grid so that they represent a rough layout of the stage. It doesn’t need to be completely accurate, just clear.

In the OUTPUT window, select View Head Nos for now. Select the Group All FOH Pars and on the grid, click a position for our Channel 1 somewhere downstage and to the left of centre to represent where this bar of six lives. Hit the Insert Heads H softbutton (top right when the OUTPUT Window is active). This puts channels 1-6 in a nice line just like our bar of six but we have two bars mirror split so we want to represent them as well.

Going back to the GROUPS window, we still have the FOH Pars (Channels 1-6) selected. The top right encoder has the option Selection – Normal, indicating that the group selection is the order in which the group was created, in this case numerical 1- 6 . Clicking in the area next to the encoder, we can select Reversed which give us 6-1. Choosing a starting point for out mirrored bar of PARs on the OUTPUT grid, Insert Heads H adds the reversed selection to the grid and creates out second FOH bar.

With a group selected, toggling the Selection Order button also brings up the Into Centre and Centre Out options that are a shortcut to creating selections when programming. The changes in the selection order are reflected in the top bar of the Groups window which displays the fixture number of the current selection.

Create the other PARS on the grid using the GROUP selection, Normal/Reverse selection and Insert Heads H. Inserting the Source 4s and blinders as a group, they take up consecutive positions on the grid. To make them represent the rig more closely, space them out by moving them into different slots on the grid with MOVE [MVE], click on fixture, click on destination slot.

Full grid Once you have got all your fixtures laid into the grid, choosing View Colours (top) shows a layout of gels like the image above. De-select View Grid (top) to remove all the unused squares and try out your new plan by selecting All Blue from the Group window and toggling the Selected Heads next to the bottom right encoder to 100%. You will notice that the relevant squares on the grid turn blue and wheeling down the encoder, the height of the level “graph” diminishes to represent the lowering of the intensity. Great, now we can see what would be happening on stage.

You will also see in the PROGRAMMER window that data has entered the programmer, ready to be saved to a memory. Hitting CLEAR removes the data from the programmer and the output from the stage. As we are at a good point, let’s save the show again but opening the SETUP window and choosing Save Show. You can either create a new show file by giving it a unique name or simply overwrite the existing show by just pressing Enter at the prompt.

Recap

So far, we have learned:

• To navigate our way around the MagicQ and change settings via the SETUP window.
• To start a clean show and configure an output.
• To enter data via the Command Line and the spreadsheet views.
• To add conventional dimmers and make changes to the patch in the PATCH window.
• To label up fixtures with rig position and colour information and use it to automatically create selection groups.
• To create a custom workspace and name it for instant recall using CTRL + a view softbutton.
• To REMOVE and MOVE data around the MagicQ.
• To create a custom grid and insert fixtures into it, to be used as a visual aid.
• To select fixtures using GROUP and change the selection order using the inbuilt tools.

Next up, we will move onto controlling our dimmers and using the many tools on the MagicQ to create looks, chases and effects to be used in our show. As you are probably busting to record something onto a fader, here’s the quick start version as a sneak preview. Select your group All Blue and bring it to 100% using the encoder. Check that programmer has 4 channels of L119 @ 100% (BTW, the number of fixtures in this group is shown by the (4) on the GROUP slot) then press RECORD [REC]. Immediately after RECORD, type in the name of your look while watching it appear in the Command Line – BLUE WASH then hit the S button above a fader. CLEAR the programmer and you have recorded a memory. Check it out by raising and lowering the fader. See you next time.

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As stage lighting has moved from the theatre and into the commercial world, the title “Lighting Designer” moved with it. Theatre job titles and the “system” that grew throughout the 20th century still remains largely intact (unlike many of the theatres). Richard Pilbrow’s excellent book Lighting Design – The Art, The Craft, The Life describes the world of a 20th century lighting designer in detail.

Newer parts of our industry, awards shows or industrials, the lighting design workflow that started in the theatre tradition has mutated under the pressures of commerce. In an industry that now largely competes on price, I have witnessed big changes first hand in the last 15 years.

In the Disney version of Lighting Design, you work as you were trained to: Consider the show, go to meetings, carefully design and plan every detail, choose every gel. The long winter evenings fly by as you sit with your Lee swatch book, trying to find the three best colours to simulate fire light. Along with the art comes the planning – Producing plans, spreadsheets, schedules and even pre programming your show using a simulator like WYSIWYG. While thumbing through the Vari*lite catalogue, you carefully compare lumens and beam angles while wondering if it would be ok to ask the lighting company to swap out every gobo in 50 WaggleSpots ™.

For every West End production or meticulously planned tour, there are 50 award ceremonies such as the “UK Sausage Growers Quarterly Awards 2009” or another weekend rock festival with an improbable name like “N20”. For every .wyg file there are 100 fag packet sketches scrawled on the back of production emails. For every carefully scheduled gel call, there must be at least 10 phone calls that go “just make sure there’s some blue and some frost in there, Dave”.

Are you a Lighting Designer?

Surely LD’s design stuff, choose things and plan in the traditional manner? They pick angles, colours and once in the venue lead the team in focussing and plotting while painting with light, right?

