A prominent LD has asked you to take over a gig for him as he needs to be home for the birth of a child. He designed the plot, but now needs you to travel to a Caribbean island to program and operate a large rig of lighting fixtures and media servers for a music awards ceremony. When you arrive, you are told that the console has been stuck in customs and that only the network processor has arrived at FOH. No other consoles are available in the area. The show is in three days, and you must program for the 12 songs and all the awards segments. Your best option is to keep moving forward. Launch the PC version of the console on your laptop and plug into the network processor. Now you will have full control of the rig, but only your keyboard and mouse to work with. Request a monitor and familiarize yourself with the keyboard shortcuts. Then get programming! That’s a much better approach than simply taking a day or two off and hitting the beach. Do that, and the production staff will likely hunt you down and feed you to the sharks!
Brad Schiller, from “Feeding the Machines,” PLSN, March 2015
