[SML] Good article on board-opping Shout-Out

[Dorian Kelly]

On 6 Nov 2014, at 23:46, e-mail frank.wood95 <frank.wood95 at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> Dorian.
> 
> Your 1975 aticle was very interesting. At that time, I was wrestling
> with a Strand 'Duet', an early computer board of theirs….a foolish and autocratic decision by the then TD
> means that I may neither smoke nor drink while operating a show. 

Thanks Frank. I too have wrestled with Duets and their ilk ( but I also lived with  an SR with no presets whatsoever)  and was never so glad when controls which allowed for some degree of artistic interface came into being. However I have no nostalgia for the days when one could drink at the controls. An experiment we conducted with the ABTT proved beyond doubt that timings were much degraded and operator confidence enhanced which made for a lethal combination artistically. Beer is for the bar afterwards. ( there I mentioned Beer, thus raising the “Beer mentioned” count by one,) And if you operate from a script you can’t keep your eyes on the stage can you? Just take a cue on headset, temper it with what you can see if necessary and let the DSM make the decisions about whether to fractionally forward or lag any cues according to what they know and you do not  its what they are there for.


Dorian Kelly
UNESCO International Year of Light 2015 - UK 

Illuminati Creative Group. Illuminati has interesting and original ideas for the arts, their buildings and their technologies - UK and the world
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email   dorian at theatrearts.biz
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