I am often introduced as the Lighting Designer on gigs where I have neither chosen the kit, the colour or even had any say in the rigging positions. In the 21stC world, being tagged as the Lighting Designer can mean a number of things:

• You are the head of the lighting crew and will be programming the desk.
• You are the only one here who knows which end the light comes out of a Source 4.
• You are responsible for the stage not looking crap and we will be asking some pretty serious questions if it does.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you spent hours of pre production on “designing”. Some will say that you are not a Lighting Designer but a Lighting Do-er – turn up, do it and FOH (industry acronym for going home). The Lighting Designer can still bring their own brand of art to this brave new world of Bish Bash Bosh eventing. Just make sure that you bring it with you on the day.

Where does the Lighting Designers art fit into this?

Let’s take a typical commercial lighting scenario. Every week, I take at least one phone call like this:

PM “Hi Rob, we’re doing the [insert something you've never heard of] Awards at the [insert ghastly London hotel] next week. I have provisionally booked a load of Pixelline, 6 Spots, 6 Washes and a few Source Fours, few Fresnels. Oh, and some cheap LED PARs for uplighters. Do you need anything else?”

Me: “Well, given that the niceties of pre production and all those other luxuries I learned about at drama school don’t seem to be on the table, just make sure there is a couple of irises and some frost. Don’t suppose you can describe the set to me? No? Ok, what desk have we got. No, I definitely don’t want one of those!….”

And so we establish that there’s no rigging and only 3 hours from truck unloading until rehearsals. We have also circumvented the need for a lighting design fee(!) or any time faffing about in the office trying to import a DWG with seemingly random scaling. This is not a specifically shocking example or a complaint about how the business works, it just gives us a typical scenario that we can pick the design bones out of.

Where’s the design?

Fixture Positioning – In common with traditional theatre design, many fixture position decisions are largely a double Hobson’s Choice. Either it goes here or there or it doesn’t go anywhere and in our case of limited rigging we don’t have a lot to play with. But there are small decisions related to placement that can make your lighting better or worse .. where the lighting designer skills are required.

The Focus – In our example we don’t have hundreds of conventional fixtures. This makes the focus of the few we have even more important. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the next generation of lighting designers is learning how to do a good focus without the distractions of complex fixtures and controllers. Making design decisions to produce a good focus makes a decent lighting designer invaluable. I have seen perfectly good rigs ruined by bad focussing.

Colour – OK, so we didn’t get to flick through our swatch books hunting down exactly the right gel. The rig we have has two different kinds of RGB LED fixtures (more than that if the Pixelline is a bit older ;-[ ), some CMY, some fixed colour wheels, tungsten. The colour choices may not have been made beforehand but you better make them now that the client is breathing down your neck. Good lighting designers know which colours to use and how to get them using the array of colour mixing kit available these days. (Top Tip – the colour you require is usually the one in 16 million that those LED’s can’t do).

The Looks – Using the range of very flexible kit in this kitlist, this is the opportunity to really create. No different to traditional theatre plotting. While good fixture positioning and focus make life easier, the balancing of light and use of intensities are what creates the final result. The 21st century Lighting Designer also gets to choose angles, movement and the interaction of dynamic lighting. OK, so today we only have 20 minutes to do that but still…..

The Cues – Looks are important but transitions between them are no less integral to a good show. Having our Pixelline not crash through some horrible pink while going from blue to red is part of the modern lighting designers remit.

The Design

While the mechanics of lighting design in the new century can use different work patterns and processes, the hallmarks of good lighting hasn’t really changed. And while some people might insist that drawing a plan is prerequisite to be given the title “Lighting Designer”, we have seen that design decisions are integral to good lighting whenever they are taken. If you have to take those decisions (and if you’re in charge of the lighting not being crap), you are the Lighting Designer. Simple as.

Why should I bother to learn how to do lighting designs the “traditional” way?

Educational establishments teaching lighting design still work on traditional theatre lighting design and workflow for good reason. This method teaches you essential skills such as:

• The basics of light, angles and it’s interaction with subjects.
• Good methods of lighting a stage
• To use the pre production process wisely and communicate with other departments
• To clearly communicate your intentions using recognised drafting techniques
• How to organise equipment inventories, budgetting and other paperwork
• Working in an organised team structure and mastering time management
• Tried and trusted methods of focusing and producing a useful rig to plot with
• Plotting lighting in a favourable enviroment (ie, not with the working lights still on, rehearsals in progress, sun blasting in the front of the stage etc)
• Keep visually evaluating your work during the final process of rehearsals.

I’m sure there’s a load more. Learning how to do things “properly” is a fundamental of good education in any business. I love hearing stories of college students lighting their shows, using Lightwright, getting their hands on Vectorworks and going through the process guided by experienced tutors. It reassures me that these guys are getting the education they deserve.

Back in the real world The UK Sausage Growers still need someone who understands how to make the host visible on stage, how to make the environment look good and how to use lighting to add to the sausage based excitement of winning Banger of the Year (!?). All the crew, equipment and CAD in the world don’t necessarily guarantee that. This time you didn’t get to choose the kit, the rigging, the colour or do many of the things that a “real” lighting designer might do – avoiding a lighting suckfest is still in your hands for the next few hours.

