While some fixtures may not have adjustable intensity, the vast majority does. Automated lighting consoles offer many different tools specifically designed around the unique properties of intensity, and it is important for automated lighting programmers to understand what is available. As always, the exact terminology is different on different consoles, so be sure to check your console’s user manual for specific details.
From Zero to Full
Adjusting the intensity of a luminaire on stage can yield many different dynamic looks and emotions. An LD may spend hours tweaking scenes to get just the right levels on the stage. Luckily for the programmer, most automated lighting consoles provide a series of keys and keystrokes specially designed for working with intensity. Generally, if you select a fixture or group of fixtures and just press “@” and a two digit value, the console will set the intensity level to an equal percentage value between zero and one hundred. For instance, if you type “@ 50” then the selected fixture(s) will change to an intensity value of 50 percent their capable range. To speed up the process of entering values, you can typically just enter a single digit and the desk will assume you want to multiply this by ten. For example, if you type “@ 7” then the selected fixture(s) will go to 70 percent. If you truly want to assign an intensity of seven percent, then you need to type “@ 07”. Some consoles also have a shortcut key for “Full” or “Out” that allows you to eliminate pressing the “@” key.
Building on the above syntax, you can often adjust levels in a relative manner. If you type “@ +10” then the fixture(s) will increase their current intensity by 10 percent. The opposite can be achieved by using the negative key: “@ -10”. This can be extremely useful when an LD asks for a group of fixtures to be 10 percent brighter. The programmer does not need to know the current value and can simply raise the intensity by ten percent. Some consoles even have dedicated keys on the front panel or buttons on the screen for increasing or decreasing intensity by a pre-assigned percentage.
Specialized Hardware
Intensity adjustment is seen as so very important that many console manufactures include a dedicated intensity wheel on their desks. This wheel is always active for dynamically adjusting intensity anytime a fixture or group of fixtures is selected. This allows you to simply reach to the same location and easily roll up or down the intensity values. Typically, this process will be an absolute adjustment that changes the values incrementally from their current position. However, there is frequently a key that can be held when adjusting the intensity wheel. This key will change its behavior to a relative adjustment. Now, when you turn the intensity wheel, the values will increase or decrease a percentage equal to how much you adjusted the wheel. For instance, with relative adjustment enabled, turning the wheel 10 percent of its range will increase all selected fixtures intensities by 10 percent of their current value. So a fixture with no intensity will not increase, while a fixture with an intensity of 50 percent will increase to 55 percent. Conversely, if you had instead used a traditional absolute adjustment, you would have seen the fixture with no intensity rise to 10 percent and the 50 percent fixture rise to 60 percent.
Live on Stage
When a fixture has intensity, it can be thought of as live on stage. This is because it will have output and be contributing to the currently active look. This is very important information that can be used to the programmer’s advantage. Most automated lighting consoles have a selection tool that allows you to ask the desk what fixtures are currently active, live, or outputting. When utilizing this type of tool, the desk will automatically select all the fixtures that have an intensity value greater than zero and make them available for direct editing. This is extremely timesaving when the LD asks for a blackout cue. You can simply select all the active fixtures using this tool and type “@ 0”. Then record your cue. You did not have to look at the monitor to figure out which fixtures to select. Furthermore, if you combine this action with other tools, you can quickly make powerful selections. For instance, if the LD asks you to change all the wash lights currently on that are red to blue, you can ask the desk to select only red washlights live on stage.
Understanding how your console selects fixtures based on intensity is a key function that all programmers should know and understand. Most desks also allow you to select fixtures with a specific intensity value (only those at 75 percent, for example) or even a range (those that are between 50 percent to 100 percent).
Intensity Palettes/Presets
Similar to other parameters, you can usually create palettes/presets for intensity values. I find this extremely useful when working with a televised production. I will make a palette/preset that is the preferred level for my backlights. Then I use this level for all my cues using those fixtures as backlight. Subsequently at anytime if the LD or production truck asks for a different backlight value, I can make the change just once (by updating the palette/preset) and know that it will track though my entire show. Although intensity palettes/presets are not used as commonly as other parameters, they can be very powerful and useful.
Virtual Intensity
Many LED luminaires simply provide RGB or RGBW values with no overall intensity parameter. This is great to reduce the number of DMX channels required, but makes it very difficult when you have mixed a pretty lavender color and want to fade it out slowly. You are forced to adjust the color levels to maintain the color while reducing the value of each. For this reason, most consoles add a virtual intensity channel to luminaire types that are based on only additive color mixing DMX channels. The intensity parameter operates just as any intensity on any typical luminaire and can utilize all the tools discussed above. Furthermore, the console often uses an algorithm to try to maintain the color consistently throughout the dimming. Many times programmers do not even realize that the intensity is a function of their fixture library and not part of the luminaire’s native DMX capabilities.
It All Starts with Intensity
The first thing you do when you select a fixture is to give it intensity so that you can see it. Without intensity control, we would have very little to do with our fixtures. Automated lighting consoles are filled with specialized tools for adjusting intensity. Whether using powerful syntax, dedicated hardware, or advanced selection abilities, intensity is undoubtedly a specialized parameter. Additionally there are custom “level” screens, move-in-black functions, and proportional patching abilities that further utilize intensity values. Take the time to study your console’s user manual to ensure that you understand the importance of intensity and the tools that are available when working with this parameter
