1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,840 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: tech are you? So this past weekend I ventured out 5 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,280 Speaker 1: of my home in order to go to a show. 6 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 1: And really it was a show that was tailor made 7 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: for old people like me because the English Beat and 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,199 Speaker 1: adam Ant were sharing the bill. So as I filed 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: into the venue with many of my fellow gen xers 10 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: and y'all, it looked like it was a college reunion 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: in my case, not that I recognize people, but you know, 12 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: it's rare that I'm out with a group of people 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: who are in the same age range as I am. Anyway, 14 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: I started to do what I often do when I 15 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: go out to stuff. I started to think, how can 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: I mine this experience I'm having for an episode of 17 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, Which was tricky because I've already done episodes 18 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: about electric guitars. We played a classic one on Monday 19 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: if you miss that, that was the episode that originally 20 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: aired back in two thousand and nine. Now I've done 21 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 1: episodes about microphones, I've done episodes about loud speakers. I've 22 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: done episodes about synthesizers. I might do an episode on 23 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: knee or hip replacements, because, again, based on the average 24 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: age of the folks who were in that building, I'm 25 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: pretty sure that would have been a relevant thing to 26 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,080 Speaker 1: my experience that night. And yes, I am joking around, 27 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 1: but this is to remind you also I am in 28 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: that age group. I am joking about myself. But there 29 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: was a point in the show where one of the 30 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: young folks on stage, appearing with the acts, invited us 31 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: to jump to the music. About five percent of the 32 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: crowd actually made a half hearted effort to do so, 33 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: and everyone else was like, you know what, no gravity 34 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: and I have reached an understanding we're not going to 35 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: potentially invite disaster with blowing out a knee or a 36 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: hip or something. So that was a real thing. But 37 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: while the show was going on, one thing that did 38 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: spring to mind was the lighting there. The venue we 39 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: were in was a pretty decent size here in Atlanta, 40 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: it's called the Eastern It's not a huge venue, but 41 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: it is significantly larger than the tiny little clubs I 42 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: would go to when I was in college in Athens, Georgia. 43 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: Back in those days, everybody was in a band. Everybody 44 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: would get signed at some point to play one of 45 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: these small venues, and so I went to them a lot, 46 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: and it was clear that this venue, the Eastern, had 47 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:44,839 Speaker 1: a really good setup for groups coming in to rig 48 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:48,239 Speaker 1: up their lighting and everything, and the acts had really 49 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: sophisticated systems controlling those lights and creating really cool effects. 50 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: And you know, again, this isn't like a huge arena show. 51 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: It's not like you know, Van Halen in the late 52 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,839 Speaker 1: seventies or eighties. But it was really impressive. And I thought, well, 53 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: you know what, I did do an episode about the 54 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: history of stage lighting, but I haven't really explored the 55 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: history of computerized lighting rigs. So that's kind of what 56 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about. It is like moving lights, 57 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 1: not just what lights were used to illuminate the stage, 58 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: but how are they controlled and manipulated. What's the evolution 59 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: of the concert or show lighting rig and how do 60 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: they work. Now, clearly there's going to be overlap with 61 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: my older episodes on stage lighting. If you're curious and 62 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: you want to hear those older episodes. They include an 63 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: episode titled Lights Tech Stuff Action that published on June seventeenth, 64 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: twenty twenty. And then there was tech stuff Steps Out 65 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: of the Lime Light that published on June twenty second, 66 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: twenty twenty, but really more interested in the systems that 67 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: activate the lights and control brightness and move lights around 68 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: rather than the lights themselves. In this case, we will 69 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about lights because it's kind of 70 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: hard not to, but that it's not really the pun 71 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: intended focus of this episode. So let's consider the evolution 72 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: of theater briefly, just to kind of get our minds 73 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: in the right