In a fast paced, cost driven lighting business, the stuff hidden inside the head of a good LD is still where the real value is.

Image based on a photo by Deapeajay on Flickr

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Reader curiosity about power equipment and it’s uses has sparked (?!) this article. We won’t go through all the ins and outs of electrical theory but instead give you an overview of the systems involved and how to recognise certain elements.

Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide some insight into the working of a professional stage electrical system for the beginner. It does not provide comprehensive training in electrics or safety and should not be viewed as such. The design of a stage lighting electrical system should be entrusted to an experienced and competent person. No warranty is implied concerning the accuracy of any information contained therein. On Stage Lighting can accept no responsibility for any inaccuracy of information or for any loss, damage or injury arising from any interpretation of its contents.

Stage Electrics and the Lighting Department

Historically, the wrangling of show electricity has been entrusted to the aptly named Electrics Dept. in theatres or the Lampies in a concert touring environment. These days, sound crew and riggers have an increased knowledge of power distro and often take care of much of their supply management and while on larger shows, a whole separate Mains department is common. No wonder, electricity is the one thing that we really can’t get by without.

While many departments use power, the overall design and distribution of a safe and bombproof electrical supply still often falls into the hands of the LX crew. Temporary power distribution equipment for events is commonly of the “plug and play” variety which doesn’t require a degree in electrical engineering to connect a system together but it does a good understanding of electrical theory and safety.

Anatomy of Stage Electricity Supply

It’s important to understand a little about how power arrives for us to use on stage, without going into all the details about substations, transformers and power stations.

Incoming Supply – With any luck, the venue has one or more incoming electrical supplies (usually 3 Phase) that comes in on a hefty set of cables. Big Cable = Big Power. The incomer(s) ends up in some kind of box ready to be split off to different parts of the building. You shouldn’t ever need to see the incomer but just know that it’s there.

Distribution Boards – Supplies from the main incomer are sent to a number of dist boards situated around a building depending on the electrical needs of each area. Each board has a set of switches that do different things and recognising them is important, particularly if you have a supply outage “upstream” from your kit. We’ll go into that in detail further on.

It’s also good to understand that some distribution boards, particularly smaller ones, can be fed from another distro panel – worth knowing in the case of a supply interruption.

3 Phase and Single Phase

When you’re new to stage lighting, 3 phase electricity is perceived as both mystical and dangerous – something scary and hugely difficult to comprehend. Let’s just clear this up – ALL ELECTRICITY CAN BE DANGEROUS. It can kill you, 3 phase or single phase.

Is 3 phase electricity more dangerous?

In the UK, our supply voltage is around 230 volts. This is the Potential Difference between the supply and Ground and if you get a Single Phase 230V electric shock it can at least ruin your day if it doesn’t kill you. With a 3 phase supply, each phase to Ground still has a p.d of 230V – however, the p.d between two phases can reach up to 415 Volts. So, what we call a “phase to phase” shock is more likely to kill you. In that sense, 3 phase is more dangerous but the thing that really does for you is the current (Amps). All large electricity supplies deliver lots of current, that’s their job. A domestic 13A socket will send you 13 Amps of sizzle before it fuses (plenty to knock you off your perch). Large lighting supplies can deliver >400 Amps and three lots of it too!!!

Let’s let the Grim Reaper take five for a moment and try to get behind the mystics of 3 phase electrics. Because of the way electricity is generated, it comes to us in three different supplies. What do I mean by supplies? Well, take a the socket on one side of your kitchen then another on the opposite side. Chances are, they are both different outlets of the same supply – and on the same phase. In fact, unless you live is a big house, you are likely to only have one phase coming into your house in total. One supply. Your neighbours house may well be on a different phase to you, with neighbours on the other side on the third phase. They are on different supplies.

We use all three phases in stage lighting systems because it brings more power into one place. The use of a large 3 phase cable is where confusion sets in but it’s just three supplies – 3 x Line/Live conductors and 1 x Neutral (shared between the supplies) plus an Earth. 3 Phase plugs usually have 5 pins, one for each conductor (actually, some 3 phase plugs have only 4 pins but we don’t need to worry about that right now).

Stage Electrics and Protection

A major part of safe electrical systems design is what we call protection, things that stop people getting hurt by electricity and the fallout when something goes wrong.

People protection – The parts of an electrical system that protect people from electric shocks cut the supply at the first sign of trouble. In the UK, Residual Current Devices (RCDs,) are built into different parts of the distro system particularly at the “user” end such as on stage supplies to backline equipment. An ideal show supply would have individual RCDs protecting small power socket outlets, moving lights, consoles etc meaning that any interruption does not remove the entire supply. RCD’s are called GFIs in the US.

Kit protection - Fuses or MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers) provide overload protecton – cutting the supply if any equipment draws more power than the supply was designer for. Overload on a circuit is a good way of detecting some kind of fault and ditching the supply prevents fires and excess damage to kit. Fuses or MCBs don’t save people.

