KnowHOW
Automating lighting John Black looks at when to cue and when to busk
Multiple cue lists WHEN APPROACHING THE lighting for any event, the question of lighting control must always be answered in addition to the design decisions regarding the mood or look that you are trying to establish. Will the event be predictable and linear – like a theatrical production – in which lighting programming, once set, will not alter? Or will the event unfold more organically, possibly being redirected according to the response of the congregation or where the presenter is feeling led? Both situations can occur in houses of worship, sometimes even within the same service. When approaching lighting control, there are two main methods used for lighting operations. Cueing refers to the programming of lighting cues – or memories – that are recalled in a predetermined order. Each lighting look gets recorded, which includes all of the controllable fixture parameters and effects into the cue memory. During the running of an event, the operator executes each look through pressing a “Go” button, triggering the recorded memories recalling the settings and effects that were stored. Busking, on the other hand, refers to manually executing lighting looks by the operator. This doesn’t mean that pre-programming isn’t a part of the preparation process. After all, many modern lighting fixtures require dozens, some even over 100, individually controllable lighting parameters. For human operators with two hands and 10 fingers, manually controlling a single fixture is impossible, much less an entire rig. Whereas a cue records all of the
parameters and effects of a lighting look and is recalled using a single button operation, a programmer wanting to busk will only program those parameters, effects or groups they want to be able to manually control. These will be assigned to faders or buttons on the console that the operator is then able to manually activate during the event. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and, as previously mentioned, it actually isn’t uncommon to find operators executing lighting cues and busking elements in a single event. The question is, when is one method more appropriate than another? Let’s take a look more specifically at the uses of each method and how you can use one, or both, in your programming.
When to cue All modern, computerised lighting consoles have the ability to record and recall cues. In this article, I am not going to discuss how to program
a lighting cue as the syntax differs depending on the brand of console you use. However, all cues operate basically the same way. A lighting cue records all of the lighting information being output to your system at a given point in time. This includes intensity, colour, pan, tilt, gobo, effects and other information according to the fixtures in your rig. Once a lighting look is established, you can record a cue and then recall that look at any time. Lighting cues exist within a cue list. For most worship services, you will program all of the lighting cues into a single cue list. Many consoles actually have the capability to program a number of cue lists. More on that later. A cue list is most often executed chronologically, that is from the first cue at the beginning of the event, to the last cue at the end. While it is possible to create cue links to skip around within the cue list, this can become messy and complicated – especially if there are a lot of cues. In most circumstances, cues will be
executed from the beginning to the end of the cue list. The programmer can also record timing-related data to automate the length of time that cue transitions take. Fade up, fade down, hold, wait and follow times all allow the operator to precisely program the timing characteristics of executed cues. Instead of creating links to jump around a single cue list, a better way to deal with jumping around would be to utilise multiple cue lists. This can be quite effective if reusing certain sequences of cues frequently. For example, each worship song can be programmed as its own cue list and saved within a single show file. Then, if a song list changes or the order of songs change, the operator can adjust which cue list he or she is executing during the service, rather than having to jump around within the main cue list. There are several advantages to programming lighting cues for a worship service. First, it guarantees consistent lighting looks and playback regardless of who the operator is. This makes utilising lighting volunteers a breeze, regardless of the amount of experience that they have. Second, because the entire event and each look are specifically programmed, you can execute complicated lighting looks that may have taken a lot of time to program with 100% accuracy. Third, lighting cues can be triggered by an operator, or they can be triggered by a control signal received from an external system, such as QLab via a MIDI show control (MSC) signal, timecode or other protocol. There are a number of methods for automating the triggering of cues and this allows for complicated lighting sequences to be executed exactly in sync with other
Single cue list
36 WORSHIP AVL January–February 2021
WAVL Pg36-37 KnowHow LIGHT.indd 36
26/11/2020 16:48
sy au T lig fle th pl m le Ih be la m ev a th im
W
Th m loo m th ah th pr pa th of pa ac th H wh ind pla ac As pla th pe Th m W ap wh ah lig