place. If you go back just a 74 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: few centuries, as we all do on occasion, many theaters 75 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: were outdoor venues, so all of your lighting was natural 76 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:21,280 Speaker 1: in that case, right, you had no control over it. 77 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 1: Generally speaking, you put up shades or whatever to kind 78 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: of shape the lighting a bit, but other than that, 79 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: this was beyond your control, and no one really thought 80 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,839 Speaker 1: too much about lighting effects. You just told your story 81 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: and entertained your audience, or at least you tried to 82 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:41,360 Speaker 1: entertain them. Your success rate largely dependent upon the circumstances 83 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: at the time and the people you were playing to. 84 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,559 Speaker 1: But when theatrical productions began to move into buildings, which 85 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: happened throughout history at different times, but there were challenges 86 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: that you had to overcome. So how do you light 87 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: a scene so that people can see it, because before 88 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,279 Speaker 1: the era of electricity, light would have to come from 89 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: sources like lanterns and torches and candles. And to be clear, 90 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: the era of indoor theater itself has a lot of 91 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: overlap with outdoor theater. It's not like everything was outdoors 92 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: and then one day everybody said, you know, let's pound 93 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: sand and go indoors. In Shakespeare's time, for example, there 94 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,159 Speaker 1: were both kinds of theatrical houses. So the Globe, one 95 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,360 Speaker 1: of the most famous theaters in Shakespeare's time, had a 96 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: large stage exposed to the elements, and then you had 97 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: smaller theatrical houses that were indoors, like the Blackfriars that 98 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: was an indoor house. Interestingly, in Elizabethan times, at any rate, 99 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,679 Speaker 1: the indoor theater houses were seen as places for younger 100 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 1: theatrical troops. By that, I mean like the actors were 101 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: often boys or very young men, often school boys. So 102 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: the adult actors would perform on the much larger outdoor 103 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:55,839 Speaker 1: stages generally, and the indoor stages were used for people 104 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,160 Speaker 1: who were still learning their craft. The difference in stage 105 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: size also meant the subject matter and indoor venues was 106 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: often far less action oriented. They were more talky, in 107 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: other words, a lot more talking than acting, like in 108 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:13,440 Speaker 1: big fight sequences, So you just didn't have the room 109 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:15,600 Speaker 1: to do something like a big battle scene that you 110 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,400 Speaker 1: would find and say Richard the third or Henry the fifth. 111 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: But that indoor lighting, while initially a challenge, also presented 112 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: opportunities because a clever theatrical company could come up with 113 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:29,719 Speaker 1: new ways to light a scene in order to add 114 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: to the effect that scene would have on the audience, 115 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: or at least they might try to do that. As 116 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: it stood, you often had to pause between scenes so 117 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: that members of the company could do things like trim 118 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 1: back the wicks of lanterns or replace burnt out candles, 119 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: because you know they would be consumed over time. So 120 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,520 Speaker 1: sometimes it just meant that the show would kind of 121 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: come to a brief stop, not like a full intermission 122 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:56,840 Speaker 1: like you would have in a modern show, but it 123 00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: would stop for a minute or two while people would 124 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: change out light. One early proposed design for an indoor 125 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,520 Speaker 1: lighting system that could be done while a scene is 126 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,440 Speaker 1: in play, so sort of a dynamic system where you 127 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:14,480 Speaker 1: could adjust the light. Was this concept of a pulley 128 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: where you would feed a line through the pulley and 129 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: you'd hold one end of the line. The other end 130 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: would hold up one or more cans, and the can 131 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: would have its opening facing downward, and you would position 132 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:32,760 Speaker 1: this over a candle so the candles lit, and then 133 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: you could lower the rope or lower this can down 134 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,480 Speaker 1: by using the pulley, and you would allow the can 135 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: to lower down and cover or partially cover the candle. 136 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: This would allow you to dim the scene. Obviously, you 137 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: couldn't go too far down or you would extinguish the candle, 138 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: as the candle would burn out all the available oxygen 139 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: inside the can and then just sort of sputter out. 140 00:07:56,800 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: But yes, you could do this to actually dim the scene. 