Recognising Switches

On venue dist panels and lighting distro kit, switches are very much the thing. Working out what they do is the first step on the road to recovery in a power outage. If you do suffer from a loss of power, work out where in the stream the loss has occurred and switch off all outlets downstream of it before firing it up again. The most important part about re-energising (fancy word) is to do it in a controlled manner and with a full understanding of the entire system. Flicking a breaker back on when your buddy has his hand in the back of another distro will make you either unpopular or a criminal or both.

Isolators – A switch that simply isolates the power. Maybe a big, single red switch on a dist board or a separate box with a toilet flush handle, the isolator is used to shut off power to a panel when performing maintenance on the installed system. The isolator is not like an MCB or RCD, it doesn’t go off of it’s own freewill.

It is worth knowing that some electrical installation boxes have some form of isolator that activates when the front panel is disturbed or door is opened, particularly ones that have live terminals inside. If you are still reading this article, obviously you wouldn’t be poking around in such a box but mysterious power outages have been solved by banging on a worn isolator door to shut it properly.

RCD’s – RCD’s on a panel or distro box are often different to the majority of other switches in appearance. They usually have writing on them that give details of the tripping current such as 30mA or 0.003A and have a Test (T) button. If a RCD can’t be reset, it’s likely that you will need to unplug all equipment downstream before fault finding.

MCB’s – MCB’s usually make up the majority of switches on a board and provide an isolator to the circuit as well as overload protection. Usually marked up with their type letter and their maximum power rating in Amps such as C16 – a C type rated at 16 Amps. 3 Phase MCB’s look like a line of 3 switches with their handles joined together and are again marked with their type and rating.

Temporary Stage Power System Basics

When designing a stage power system, you essentially have the same elements as the building supply we talked about at the start:

Incoming Supply – From the venue, a facility panel with one or more sockets. These sockets might have their own isolator switches, RCD’s or overload protection near them but they could also be upstream and the dist board supplying the outlet. It’s good to find out where this is before you need it.

Main Distro Box – Often receives a large 3 phase supply and splits it down into smaller outlets either 3 or 1 Phase. Each outlet has it’s own MCB protection and the whole box may have some form of RCD. The RCD on a Main Distro box might have a key switch to disable it – this is for situations where you have adequate RCD protection downstream of the box and wish to eliminate the chance of a whole supply outage. The switch isn’t to be used just coz you have earth problems with the kit and the supply keeps popping out.

Sub Distros – Further down stream, you might have small supplies feeding other distribution boxes for a load of moving light supplies, dimmer feeds and power for other departments such as sound or rigging. What each department requires is very much where the system design starts (with regard to how much total power is available at the incomer too, of course).

Individual Feeds – Dimmer outlets, cables to moving lights, sockets for the band etc. This is where the user meets the juice.

The End Result

A stage electrics system is just like any other power distribution. It starts with a very large supply and cascades it down through various types of protection until it arrives where it is needed via a much smaller socket.

Using specifically designed distro kit with competence, creating a safe and reliable power system doesn’t have to be hard. Getting a rock solid incomer in certain parts of the world can be tough and getting a decent earth in the desert even harder - but that’s another story.

Electricity should be taken seriously. Stay safe.

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When developing new articles for On Stage Lighting, I sometimes use specific readers queries or common lighting questions as a starting point. We also track the trends of the on site search box to gauge the kinds of information that readers look for (which reminds me, we haven’t written anything about dimmers so far!). While this sounds very scientific, the fact is that this feedback is invaluable but it is also quite subjective and often very specific.

In order to improve On Stage Lighting, I would be interested to know what floats the boat of On Stage Lighting readers hence the poll. You might really like all the choices and can pick as many as you like, but it would be great if you pick 1 or 2 of your top content types. There is some quick guidance about the different choices below the poll to help you make up your mind.

What kind of stage lighting related content really makes your day?

More about the questions

1. General traditional lighting techniques and lighting design methods. Beginner to intermediate general stuff like our Learn Stage Lighting articles.

2. Opinions and ideas from lighting professionals like our recent chat with Mark Wyn-Edwards about the Jands Vista or the Stage Lighting Education series with different industry employers.

3. Personal help. Specific answers to questions about your own lighting designs or equipment - a lot of these are currently answered directly via the comments or Facebook, Twitter etc or get turned into an article.

4. Lighting product information . Reviews or specs to help make decisions about purchasing equipment such as the Zero88 Jester review.

5. Advanced technical info. Specific tutorials on how to do something on pro level equipment similar to the Avolites Pearl Tools and Time Savers article.

6. Lighting industry news. Who did which gig with what kit? Who has brought out another LED product? So far, only the PLASA reports have much of an industry news slant.

7. A chance to interact with other users interested in stage lighting. Like the Your Stage Lighting series or comments. On Stage Lighting readers quite often interact with each other via the comments section which is great and a reason for setting up the new On Stage Lighting Facebook Group for more discussion.

Thanks for voting

On Stage Lighting has been in existence for less than 2 years. We have nearly 400 feed/email subscribers around the world (according to somewhat erratic Feedburner stats), receive up to 15,000 visitors and serve 50,000 pages every month.

Your participation created this success and will shape the site for the future. Thank you.

