A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

A Review

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27

words “and” or “plus,” while the “-” symbol is often

employed to represent “minus” or “less.” If channels

1 through 10 and channel 15 are set to a matching

intensity of 25%, the command line might read “1 >

10 + 15 @ 25.” If channels 1 through 5 and channels

7 through 10 are all set to 70%, the command line may

read “1 > 10 - 6 @ 70.” For the purposes of this text,

the “>” symbol will indicate any continuous number

series, the “@” symbol will replace the word “at,” “+”

will replace “and,” and “-” will mean “minus.”

Depending on the manufacturer and model of

computer lighting console, some variation of this

command structure may be successful and achieve

the desired action. Or not. Some program languages

are reversed and require the channels to be addressed

after the intensities. Other languages, on the other

hand, are completely touch-based interfaces. In order

to understand and be assured that the proper pro-

gramming is taking place, the lighting designer must

undertake the effort to understand the program-

ming structure employed by that particular lighting

console. Some lighting designers write the console’s

name on their paperwork, in order to remind them

which one they’re working on at that moment.

Time Fades

Understanding time fades is fairly simple. On a manual

light board, the time fade assigned to a cue indicates

the amount of time that should occur between the

stage manager’s call and the moment the fade is com-

plete. Dimmers assigned to move in a light cue can be

divided into two categories: dimmers that move up (an

upfade) and dimmers that move down (downfade).

One example of an upfade cue is the first cue to

fade up into a scene from a black stage. A downfade

cue, on the other hand, is the last one at the end of the

scene, that fades the stage out to complete darkness,

a fade to black.

When discussing a computer light board, a time

fade is defined as the duration of time that occurs

between the moment the GO button has been pressed

(to load a memory into a fader) and the moment the

fade is complete (the memory is completely loaded).

In most computer lighting consoles, every memory

used as a light cue can be assigned a single time fade,

which determines the amount of time that will occur

for all of the channels to complete their movement. If

memory 1 is assigned a 5-second time fade, it could be

illustrated with a time map, as shown in Figure 1.11.

The numbers across the top show the number of

seconds. The time fade of memory 1 is shown as a

line with a dot at each end. The 5-second time fade

starts at zero, when the GO button is pushed, until

the fade is complete.

Some light boards have the ability to “split” the

time fade. All of the channels that move up can be

assigned a different speed than all of the channels

that move down. If memory 1 is assigned an upfade

time of 5 seconds and a downfade time of 10 seconds,

most consoles would display that time duration as

“5/10.” Figure 1.12 is a time map showing memory

1 with that split time fade assignment. Although the

upfade channels still take 5 seconds to complete, the

downfade channels in the same memory take 5 more

seconds to complete the overall fade.

Waits and Delays

Understanding waits and delays can be a bit more

involved. Both of these terms also refer to durations of

time, but they are separate from a time fade, and the

definition of the terms can interchange between manu-

facturers of different lighting consoles. These additional

time durations can be assigned to most memories used

as light cues. Consider two memories, memory 1 and

memory 2, each assigned a time fade of 5 seconds. For

our purposes, a wait is defined as the amount of time

that occurs between the moment at which the GO but-

ton is pressed and when memory 1 actually loads into

a fader. The wait affects only the memory to which it’s

assigned. Figure 1.13 is a time map that shows the effect

of assigning a wait of 3 seconds to memory 1. After

the GO button is pushed, 3 seconds will elapse before

memory 1 begins its timed fade. The overall elapsed

time is 8 seconds. The value of this function is discussed

later in Chapter 13 when part cues are examined.

A delay, on the other hand, always implies a

“link” to another memory, usually the next memory

in sequence. For our purposes, a delay is defined as

012345678910

MEM 1

TIME 5

SECONDS

Figure 1.11 A Basic Time Fade

012 345678910

MEM 1

TIME 5/

10

SECONDS

Figure 1.12 A Split Time Fade

01 23 45678910 11

MEM 1

WAIT 3

12SECONDS

Figure 1.13 A Time Fade with an Assigned Wait