141 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: At least that the concept. It wasn't exactly high tech. 142 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 1: It was literally a rope holding a canister that could 143 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: be lowered over a candle. And I didn't see any 144 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: indication that such a thing was ever actually used. It 145 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 1: was proposed. There are sketches that show this, obviously no 146 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: photographs or anything. I mean we're talking about like the 147 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds here, but it showed that people were thinking 148 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: about this about ways to affect the lighting while a 149 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,320 Speaker 1: performance is underway in order to convey a mood or 150 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: emotion to an audience. But it would take some time, 151 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: quite some time for this concept to really become practical, 152 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: and honestly, we have to jump way, way way ahead 153 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:46,079 Speaker 1: beyond the discovery of electricity and our ability to harness 154 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: electricity and the creation of electrical lighting. Now that's not 155 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: to say that people in theater did an experiment with 156 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: different methods for lighting and getting across a certain feeling 157 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,440 Speaker 1: through lighting effects. They did try lots of different stuff, 158 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 1: but some of those were really gimmicky or they were 159 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,319 Speaker 1: one offs and not indicative of a larger movement, nor 160 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: did they really build toward the technologies that ultimately would 161 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 1: replace them. So we're just gonna skip them instead. We're 162 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: going to talk about some early attempts to motorize and 163 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 1: then automate lighting controls for stage work. So one patent 164 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,640 Speaker 1: filed way back in nineteen twenty five and awarded in 165 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight was something that a guy named H. F. 166 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: King filed for, and it was he just called his 167 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,960 Speaker 1: invention a light projector. In the description of the invention, HF. 168 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: King writes, quote, the principal object of the invention is 169 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:44,000 Speaker 1: to produce a light projector which may be moved automatically 170 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:46,480 Speaker 1: to cause the stream of light beams to move through 171 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:51,199 Speaker 1: a predetermined path and spot successively a plurality of objects, 172 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: and hold the spot for an interval on at least 173 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: one of said objects. End quote. Okay, let's break that down, 174 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: make it plane English. Essentially, what HF. King is saying 175 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: is that the invention he proposed is for a light 176 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,560 Speaker 1: that on its own could move through a predetermined path 177 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: and then it could stop on one or more spots 178 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,199 Speaker 1: for however long it was that you had programmed the 179 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: light to do. This. Programming is being used not in 180 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: the computer sense in this case. It's more like setting, 181 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,640 Speaker 1: like making a setting where the light will hold on 182 00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: this position for whatever given amount of time you need. 183 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: The illustrations accompanying the patent really helped me understand King's invention. 184 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: Like a lot of patents, the language gets to be 185 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: pretty like obtuse, but the illustrations help a lot, and 186 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 1: he illustrated electric lamps mounted on a housing that could 187 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: pivot either vertically or horizontally, so they could tilt or 188 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: pan essentially or vertical motion. The tilting, an electric motor 189 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 1: would connect to a gear and this gear, in turn 190 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: would connect to a second gear attached to the yoke 191 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: the housing for the light itself. So you had an 192 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: electric motor turning a gear and it would be connected 193 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:13,680 Speaker 1: to the second gear via a chain. So it's a 194 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 1: chain drive kind of like what you would see in 195 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,319 Speaker 1: a bicycle, right, So the gear would engage the chain 196 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: and that would in turn move the other gear to 197 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: adjust the tilting of the light. So turning the motor 198 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,280 Speaker 1: in one direction would allow you to tilt the light upward. 