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The Jands Vista has been around for quite a while but isn’t one of those consoles I see regularly on the road, at least not in the UK. With no particular incentives or word from other LD’s, I have to confess to have left the Vista on the list of ” Oh, yeah. Saw that once at PLASA” desks. Let’s face it, until all your mates start raving about a desk or one turns up in every control position, things remain on the backburner. Maybe I would take a look … one day.

Mark Wynn-Edwards has toured as LD/Programmer with many acts including Grace Jones, The Klaxons, Jamie Cullum and As I Lay Dying (quite a mix, then). Finding out that an LD like Mark had spent his own hard earned cash on a Jands Vista T2….well, it needed investigating! Time to find out what the Vista is all about and what better way than to ask Mark himself.

Mark in the office with his Vista T2

OSL: Mark, people occasionally mention the Jands Vista to me but I don’t know a lot about it. Give me a reference point relating to other desk manufacturers and console types – where are the similarities?

Mark W-E: There are similarities as all desks are controlling the same thing. Running the Vista is like no other - it has more in common with Apple Imovie. I am led to believe Imovie was an inspiration, with the idea of having little “clips” that you place on a time line …..its a great way to work.
Some people have issues with the desk but once you have shed all the console baggage and assumptions, it suddenly makes a lot of sense and you realise that it’s very powerful.

OSL: Most consoles and their associated press releases tell us they are equally at home in any lightng control situation. Do you think that the Vista has a kind of show that it really lends itself to controlling?

Mark W-E: Over the years I have had the desk I have used it for touring Pop, Rock and metal bands , corporate work and TV work - I have yet to use the Vista for Theatre . The console is equally capable in all situations and with a bit of use and thought you can even busk on it ….. contrary to what people think. You can create looks very quickly with just a few touches of the tablet. Very handy for corporate and Tv work when people are wanting and demanding instant looks.

OSL: You have a background in Avolites Pearls, Hog II and others, why did you decide to buy a Vista T2 for your personal desk?

Mark W-E: When I went shopping at PLASA I was looking for a desk to cover all the varied work I do so it would have to be happy in a TV studio or FOH at a gig. At the time I had a Pearl 2000 so I considered moving to a D4 and after a few hours at the Avo stand I was convinced this was what I wanted.

But …..

I went for a walk to think about it (spending a lot of money ) and also took a look at Hog as the III had just come out but we all know how the hog III was in the early days…. Then I saw the A.C lighting stand and this desk called the Jands Vista. Neil Vann gave me a demo and it just clicked - no more number crunching, just working and staying in the train of thought of what I am trying to do with the lights. Simple as..

A week later I was down at AC for training and picking up a Jands T4 …I couldn’t get home quick enough.

Never looked back ………and with each update the desk improves and you get fantastic support from Jands. They also listen to the operators when they ask or suggest options for the desk.

OSL: Like a lot of lighting controls, Jands have a PC version for learning, pre-patching etc. How does the interface compare with the real thing?

Mark W-E: The PC/Mac version is identical to the real desks. I have a version on my Apple that I use to try ideas out, or after a show make changes while they are fresh in my mind to reload the next day. I also use the Apple version to test fixtures with the USB –DMX cable that Jands do. Its a very handy little thing. With the addition of a DMX dongle and one of the many playback wings, you have a fully working Vista desk

I plan to build a super portable version of my desk for those gigs where you fly out do the gig and fly back. And for touring and festival use where you have to use some sort of hell desk at times.

OSL: It is possible for a beginner to make a good start learning on just the PC version?

Mark W-E: The PC/Mac version is an ideal way to learn the console or brush up on what you know.

OSL: Jands highlight two features of the Vista in particular – less keypad style entry and the timeline. I left number crunching behind in the theatre, but timeline has been around in various forms for a while. Tell me why I should fully embrace the timeline as a Lighting Designer?

Mark W-E: The timeline has numerous uses depending on how you use the desk. Its great way to work as you can see precisely when things happen and what the lights are doing .- very handy if you get a rogue fixture doing something it shouldn’t.

If required you can set moments for a show to happen bang on time using the time line. You can add MP3 tracks to the time line this is great as you can program to the mp3. You have to remember to put pauses in there to allow for the band playing it differently.
You can get the desk to Cue other Cues - load media on a server so its ready to go or get fixtures into position so you don’t get that classy moment where lights go woosh across the stage.

Having the desk do all these things make operating a show a great experience and help make the show be quite fluid and live.

OSL: You work on a lot of live music touring. What’s your typical programming and playback style and what kind of notes are always on your programming To Do list?

Mark W-E: How I run my desk varies from contract to contract but normally it’s a page for every song – then each page has the elements of each song on a fader or a button
On the screen I have the control of colours and position or other stuff required -I try to keep it as simple as I can . And a page for the local tech to do the support bands, as always.

OSL: As well as the Vista, your CV mentions Avo and Hog consoles. Do you have any thoughts on the MA and Cham Sys desks?

Mark W-E: I don’t know much about the Cham Sys desks but the MA is very impressive. I have used them a few times at festivals . I love the networking function where you have a master and slave desk. I saw that used to its limit on Chemical Brothers which was impressive.

