One of Stern’s first lighting gigs in the 1970s had a controller that consisted of an old typewriter modified to trigger lighting effects. Certain keys would activate relays that turned on and off various lighting effects in the club. According to Stern, the lighting fixtures in smaller clubs at the time consisted of PARs and Pin Spots, mostly focused at the ubiquitous mirror ball. As for moving lighting, Stern explains, “Sometimes groups of pin spots would be mounted on a pipe or a bar which was then attached to a motor, or motors, creating back-and-forth motion, hence the sweeper motion effect. Another clever effect was the use of mirrors and motors — often a three-sided mirrored cylinder that rotated. The operator had control of the motor, usually in the forwards and or backwards motion, with stop and speed controls. We had separate controls of the lights and lighting fixtures to turn them on/off, or dimming, or both.” As the operators combined switching the motors on/off with the pulsing of the light, dynamic lighting moves could be created. “Audio inputs were also used as triggers for relays, however, they were usually rather unreliable,” Stern adds. “They always seemed to be picking up the same frequency and turning the same lights on/off.”
Gaining Control
In 1975, Paul Gregory and Rick Spaulding founded a company called LiteLab Corporation to create lighting specific controllers for discos and roller rinks. As Stern explains, “The LightLab controllers quickly became a disco standard due to the combination of cost, ease of installation and operation, and also the ability for stand-alone operation. They had excellent marketing as well, and their early claim to fame was being the system used to control the famous dance floor in the movie, Saturday Night Fever.” In fact, there are even a few shots of the controller in action in the film.
The LiteLab controllers were very simple systems that triggered pre-programmed sequences. For instance, a four-channel controller would chase between four channels and offered control of direction, speed, intensity and inversion (mostly on or mostly off).
Stern explains how the system grew and expanded capabilities. “They eventually added pushbuttons so you could then ‘hit-a-button and get-a-light.’ This added to the control of your sequence dimming/intensity control. With the creation of a 16-channel controller, there was much more versatility, as they offered more combinations of programs that you could play back. In addition to the usual attribute controls, the LiteLab 16-channel controllers at this time also had eight or ten toggle switches to create various triggers to play back pre-programmed looks that were stored into the chips or TRIACs” — the “brains” of the controllers.
The advent of pushbutton control of individual fixtures enabled many exciting looks. “With pushbuttons on a lighting fixture controller, in many ways it was like playing piano,” Stern continues. “I could conduct the lighting by orchestrating various controls — some by push-a-button, get-a-light; some by dimming a light, or on/off and chase sequences. Sometimes I’d have to switch sequences on and off, while other times I’d create the effect by using the stop-and-start of motion combined with on/off, dimming, and/or a chase sequence. I could also do it via the DBO (Dead Black Out) and begin my visual build all over again, depending on what the music dictated.”
Creating Effects
The now well-known “Effects Engine” was not created until the late 1990s, so the early lighting control pioneers had to rely on other methods to create dynamic and repeatable lighting movements in the clubs. Stern notes that, in the early days, “there were no programmable effects as we know them today. There were instead various playback controllers where one would recall assorted programs or sequences of light moving forward, backward, random, circular, etc. For example, one could save a speed on a motor control or strobe by moving a potentiometer or dial, but everything was analog and hands-on. At Bonds in Times Square (1980), my ‘console’ was nothing more than an array of toggle switches arranged into a ‘desk frame’ with two-by-fours!”
Sophistication of Control
The 1980s saw the emergence of computer-based lighting control and moving fixtures. Stern recalls her first foray into this world. “The first concept of programming (i.e., being able to control content and create looks) began for me in the early 1980s at the Red Parrot with the Kliegl Brothers Gold Performer II. It was also the latest thing on Broadway at the time, and the Red Parrot was a Ken Billington design. It was also unique for a disco in that it also had a wonderful live soundstage and proper ‘performance lighting.’ They had a ‘house orchestra’ and played Big Band music sets in between the Disco DJ. We were now able to record looks and also link our commands together into a program, or cue list. We could save playback and even re-record over what we had written and previously saved. For the first time, we were creating and playing back in the disco!” Stern still happens to have a box full of cassettes, which were used to store these early lighting cues.
In 1985, the previous owners of the renowned Studio 54 disco opened another club in New York called The Palladium. This space offered, at the time, the most sophisticated club lighting system in the world, using fixtures common in rock ‘n’ roll tour lighting designs. Stern was heavily involved and recalls the system. “The Palladium was unique in its day — it was the first and only permanent installation of Vari*Lite VL1 fixtures and control at the time. We also had an Avolites QM 500 console for controlling conventional lights. Simultaneous with this (early-to-mid 1980s) was the emergence of moving mirror heads, which made ‘moving a beam of light’ now something everyone could afford to do. Automation was here to stay! And controllers were now being designed to allow for operator programming. We could create, store, playback and re-write.”
A Great History
Today’s automated lighting programming abilities have their origins through all types of lighting, including touring, theatre, television and clubs. Without the continued growth of technology in all these markets, we might still be limited to controlling lights on a mirror ball with simple pushbutton controls.
“I believe that, without rock ‘n’ roll live shows, we would not have automation, and the club lighting that came afterward, which was then incorporated into television and popular culture and now continues with EDM festivals, arena rock shows, television, film and Broadway productions,” Stern concludes So the next time you are programming, think back to the pioneers that paved the road, and tip your hat to the mirror ball too.