199 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:33,840 Speaker 1: Turning the motor and the other direction would have you 200 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:38,920 Speaker 1: tilt the light downward, and very clever and I thought 201 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: it was a really neat kind of of concept. Now, 202 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: horizontal movement, the panning, so panning left or right was 203 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 1: using just a simple gear system. There was no chain 204 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: drive for this. It was a gear system connected to 205 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:56,840 Speaker 1: the overall mount for the lamp. So again you would 206 00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 1: have like the teeth of these gears engage and turn 207 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:01,960 Speaker 1: the lamp either to the left or to the right, 208 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:04,800 Speaker 1: and it just be connected to the larger motor for 209 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:08,319 Speaker 1: the overall lamp. So Kings patent describes a potential use 210 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,319 Speaker 1: case for his invention that brings in the automatic part 211 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: of this concept, because so far you're talking about these 212 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: gears and motors. You could just rig up a control 213 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:22,240 Speaker 1: system that allowed you to manually adjust where this light 214 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:25,320 Speaker 1: was pointed. Right. Maybe you have like a dial, for example, 215 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:28,199 Speaker 1: to control panning, and maybe a second deal to control tilt. 216 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,720 Speaker 1: And by adjusting the values, you could engage the motors 217 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: and turn the lamp to point to wherever you needed. 218 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 1: But he wanted an automated system. He describes a store 219 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:40,800 Speaker 1: window behind which you might have several items that the 220 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: store wants to highlight to the window shopper, one after 221 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: the other. So just imagine that you've got this display, 222 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: but it's in the dark, it's behind a shop window, 223 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: you're on the street, you're looking in, and then a 224 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 1: spotlight turns on and it shines on let's say, let's chair, 225 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 1: and then the light suddenly swivels and moves to highlight 226 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: a cl and then it moves again to show a 227 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,520 Speaker 1: radio and so on. Now, eventually the light finishes its 228 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,960 Speaker 1: tour of consumer goods. And goes back to the beginning 229 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,080 Speaker 1: of the sequence. So King explains that his idea was 230 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,720 Speaker 1: to create this gadget that can focus on any specific 231 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,319 Speaker 1: spot within a physical space for a given amount of time, 232 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,680 Speaker 1: and you would essentially program the lamp to shine on 233 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: a point for let's say five seconds before moving to 234 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: a separate specific point and then staying there for like 235 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,160 Speaker 1: ten seconds and so on. So how did King handle 236 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: the timing? Well, again, you know, this is in the 237 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: early nineteen twenties, mid nineteen twenties, So he used mechanical 238 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:40,120 Speaker 1: action with a series of gears that could be set 239 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 1: so that the light would stay at any particular spot 240 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,800 Speaker 1: for a particular amount of time, and the electric motor 241 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:48,480 Speaker 1: would provide the power for the system, and the gears 242 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:50,320 Speaker 1: and the chain drives and all that stuff would do 243 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 1: all the mechanical work. And it was very clever, but 244 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: obviously something that was best suited for a static display, 245 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: not for a stage play. You know, you couldn't theory 246 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,720 Speaker 1: design a performance round this kind of technology. But think 247 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,560 Speaker 1: about that, the light would be pre set to go 248 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,320 Speaker 1: through this sequence, which means your performance would have to 249 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:11,120 Speaker 1: match the timing that was pre set on this Because 250 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,320 Speaker 1: you couldn't adjust the lighting on the fly. It was 251 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:14,840 Speaker 1: going to do what it was going to do because 252 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: that's what the gears had been set to. So there 253 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: was no real room for artistic improvisation. So this lighting 254 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 1: system would not be ideal for a live performance. Instead, 255 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,400 Speaker 1: you would just probably end up missing your cue or 256 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,440 Speaker 1: being in the dark or whatever. But the ideas that 257 00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 1: King suggested would evolve to find their way into stage 258 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: systems down the line. We'll talk more about those in 259 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,040 Speaker 1: just a moment, but first let's take a quick break 260 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 1: to thank our sponsors. Okay, we're back. So the physical 261 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:00,200 Speaker 1: components that would move lights, clearly, they would evolve. But 262 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: what about controlling banks of lights? Right, so we're stepping 263 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: away from the system that would actually make the lights 264 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 1: pan and tilt. Let's talk about the larger aspect. Instead 265 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: of an individual light, you have to control a whole 266 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 1: series of lights and make them do what you need 267 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: them to do. How do you do that? Well, you know, 268 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: it's one thing to have a light capable of changing 269 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: direction or dimming or brightening or whatever, but it's another 270 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: thing to just have a whole mess of these lights. Now, fortunately, 271 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,360 Speaker 1: there was another technology that was evolving around the same 272 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 1: time as the tech that would allow us to make 273 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: a lamp move physically, and that would be the control 274 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:44,720 Speaker 1: console or the electrical switchboard. And these switchboards were essentially 275 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: circuit managers, with the early ones were just using resistance dimmers. 