But now I have the Vista way of doing stuff I get tripped up mentally when I have to go back to number crunching - I am used to doing a drag and drop or a simple click . But I would like to learn more about the MA.

OSL: For anyone just starting out in lighting and hoping to make a career of it there seems to be a lot to know nowadays. The skillset is growing rapidly and I am not sure that I could learn this complex trade in the space of a few years. Do you think that specialists will rule the lighting world of the future or do we just need to start changing the way we train lighting professionals?

Mark W-E: I think there will always be a place for the freelancer who can generally do stuff but high end shows will require and demand specialists as it can get quite technical at times.
The business has been headed in this direction since moving lights first came on the scene, starting with the VL techs . When not working as an LD, I work as a moving light tech, staying up to date. Modern fixtures cost so much to hire and generally you get one spare - you need people who can look at a fixture, know what they are doing and make it work . Not just the crew member who has some tools and is willing to have a bash.

Thanks, Mark.

So, I have resolved to try to make some time for the Jands Vista and maybe follow it up with another article. Perhaps On Stage Lighting readers would like to give the Vista a try - download the PC or Mac version and post your Vista experiences in the comments below. We’d love to hear ‘em.

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Compared to conventional fixtures, the intelligent light programmer has at least 10 times more information to wrangle. Many parts of the industry rely on the combined LD/Programmer role, meaning that design decisions have to be made by the unfortunate performing the frenzied button pressing. Time to get organised.

1- Be prepared

Turning up with the patch done (at least) saves time on the load in. Get the patch right in the quiet of the office, rather than trying to concentrate on 100 fixtures and their DMX addresses while some noisy chippy is jigsawing right next to you. Being able to slap a file into the desk and get it up and running while the rig is at working height makes the crew feel like you’re on the case. If you can’t access the console before the gig, most have an offline editor of some sort that is easy enough to patch with.

2 - Create a cheat sheet

Cheat sheets come in all shapes and sizes. Some easy to use reference material about your groups, fixture numbers or other stuff you will use regularly. When you develop a “system” to your programming with similar patching and desk layouts, the sheet becomes a routine in your head.

Another useful cribsheet is notes of ideas, scenes or looks considered during the design process – it’s amazing how your mind can go blank when faced with a “virgin” console. “So many things to program, I just can’t think what they are!”.

3 - Start early

While you won’t make many friends by slinking off to fiddle with the desk while the truck is being unloaded, don’t forget that nobody wants to be here all night. If programming is your responsibility, make a beeline for the console while kit is still being rigged. Depending on the complexity of the entire control system, there might be system issues. This needs to be done while the rest of the lighting crew are still putting barndoors in and colouring up – and the rig is still easily accessible. If the lighting department is just you, starting early isn’t so easy.

4 - Find a decent programming position

This is a lot more important than it might seem. Many final operating positions for the lighting console often have a limited view of the stage or are offset from centre, making programming positions harder. Auditorium centre and high enough to see the stage floor if possible. Seeing the floor gives a reference point for positioning and helps with sorting out beam symmetry. Different venues call for different programming positions – on an outdoor Orbital concert stage, I like to do most of the programming from Down Stage Centre and tidy up “in the crowd” positions from the FOH tower later. Being on stage makes it easier to see what’s going on when programming in daylight and you can check the band members focus by walking a just few metres from the desk.

Time spent moving the console to a good position is paid back ten times later. Just be prepared for a certain amount “no, I am not going to be here for the show” to the world and his wife.

Don’t let anyone hustle you off back to your final resting place until you are sure that most of the programming is done. Be friendly and ask if you can set up your cans (comms headset) and do the rehearsal from this position. Otherwise, those post rehearsal changes are going to take twice as long.

5 - Get comfortable

My inner Occupational Therapist says so (me, sitting on a roadbox typing on a tiny netbook). Chances are, you are going to be stuck at that desk for the next xx days with little chance of parole. Dedicated theatre style production desks are great but a significant number of shows are programmed from upturned Martin cases and the like. I prefer to work standing up if possible, but however you arrange your desk make sure that:

• The console is at the right height so you don’t have to stoop.
• You can see the stage and the desk without too much neck or eye movement. This can involve jacking the desk up a bit on boxes.
• Layout any peripherals/ plans/ keyboards/mice to be easily used without cables being snagged etc.
• If you have a chair, make sure that is the right height/ back is supported etc.

I have been known to spend 20 minutes hunting for boxes exactly the right size to bring the desk to a position that isn’t going to be a pain in the back/neck. The next 4 days went much better as a result.

6 - Check the fixtures

Check all the available fixtures are responding correctly. Pan and Tilt the right way and that the attributes are controlled correctly from the desk – colour1, colour2 etc. Winkling out any heads with an onboard Pan Invert or finding out that you have the wrong personality file version is a lot less heartbreaking at this stage.

Having “started early” you might not have the entire rig of fixtures available, some may still need to be rigged. At least you can check out what’s there. Many of the following tricks can be used with only a partial rig – in the world of corporate gigs and one night stands, you regularly get zero time to program with a full rig.

