Report from the Field

"One day in 2007, I received a call from the sole tech/operator/carpenter/ld/sound person/scenic artist/etc..Michael Pettigrew, requesting my help in relocating their speakers to the ceiling of Jubilee Theater. When I arrived I was surprised to see that he was using a 2 scene ETC console to run month long show runs. His only sound playback hardware was a 5 disc CD changer. He was located in a booth along with the 24 channel ETC sensor rack behind glass.

Anyone who has ever run a show on a 2 scene light console knows you have little time to do anything else, much less trigger sound cues, mix a band, etc.. So I went about formulating a plan to relocate the speakers but also had many thoughts about how their production rig might be upgraded.

Running lights from behind glass maybe fine but running sound from behind glass is not, so I suggested that we might move his rig out of the booth and just behind the last row of seats. The problem was that the 36 channel ETC console was too big to fit the available space along with the other gear that needed to be there. So space was the first issue, and the next issue was that Michael had never used a computer."

enter ENTTEC & Light Factory

"I had heard about PC-based DMX lighting control a while back and went searching on eBay for an option. I found many, but the one that seemed ideal as far as price and features was the Enttec Light Factory Starter Pack Pro kit. It came with a 36 channel license and the hardware needed to control the existing dimmer rack. . When it arrived, we tested it and it worked perfectly. We now had the ability to control the lights in a footprint that would fit the available space. This was good news because the very next show was bringing in a freelance lighting designer who expected to be be able to “program” the lights & not just give Michael some notes about basic looks.

Mike Pettigrew sitting in "the booth" of the Jubilee

There was also the issue of sound playback. I'd been using SFX (made by Stage Research) for a while and was excited to realize that SFX & LF would talk to each other. This combination offered a rare chance to integrate the cue lists & run a show from a single GO button in SFX.
After things were going smoothly for a few shows, I received a call from Michael saying he had a budget to buy a new computer. We decided to get two identical laptops so that they would have a backup machine in case something went wrong.

Along with the two laptops, we purchased (2) Enttec ODEs and now have those in addition to the (1) Enttec DMX USB Pro which came in our original purchase."

-- Ra Byn Taylor

combination that worked

The Jubilee ran for over a season with the combination of LightFactory and SFX, and in many cases both were on the same computer, showing that the resources being used up are not too great for a medium priced laptop. Now, however, they are trying to integrate the two computers to have a live tracking backup for each program.

There are a variety of ways to do this, but Ra Byn believes that they have finally settled on the one which will be most practical and intuitive to the operator who would have to swap between them in the event of a failure.

Project Specifics

What: Integration of sound cues and light cues on one machine, single go button.

Where: Jubilee Theatre, Ft Worth, TX USA
Who: Audio/Lighting Consultant Ra Byn Taylor and house technician Michael Pettigrew
When: 2008-2009

How: Using SFX from Stage Research and LighFactory from Enttec, plus various Enttec hardware interfaces, the board op can press a single go button to take lighting and sound cues, and there is redundancy for both programs on a second identical machine.

Hardware Details

• (2) modern PC computers
• Jubilee chose laptops due to cost, space and the onboard battery backup.
• (2) Enttec ODEs
• (2) Light Factory Limited 36 channel licenses
• (2) SFX licenses
• (1) Linksys wifi router

The new solution which is now finding favor incorporates the HTP Merge capability built into firmware 1.6 and higher of the ODE. This allows for merging the output from the two Light Factory licensed computers into one DMX ouput, which then goes to the dimmer rack. They can mute the sound coming out of the backup computer (SFX) and have the Grand Master down on the LightFactory rig, and only bring those up if they need to swap over.

This frees up the extra ODE they originally bought for a different scenario to act as an input device, allowing many submaster handles to be used when writing the cues. Ra Byn says, “This is good because now he has the best of both worlds: a consistent show from night to night; but also the hands-on control that his old console allows. Having the console inputting also allows for visiting lighting designers to have access to the dimmer rack without learning Light Factory.“

He plans to construct a white paper with detailed descriptions of the many steps they took along the way to this goal, that can be used as a roadmap by other Theatres to achieve the same goals. Ra Byn can be reached by emailing rabyn(at)flash.net , for those interested in a copy.