276 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 1: So resistance refers to the tendency of a particular material 277 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: or component to resist the flow of electricity through it. 278 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 1: Either current or voltage just depends upon the nature of 279 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:06,040 Speaker 1: the resistor. Some materials have very little electrical resistance. They 280 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 1: are good conductors. In other words, they very much allow 281 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: facilitate electricity to flow through them. Some materials have very 282 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: very high resistance. They serve as good insulators. Some materials 283 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:23,680 Speaker 1: or some components have variable resistance, which changes under certain conditions. 284 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: I might have to do a full episode about variable 285 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: resistors in the future because that does require a lot 286 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,120 Speaker 1: more explanation and would get us way off track. But 287 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: the important thing to remember is that if you increase 288 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,760 Speaker 1: the resistance on a circuit, you can change the value 289 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: of the current or voltage of that circuit. And with 290 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 1: the case of resistance stemmers, we're really talking about the current. 291 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,440 Speaker 1: So the switchboard would allow an operator to manually switch 292 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,760 Speaker 1: a light circuit so that the circuit flowed through a resistor, 293 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 1: and that meant the output would be reduced. The amount 294 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,120 Speaker 1: of current output by the circuit would reduce, which meant 295 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: the electrically powered light the load on the circuit would 296 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,160 Speaker 1: mean that the lights would produce less light. They would 297 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:08,679 Speaker 1: dim in other words, so essentially the operator was denying 298 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: the lamp the juice it needed to shine on like 299 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:16,119 Speaker 1: a crazy diamond. So resistance dimmers they're obsolete now, we 300 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: don't use these anymore. They were used on Broadway Way 301 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: Way longer than they were used in other parts of 302 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:27,920 Speaker 1: the theatrical world because Broadway was really stuck in its 303 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,679 Speaker 1: ways for a very long time. And also, like you 304 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: had people who had spent a huge amount of money 305 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,960 Speaker 1: establishing these theaters, and they weren't super keen on the 306 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: idea of having to rip out the systems that were 307 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: working okay, just to upgrade them to something better, because 308 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,800 Speaker 1: that's money that they could use to I don't know, 309 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: wlpe their cigars or whatever. I've got this weird idea 310 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 1: of what theater owners are like. I don't know any personally, 311 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,000 Speaker 1: so it's all just based off the stereotypes scene in 312 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:00,560 Speaker 1: media anyway, they were a very early means of giving 313 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,679 Speaker 1: theatrical light operators some control over the lighting of scenes 314 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:06,560 Speaker 1: beyond just switching lights on or off. They could now 315 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:09,679 Speaker 1: dim the lights by using these resistance dimmers. And they 316 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: date all the way back to the eighteen hundreds actually, 317 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,399 Speaker 1: but they would be used in Broadway really up to 318 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:20,040 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. Kind of crazy that Broadway would rely 319 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,480 Speaker 1: on this old technology for so long while other theaters 320 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:27,800 Speaker 1: would upgrade much faster. Michael Mell, president of a company 321 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: called Theater Design, has an article about lighting equipment in 322 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,720 Speaker 1: which he reveals that the dimmer switchboards on Broadway got 323 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: the name piano boards because the actual board that housed 324 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: these resistance stemmers kind of looked a little bit like 325 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,439 Speaker 1: an upright piano. So, as he writes, quote, running on 326 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:53,400 Speaker 1: DC current, each six kilowatt or three kilowatt quote unquote 327 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:57,439 Speaker 1: plate introduced resistance into the circuit. To dim the lights, 328 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: a Broadway musical might use six PM boards, eighty two 329 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 1: dimmers controlling a total of two hundred eighty two kilowatts 330 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 1: of light, and five fourteen slash three kilowat boards, typically 331 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: one stage hand operated two piano boards end quote. Now, 332 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: as I said, control consoles would evolve over time, and 333 