7 - Save a patch file

Once the desk patch is installed and checked, save a patch only show file with any amendments you have made to DMX addresses, fixture order etc – hopefully in a seperate file to the orginial patch. If you already have some colour / gobo palettes, great, save them too. Any spectacular screwups in the early stages of setting up the desk can be easily sorted by clearing the desk without having to repatching from scratch. Many consoles allow for incremental/ multi file saves nowadays but for the ones that don’t, taking the time to create a new disk/card is well spent. Especially when you realise that you wiped half the patch, thinking that you were programming.

8 - Set up Pan and Tilts

Many rigs involve some Pan/Tilt swapping (for fixtures rigged on their side) and you might like to invert the Pan attributes of certain fixtures for symmetry. Check these and sort them out early on – it’s no good programming position palettes until you are happy with the way the rig responds. Again, in three days time you will wish that you had corrected that accidental Tilt Invert on the second Spot from the left on the FOH truss.

9 - Create groups

Don’t skip creating groups just because your desk has a seemingly easy way to select individual fixtures. If the console has not got a macro to change the selection order (such as Random or Inverse) create some groups for that too. You can create groups without control of the entire rig but check them later.

10 - Create palettes

One of the fundamentals of moving light programming, palettes for colour and beam effects can be created early on (if not before) and should ideally be of the “universal” type. These apply to any fixture of that type (even those not patched yet,) meaning you can program the palette with only one head running. Adding more fixtures, they assume the programmed palettes too.

11 - Create a See Me position palette

Depending on the console position, you may not be able to see beams on the floor well . A position on the cyc, ceiling or other plain surface that you can see clearly and use to sort stuff out on. Create colour and beam palettes in this position, using it send a fixture to to check the colour or prism alignment during programming.

12 - Set up a quick “Director” look

Despite the fact that you have a mountain of things to get sorted before creating great art, it is a fact that if you linger near the desk for more than 5 minutes, the Director/Client/Money Man will come over and ask you to show them some looks. Swallowing the urge to tell them to leave you alone to get on with it, the best way to get shot of them is to have prepared some big n rough looks that they can gaze at while the Production Manager comes over to steer them off to catering and leave you in peace.

13 - Create some “Focus” looks

Once at the desk, the crew will delight in shouting for test channels, conventionals to rough focus and other general tasks. If you are using a programmer based console, you can placate the shouters by playing back memories that don’t interfere with your programming. It avoids the sinking feeling when you find that you have recorded some random Source Four into the last 20 memories.

14 - Minimise hand movement

Economy of hand movement and streamlining workflow are two useful tactics in programming of moving lights, particularly with large numbers of fixtures and cues. Different desks have different time savers, but just considering how much actual “doing” of stuff you can cut out is a start. On the GrandMA full size, a lot of economies are found by creating custom buttons and macros on the right hand Screen 3, near the encoders. One of the attractions of command line data entry is is the physical economy of entering data in one small area.

15 - Get “Herding” your heads

One of the biggest indicators of an inexperienced programmer is treating each moving head as an lovely individual to be nurtured and tended carefully on a 1:1 basis : Starting off – select 1 spot – move it into postion – set colour ….like focussing conventional lighting.

Think of them more like sheep. “Herding” fixtures into toward the stage, tilt up the entire back truss , tweak positions save a palette, set ALL colours to red, set half the heads to amber before quickly running through tweaking focusses.

The key point is to try to perform the big adjustments, before splitting the rig into chunks, then smaller chunks, then maybe opposite pairs before finally tweakin’ the odd head or two. When controlling a whole bunch of fixtures, get them all doing the same thing by winding an encoder (like Zoom/Focus) all the way down until every head hits it’s 0 point. Winding them all back up again, the parameter is now in sync. Or you could hit a nearby palette to line them up before adjusting once more.

16 - Use the mirror or fan function to position multiple fixtures

If you set half your symmetrical rig to Pan Invert, you can speed up the positioning of sets of fixtures by controlling them together. Use a Fan or Align (MA term) function to tidy them up in the same direction. The great thing about this method is that you can (and I have), program and entire rig with only half of it working (outdoor gig, wet distro, only six channels of hot power, don’t ask) as long as you can see at least one of every “pair”. If you prefer to have all your Pan set the same way across the rig, you can still use Fan or Align functions to wind fixtures into symmertical positions.

17 - Build looks from other programming

Cut and Paste whatever you have already to build palettes, looks and new shapes. No point in doing things twice. This applies at show level too - many LD’s have “previously enjoyed” showfiles based on certain fixture sets that they can use as a major building block for a new show. Already having the basics laid down give you more time to create.

18 - Use the tools

Whatever labour saving devices the console has, use them – Shape Editors, funky selection tools,mapping from video, whatever. We are all impressed by your ability to program 100 step Mexican Wave chase but we have computers to do that now - thank god!

19 - Keep lists

I note down everything that still needs sorting. Things that need tidying/fixing or programming that needs removal. Ticking things off on a list is satisfying and, if you have a memory like mine, vital.

20 - Discourage visitors

Some production desks have a big jar of cookies that create a hub of what we might call “connectivity” today. Directors and Production Managers need to constantly connect with the rest of the team – an LD/programmer often just needs to be left alone. The 1st law of programming is that within five minutes of sitting down at the desk either a) Someone will come and talk to you and you can’t get away or b) Someone will come and talk to someone else and stand in your line of vision.

