Feeding the Machines

A career as an automated lighting programming can be both fun and rewarding. It is important to always improve your craft and keep up to date with consoles and fixtures. You also need to remain professional in all circumstances to ensure a long and successful career. I have heard about programmers who have ruined their careers through thoughtless actions, bad attitudes and other improper acts. Several of them were once considered the cream of the crop, but now, sadly, they barely even make the “where are they now” list. By studying the actions of others, you can learn how to avoid wrecking your career and ensure a long and profitable programming profession.

Automated lighting programming encompasses a vast amount of processes and routines, but actually the entire practice can be broken down into four segments.  Each of these segments is very complex on its own, and all four are required for any lighting programming project.  Programmers do not have to master each of these areas, but they certainly need to have a good understanding and be proficient in each.  All automated lighting programming projects require work in the following areas: Patching, Preparation, Parameters, and Playback.

Automated lighting fixtures have many great features such as rotating gobos and color mixing. Some also include motorized framing shutters. These blades enable you to crop and shape the output of the fixtures as you desire. Some automated lighting consoles provide the programmer with very sophisticated interfaces for framing shutters, while others simply treat them as any other variable parameter of the light. It is important for a programmer to understand the unique requirements and processes that are involved when programming fixtures that have framing shutter capabilities.

Hello, my name is Matthew Schiller, Brad’s son, and I have taken over my dad’s column to tell you about my first programming experience.  Although I have played with automated lights and consoles all my life, I only recently programmed a full production.  My high school in Austin, Texas put on a production of Miss Saigon, and I was assigned the position of automated lighting programmer for the show.

Automated lighting consoles are amazing machines built on powerful software platforms. These systems are usually composed of many different “windows” that can be displayed on various screens on the console and/or external monitors. Many of these windows have very specific purposes with color-coding, viewing options and more. Every lighting programmer should have an understanding of the common types of windows and their uses.

Programming is largely about adjusting parameters and storing data. There are many different parameter types we adjust, but one is treated very differently than all the rest. Intensity is the only parameter that we can always say that we know the importance between high and low values. It is also the original parameter that was adjustable for lighting the stage.

I was recently asked by a good friend and LD to help him with a show. His design company had two gigs happening at the same time, and he could not be at both. He asked if I could program and operate for a large corporate event in an arena. Having done many of these types of gigs in the past, I was not concerned about the crazy schedule or the quick turnaround that would occur. I knew going into the gig that it would be wild and fast paced. In fact, I looked forward to the action.

One of my favorite things in life is being behind a lighting console in full control of a lighting rig. Whether programming or operating, I find true joy in pressing the buttons and watching the lighting change. Through the years working as an automated lighting programmer, I have found it very important to consider the ergonomics involved with my FOH setup. Working with a console for many hours can be very draining mentally, but it also takes a toll on your arms, wrists, legs, and more. This is why you should always plan accordingly to ensure that you are in a position to perform your very best behind the console.

People everywhere struggle with time.  They set alarms to signal when to awake or perform certain tasks.  They wish that they could go back in time, freeze the moment, or even skip ahead to the future.  Interestingly, the automated lighting programmer has total control of time at his/her fingertips when programming a show.  The power we programmers have over time is limited to that of our show, but the capabilities are stunning and often overwhelming.  Our consoles give us the ability to manage timing in varied methods, and it is important for any programmer to understand the techniques available on most automated lighting consoles.

Our industry is very exciting as it is filled with many different types of technology. Automated lighting programmers are skilled at to not only operating high-tech consoles and new robotic lighting fixtures, but we also find ourselves playing with virtual simulations of the real world. Lighting visualizers have come a long way over the past 20 years and now provide nearly realistic looking emulations of the lighting and production on a stage. However, there are still challenges involved when working with a visualizer, and it is very important for a programmer to be aware of the pros and cons of the technology.

The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a radio astronomy observatory located in western New Mexico. It consists of 27 large dish type antennas. Astronomers reconfigure the array every few months into new alignments to better explore the universe. This requires intense computer programming to coordinate the movement and alignment of the large receivers. I am sure that programming for this very large array presents a level of complexity to its team of programmers. However, when I find myself programming a very large array of lighting fixtures, I think that their scope must pale in comparison to my task at hand. Programming very large arrays is quite a task for any automated lighting programmer.