Typically, when programming automated lighting, you are looking at the lighting that is happening on stage or on a visualizer screen. Most of the time you are concerned with the reality of the results of your button pushes. However, there are some instances when you might need to get data into your desk without seeing the lighting or a graphical visualization of it. Whether working from home, on an airplane, or even in blind mode, you will have to envision the results in your head. You will need to count on your programming skills, previous experience, and some luck when programming in this method.
Palettes/Presets are Your Friend
If you are not already using palettes/presets for your positions, colors, and other important parameters, then you are pretty much “doing it wrong.” They are an essential programming tool that provide many benefits in multiple ways. When programming without actual fixtures or a visualizer, palettes/presets become much more important. For example, you can make presets for positions that contain the same raw 50/50 values for pan/tilt, yet name them individually anything you want. Then you can program with these palettes/presets as if the lights were pointing at the named positions.
You can go on to build an audience focus, a band focus, a ballyhoo focus, and a blinder focus. As you store them, they will all reference back to the same 50/50 value, but that is okay as you know that you will update the palettes/presets when you see the actual fixtures. Once updated, then the cues that refer to these positions will magically work as intended. The same goes for colors, gobos, lens focus, and any other parameter. If you are setting gobo rotations or color wheel spins, then it helps to make palettes/presets for slow, medium, and fast. This way you can build cues with an understanding of what the intended rotation speed should be.
Be sure to properly label your palettes/presets during your blind programming, as all you will have to go on is the name of the palette/preset. It’s beneficial because the name will be inserted into your cue data, making it easier to understand the intent of the cue. I also am very careful to clearly label the cues and even enter narratives of what should be happening into a note field. This way the cuelist contains descriptive data in addition to the actual show data.
Pay Attention When Programming
When you are programming with actual fixtures, pay attention to values of parameters that could be useful to remember when not working with fixtures. For instance, if you always select the red/blue effect and turn the speed knob to a value you like, make a note of value of that effect speed. Then, when you are programming on an airplane and decide to re-create this effect, you can dial back to that preferred speed as opposed to guessing what might be best. Furthermore, you should understand the default effect speeds and know automatically how they will look if you adjust the rate up or down.
Your previous experience with fixtures will also be extremely valuable. If you have used Fixture A before, then you should be able to visualize many of its parameters in your head. By simply reading the values in your desk and matching this to the image in your head, you can create some interesting data that will look great once the lights are plugged in. Hopefully similar products from the same manufacturer will yield similar results as well. Keep in mind, though, that different fixtures often operate very differently. One fixture’s slow strobe may equal another fixture’s medium strobe.
Build your Busking Layout
If you are working any type of musical performance, you will likely want to have some flash keys and faders to enable you to busk some live changes during a show. Everyone has different methods of setting up consoles for busking, but typically there will be color bumps, dimming and strobe effects, position chases, and more. These are all playbacks that should be very simple to pre-program blindly without actual fixtures connected to your desk. You can reference palettes and effects and quickly record a full set of busking tools.
If you want to store 12 color bumps, you can knock this out in no time by simply grabbing the fixtures, setting the color (hopefully via a palette/preset), and recording the cues. There is no need to actually see the fixtures changing colors as you build these cues. I will often pre-program this before I arrive at a venue, or at FOH while the crew is loading in the rig.
Once you have programmed and stored your cues, you can even test them without actual fixtures by looking at the data in your fixture/output window. As you activate and then deactivate the color bumps, you should be able to see the changes happening in your output screen.
Working with a New Fixture
The worst-case scenario for guessing how a fixture will look is a brand new fixture that you have never used before. The very first thing you should do is learn all you can about the light. Look at the webpage, watch a video, download the manual, and read the DMX protocol/chart. Then find or create a fixture library and verify that it matches the DMX chart perfectly. With this basis, you should now be able to create palettes/presets, build cues and more, even without an actual fixture on-hand.
The key items that will be the hardest to imagine are going to be the various speeds set within the fixture such as gobo rotation, color and gobo wheel spins, strobes, and various macros. You will just have to do your best with a guess and again store values in a palette/preset for quick and easy updating.
Console Assistance
You don’t have to leave everything up to the concepts in your head, as many consoles provide some level of pseudo visualization. For instance, most now have a plot/layout view that will show you intensity, color, gobo and position. These are usually simple interfaces and not very realistic, but they can be a huge help in determining a fixture’s basic settings.
Even outside of a plot/layout view, your console might show colors and gobos in various spreadsheets or windows. Sometimes these fixtures need to be activated, but when they are, they can be extremely useful. A few consoles even allow for full visualization of your lighting rig, but only if you have taken the time to set up and configure this fully. In many cases, it might just be quicker and easier to program with your imagination than to set up the rig virtually only to then store color bumps and effects.
Fun with Imagination
SpongeBob SquarePants is known for his famous “imagination” line, and you can channel his enthusiasm when programming your lighting without actual fixtures. By making use of console tools such as palettes/presets, plot/layout views, output windows and more, you can easily envision in your head the results of your programming on a console. It can save you precious time when you have to wait for a rig or don’t have the time to build a proper visualizer layout. Furthermore, I find it a particularly fun exercise to compare what I viewed in my head to the real world once the fixtures are connected. Usually it comes out better than expected!