No need to be antisocial, just make sure that your programming area is not the social centre of the universe and isn’t next to the tea making facilities.

21 - Get an iPod

I picked up this idea from a RnR programmer about 10 years ago, before the Ipod was the byword for personal stereo. This guy used to program the desk with a Walkman, supposedly listening to the next band he was LD’ing. I was struck by the genius of this plan – it cut out all extraneous noise and meant that you left him alone. The tinny sounds of Thrash Metal coming from the earphones and the cable dangling down to his pocket contstitued the subtlest of “F*** Off!, Go and chit chat to someone else” signs I’ve ever seen.

Phew!

So, over 2000 words and we haven’t even programmed a decent look yet. So far, we have spent time checking stuff, fending off distractions, hunting for furniture and recording memories that probably won’t be used in the show. Still, start early enough and maybe we can fit in some programming!

Hope the desk is the first thing off the truck

If you have any favourite ways to make life easier when programming, put them in the comments below.

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The McCandless Method and “Jewel” Lighting

If you are really new to stage lighting, you probably haven’t heard of Stanley McCandless who wrote the book “A Method of Lighting The Stage” in the 1930’s. The book describes angles and positions used to light the stages of professional American theatres, and McCandless is credited with recording “the method”- though perhaps not inventing it. The McCandless method for lighting the stage became the basis of lighting design in proscenium theatres and is still taught to students today.

The McCandless lighting layout is based on division of the stage into areas, with each area lit by two front light sources. Each light source arrives on stage from an angle roughly 45 degrees from the stage floor, and are seperated 45 degrees either side of “straight on”. Other lighting angles such as backlight, sidelight etc fill in give the actors on stage some form. Warm and cold colours are used in opposite sides to create key and fill lights that can be balanced depending on the scene.

If you want to learn about the McCandless method of lighting the stage, pretty much every book on stage lighting design has details. There are also some notes at Larry Wild’s An Approach to Stage Lighting.

The thing to keep in mind is that the subject is front lit from two positions, from an audience point of view. Light arriving at 45 degrees up delivers lighting that is not too harsh, steep or flat. 3 dimensions are sculpted by light from on stage angles at the back and side of stage.

“Jewel” lighting refers to a phrase coined by Howard Bay, who described a method of lighting the actor like a jewel display – from as many angles as possible. This method could use more front light angles, colours and face shadows were often filled in using floats (footlights). This multi angled approach is what we in the UK sometimes think of as Broadway lighting.

Both these methods of lighting a stage have an emphasis on “front light” – lighting arriving from the audience. Light that comes from an audiences viewpoint, reflects back to them making it easy to see detail in faces and read lips speaking. Natural warm and cold colour filters such as straws, pale blues and lavenders provide some simulated sunlight and skylight in traditional theatre methods. Lighting a choir or a graduation ceremony the lighting designer may not need this colour flexibility, keeping front lighting in Open White – no colour at all.

Lighting Any Stage

Stages, whether in a theate or a field, are all different. Auditoria and available lighting positions are all different too. Given the task of lighting the stage for a performance, front lighting is usually the most important. So how do you decide where to put your lights and what to do with them? Do you even get a choice in your venue?

Dividing the stage into different areas such as Down Stage Left, Down Centre, Down Right, or Catwalk 1,2 ,3 start to indicate how many front lighting fixtures you will need – 2 per area in the McCandless method. If you are in a traditional theatre environment with auditorium facing the stage from one direction, the choice of overhead position is can be easily estimated. Taking the height from stage to lighting position and moving into the audience by the same distance gives us a rough 45 degrees up.

Having decided on a rough distance from the stage our lighting fixtures should be placed, we need work out how to spread them across the venue for an even coverage. The desired outcomes are:

• No gaps in the cover where faces disappear as they move around the stage.
• No harsh changes of angle between the different stage areas.
• Lighting on subjects should look natural and complete from all audience viewpoints.
• High enough angle to minimise people/things casting big shadows on each other.

In our ideal theatre, we would stretch out both arms forward at 45 degrees from centre and pick two spot positions for each area. This is unlikely to be possible, especially in old theatres with more fancy plasterwork than actual rigging positions. So, what do to do if you are not in the perfect venue? The answer is always a compromise.

Each audience member should have at least one lantern providing them with reflected light from the their side of the auditorium. In some situations this might mean widening the angle, pushing the two front lights further apart. Other times, a third or fourth fixture might be needed, particularly if the audience sits right round the stage.

Note about cameras: In a live situation to be recorded/relayed by cameras, remember that the camera is also a member of the audience too. Camera positions often view the stage from very different angles to the main seating – just make sure that you know where the camera positions are. Lighting the stage with Open White frontlight and high blue backlight might look great from the stalls, it might not be so helpful for the camera shooting from a Down Stage Right wing position.

You might have a theatre full of spotlights or a just couple of stands with 6 PARs to light a show. Front lighting the stage for audience visibility is important and can be achieved in different ways with a regard for where the audience is actually viewing from.

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