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: by the mid twentieth century, at least outside of Broadway, 334 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,879 Speaker 1: you were looking at boards that would have dozens or 335 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,680 Speaker 1: even more than one hundred channels. So channels in this case, 336 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,280 Speaker 1: essentially it refers to separate dedicated circuit pathways. You can 337 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,760 Speaker 1: think of these as like alternate paths that electricity can 338 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,200 Speaker 1: take in order to do whatever it is needs to do. Now, 339 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,360 Speaker 1: obviously keeping all the channels organized is important. You know, 340 00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:44,359 Speaker 1: knowing that channel one controls a specific light or bank 341 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 1: of lights versus channel five. That's the difference between a 342 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: scene being bathed in light appropriately or a scene being 343 00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 1: performed in darkness while an empty part of the stage 344 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,399 Speaker 1: is really well lit. You don't want that second thing 345 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:00,040 Speaker 1: happening unless it's meant for, like a comedy, like the 346 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,560 Speaker 1: Play that Goes Wrong or something. As early as nineteen 347 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: thirty four, the Royal Opera House in London was using 348 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,639 Speaker 1: a Grand Master board, which had one hundred and thirty 349 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,199 Speaker 1: channels that in turn could connect to up to one 350 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:16,080 Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five dimers. Obviously, some demers would share 351 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,320 Speaker 1: a single channel. By the nineteen fifties, lighting systems were 352 00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 1: making use of magnetic amplifiers rather than the old demer 353 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,280 Speaker 1: resistance method. Again assuming you weren't on Broadway. So now 354 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:31,159 Speaker 1: instead of putting a load on an electronic circuit to 355 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,720 Speaker 1: reduce current outflow, you could use an amplifier, and you 356 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,359 Speaker 1: would use an amplifier to boost a signal. If you 357 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,920 Speaker 1: boost a signal, then you'd get brighter lights, or you 358 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:42,399 Speaker 1: could ease off on the amplifier to allow a weaker 359 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,440 Speaker 1: signal to go for demmer lights. And one big advantage 360 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: of this approach is that the board didn't have to 361 00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:50,879 Speaker 1: be super close to the load. So the old resistance 362 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,640 Speaker 1: demers the ones that would control lights like on Broadway 363 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,199 Speaker 1: or whatever, typically these had to be fairly close to 364 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,800 Speaker 1: the lights that they controlled. So that meant that, you know, 365 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: you had to have operators at various points around the 366 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: stage to control that specific group of lights and to 367 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:11,560 Speaker 1: allow them to dim or brighten, and you couldn't have 368 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:16,199 Speaker 1: like one centralized light operator station. And it was a 369 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,760 Speaker 1: very collaborative effort in order to be able to control 370 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: lights appropriately for performance. Now back to moving lights. A 371 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,560 Speaker 1: European company called Pani built a moving lighting system in 372 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,680 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. Some of the references I saw said 373 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,359 Speaker 1: it was Austrian company, some said German. And I tried 374 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:37,240 Speaker 1: to find more information about this, to get actual details 375 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: about how did the system work, how is it invented? 376 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,040 Speaker 1: And I could find a lot of presentations and articles 377 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 1: that mentioned Pani and mentioned the moving lights, but they 378 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,479 Speaker 1: didn't have a whole lot of details, Like I couldn't 379 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:54,199 Speaker 1: really follow that up with information about who was responsible 380 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,479 Speaker 1: for creating the system and how did it work, you know, 381 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: or how a controller could provide input that would control 382 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:05,679 Speaker 1: the movement of the connected theatrical lights. So it's interesting 383 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: that we're talking about the nineteen fifties here, where maybe 384 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,240 Speaker 1: you would have like an electronic panel in front of 385 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,320 Speaker 1: you with dials and faders and that kind of thing, 386 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:18,720 Speaker 1: and that by changing these controls you could you manipulate 387 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,119 Speaker 1: these lights without having to actually set your hands on 388 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:24,359 Speaker 1: the lights themselves. But you know, we're also still talking 389 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: about an era where computerized controllers are still a couple 390 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,680 Speaker 1: of decades off, because in the nineteen fifties, you weren't 391 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,440 Speaker 1: using computerized systems. Computers in the nineteen fifties, were these 392 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,240 Speaker 1: these systems that took up entire floors of buildings. You 393 00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:42,399 Speaker 1: wouldn't have one just to use for a stage