fixtures is a welcome addition to the designers' arsenal. Cognito embraces that
challenge and makes programming today's complex lighting systems simple
again.
Let's go back to the advent of computer-controlled lighting to examine the issues
that plagued communication in the theatre. Before computers entered the
theatre, the most popular dimmer controllers were known as piano-boards. These
large devices had individual handles for each dimmer and designers would ask
operators to move a handle to a position to set the light level. These 'move'
instructions were written down as cues and with each one executed in succession
you had a show. The advantage of this system (which was only realized fully after
the obsolescence of piano-boards) was that each move could be controlled at
different rates and multiple moves could be executed simultaneously by different
operators.
Computer control first appeared on Broadway in 1975 when Tharon Musser used
the Electronics Diversified LS-8 console on A Chorus Line. This new technology
allowed for unprecedented repeatability and a huge number of cues executed in
record time. As processing power was very limited, decisions had to be made on
how to execute these fades. The technology and code development tools of the
day dictated that each channel would be recorded in each cue. This greatly
simplified the process of playing back a show, or more specifically, jumping from
scene to scene during rehearsals. Remember, in the old days of piano-boards,
getting to any place at random in the show almost always meant starting from the
beginning and executing each cue to ensure accuracy. LS-8 and others could do
this with ease. Kliegl quickly followed with the Performance and Strand with
Multi-Q and Broadway converted to computer control seemingly overnight.
Designers were excited by the apparent new flexibility that these computers
offered.
These early computer control systems did not emulate piano-boards, but rather
manual preset boards. What designers eventually figured out, given a bit of
experience on these consoles, was that they could not achieve the complex cue
timing that two or three piano-board operators did in the past. As these preset
consoles recorded every channel in every cue, they only moved from state to
state. This resulted in robotic or non-organic fades. It was only when Strand
introduced the Light Palette that the technological problem that plagued these
early consoles was finally addressed on a computer (in North America at least).
People everywhere (and since) have praised Light Palette for marrying designers'
desires and computer control by using a common language. Almost every
128
