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

[e-mail frank.wood95]

I remember the SR. We were a little more sophisticated in having an
LC, which worked much better after I re-designed the control cards.
The originals had a tiresome habit of retaining their last level when
you did a DBO. This broke the mains feed with contactors, and also
broke the feedback loop which allowed the dimmers to have some
variable load capability. A further re-design included a pin-patch
panel which gave us 12 groups to play with.

The beer ban arose when an operator from a visiting company put a can
of Diet Coke (UGH!) into the Duet. I don't have to tell you what that
can do to electronics. Fortunately, we had acquired a spare Duet, and
a savvy engineer who was there knew to dunk the works in a bucket of
water. It survived. The operator had a lot of trouble, since he had
lost all the memory.

 I don't agree with your views about drinking. Of course, the operator
ought not be drunk, within the meaning of the term. But, do not forget
that I am talking about an amateur organisation, where everybody is
working for fun, or used to be. The lighting operator is on duty for
three hours or more, and I do not believe that two pints of beer over
that time will impair his or her abilities. I used to write into my
lighting scripts times when the operator could go to the bar to get
one. Damn it, when we rebuilt the lighting position we provided a
special shelf, well away from any controls, to take a beer glass, and
to contain any spillage.

As for working from a detailed script, one reads the lighting script
to see what your next action should be, and when It should be carried
out. One's hand is ready to execute it. Then one checks the text of
the play to see how far away the action is, and listens for a line
that comes before that time. The actual cue line is marked in both
scripts, and your finger is on the control. When you execute the cue,
you should be looking out of the window, to see if the right thing is
happening. I always wrote a line or two in the lighting script to
describe the effect the cue should have. Perhaps I flatter myself, but
I believe that someone who knew how to operate the control could be
called in from the bar and operate the show perfectly from my script,
with out ever having seen the show. Of course, a good operator is
aware of nuances in the operation which the guy from the bar will
miss, but the operation wil still be mechanically perfect.

On 7 November 2014 09:35, Dorian Kelly <illuminati500 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
> 3 Gladstone Road, Colchester CO1 2EB 01206 798076 / 07770 950964
> email   dorian at theatrearts.biz
> website http://www.theatrearts.biz
>
> illuminati500 at gmail.com
>
>
>



-- 
Frank Wood