production. Now, 394 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,120 Speaker 1: I don't know if the Ponte lights had any automated 395 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:50,920 Speaker 1: aspects to them, or if truly it was just electronic 396 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,080 Speaker 1: movement systems, but a human operator had to manually change 397 00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:56,359 Speaker 1: everything around, Like I don't know if there were any 398 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,600 Speaker 1: preset from those eras. I mean, later Ponti lights definitely 399 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,919 Speaker 1: have precas, but at that time I just don't know. 400 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 1: So it did, provide, however, a lot more flexibility and 401 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,400 Speaker 1: nuance for lighting technicians in either case. So we've gone 402 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: from being able to control a very simple process like 403 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: brightening or dimming a light, to being able to move 404 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,480 Speaker 1: lights to shine on specific parts of the stage, all 405 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 1: from a control system, rather than having to have someone 406 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,919 Speaker 1: stationed at each individual light. In nineteen fifty five, a 407 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: fellow named George Charles Eisenower. That's iz noo r, and 408 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,479 Speaker 1: it's pronounced eisen Hour. From what I understand, he founded 409 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: a consulting company for theater design. So he also had 410 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: a prestigious career as a professor at Yale, where he 411 00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:45,760 Speaker 1: taught things like lighting and theater design. And he worked 412 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: on innovating in that field. He designed electronic dimming systems 413 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 1: for theaters. He patented a lot of different technologies over 414 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:59,720 Speaker 1: his time, and his control system would simplify operations so 415 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 1: that a single lighting operator could control all the lighting 416 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,720 Speaker 1: in a theatrical house, thus eliminating the need for having 417 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,440 Speaker 1: all these individual stations where you would have an operator 418 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: handling two banks of resistant stemmers. So a huge, huge 419 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:21,200 Speaker 1: leap forward. Also, from what I understand, Eisenhower was ken 420 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:25,680 Speaker 1: tankeris is probably the wrong word. He had very exacting standards, 421 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: and apparently some people found him incredibly useful and helpful 422 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:34,160 Speaker 1: to work with, and other folks really clashed with him. 423 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: So he's kind of a love or hate kind of guy. 424 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: From what I understand, I never met him. As a professor, 425 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,120 Speaker 1: Eisenhower oversaw countless efforts to create better and more versatile 426 00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:48,760 Speaker 1: moving lights. And these stage lights could again pan and tilt, 427 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,280 Speaker 1: and they use electric motors servos essentially to do the 428 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: work of turning the light or tilting the light in 429 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:59,119 Speaker 1: specific directions according to the control inputs. Now back to 430 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,080 Speaker 1: the control board. One thing that engineers figured out how 431 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: to do is to make preset boards, So we have 432 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: to think of the whole control schema in order for 433 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,439 Speaker 1: this to make sense. At the top, you've got the 434 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 1: master control board, right, This is the board that determines 435 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,560 Speaker 1: which pathway the various circuits form in order to get 436 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:23,760 Speaker 1: a specific result. But subject to the master control board 437 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,920 Speaker 1: could be these preset boards. And as the name suggests, 438 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,679 Speaker 1: a preset board could be pre set to specific values 439 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,919 Speaker 1: so that when the master control board switched power to 440 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,639 Speaker 1: that specific preset, you would get the effect that was 441 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,520 Speaker 1: programmed on that preset. So let's say you're doing a 442 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,240 Speaker 1: theatrical production, and let's say that you know you've got 443 00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: your script and you see then the script, there's a 444 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: scene that's going to be set in a darkened bedroom. 445 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,440 Speaker 1: That the rest of this show is going to be 446 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,720 Speaker 1: very bright and colorful, but you're going to have one 447 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 1: sequence in a bedroom where it's supposed to be dim. Now, 448 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: clearly you're still going to need lights because you want 449 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,080 Speaker 1: to convey to the audience that it's a dark in bedroom, 450 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,199 Speaker 1: but they still need to see what's going on. You 451 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,399 Speaker 1: can't just have a dark stage. I mean you could, 452 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:14,080 Speaker 1: but then this discussion doesn't matter. So you want to 453 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,399 Speaker 1: give the feeling that it's a darkened bedroom without it 454 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,479 Speaker 1: actually being so dark that no one can see anything. 