It is important for programmers to understand the various methods available to create looks and to learn the benefits of each. Then you will be able to program amazing looks that go beyond the normal pre-programmed selections built into many consoles. There’s a look I like to call “kicks” which involves the beams from automated fixtures pointing toward the audience and continually traveling in an upward fashion. Only the upward sweeps of light are visible, with no indication of the lights moving back down to their starting position. The lights do not all do this at the same time, but rather appear to be randomly and continually moving upward. Before lighting consoles had effects, programmers would need to create a complex, multi-step chase for the upward movement of the fixtures and to reset the fixtures to their starting position. Console effects allow you to automate functions and create repeating movement. Today, consoles offer advanced effects tools. You can tell the console to apply an intensity effect that only is enabled for a specific portion of the effect duration. With three or four button presses, you can easily create what used to take many steps to create. Whichever method you choose to program is ultimately up to you. I find that I often program via different methods depending upon the production’s requirements and the amount of time available.
—From “Feeding the Machines” by Brad Schiller, PLSN, July, 2013