455 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:22,119 Speaker 1: So you spend some time during tech. Tech is the 456 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,639 Speaker 1: period where you are setting up the lights and the 457 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,000 Speaker 1: sound and everything for your play. It's one of the 458 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,640 Speaker 1: most frustrating parts of being an actor. Probably even more 459 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,959 Speaker 1: frustrating for stage managers and directors, but it's frustrating as 460 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,919 Speaker 1: an actor because it means that you are going through 461 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 1: the play seen by scene, but there's a lot of 462 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:45,879 Speaker 1: stopping and starting because the tech crew is trying to 463 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:49,879 Speaker 1: get the technical aspect, the lighting and everything at just 464 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,440 Speaker 1: the right levels to tell the story that they want 465 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,119 Speaker 1: to tell. And as an actor, you're sitting there like, 466 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,440 Speaker 1: but I just want to say my lines and walk 467 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,359 Speaker 1: to where I need to walk and look pretty. But 468 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: you're not allowed to do that because you got to 469 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,879 Speaker 1: be part of the team. Actors hate being part of 470 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,119 Speaker 1: the team. I'm making a lot of generalizations, but I've 471 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:12,560 Speaker 1: also been in a lot of productions anyway. So what 472 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:14,879 Speaker 1: you're doing is you're getting your lights set in the 473 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: right position, the right brightness, the right color temperature. You 474 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,439 Speaker 1: want to make sure that the scene is lit the 475 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,920 Speaker 1: way that you really intended. And then once you do that, 476 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,080 Speaker 1: then you have it set to one of these preset boards, 477 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,399 Speaker 1: which essentially saves all those settings. Essentially says, all right, these, 478 00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: you know, fifteen lights out of fifty are going to 479 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,159 Speaker 1: be active for this scene. They're all going to be 480 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 1: in these specific directions and brightness, et cetera. And then 481 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,120 Speaker 1: when you use a fader on the master control board, 482 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:51,280 Speaker 1: you can shift to that preset bank of lights and 483 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: the lighting scheme that you created for that scene will 484 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: come up, and then the other lighting will come down 485 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: and voil a, you've got the transition. So preset boards 486 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 1: typically would have multiple banks that as collections of settings, 487 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,920 Speaker 1: so you could just designate different banks of lighting settings 488 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,399 Speaker 1: for different scenes, and you can use controls like a 489 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: cross fader to shift from one bank of settings to another, 490 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: typically in a really gradual way, so that the transition 491 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: isn't jarring. Unless that's actually your intent. You could do 492 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: a jarring lighting transition that is specifically meant to draw 493 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: attention to itself. That is a valid way of expressing 494 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,480 Speaker 1: art through light as well, but obviously you have to 495 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,439 Speaker 1: be intentional with it. If it's done by accident, then 496 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: it just kind of detracts from the experience. Okay, we're 497 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,080 Speaker 1: going to take another quick break to thank our sponsors. 498 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to be talking more 499 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:58,480 Speaker 1: about the rock and or roll world. Okay, so before 500 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,200 Speaker 1: the break, you know that we're going to talk about 501 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: rock and roll. And that's because rock and roll shows 502 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:07,320 Speaker 1: would take lighting systems and kick them into overdrive. Because 503 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,080 Speaker 1: it's one thing to design these lighting systems for theaters, 504 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: but innovation in theater is a very gradual thing generally speaking, 505 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: like from a technical perspective anyway, but rock and roll 506 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: would really push things much harder because while you did 507 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: have these theatrical houses making big strides and innovation, you know, 508 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: their goal was really to just create specific lighting effects 509 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: for specific scenes, and the lighting operator's job was just 510 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: to switch the lights from scene to scene to get 511 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:39,120 Speaker 1: the right effect. I don't mean to diminish lighting operators jobs. 512 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,280 Speaker 1: They're very important, but you know, they had a very 513 00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: well defined set of parameters they were working inside rock 514 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: and roll, though, that would really open up new opportunities 515 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,040 Speaker 1: and challenges. So by this time, we're getting up into 516 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies and rock acts were really starting 517 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: to fill out larger venues. So it's not just clubs 518 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: and bars and smaller theaters that we're talking about. We're 519 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: talking about, you know, maybe huge concert halls or really 520 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,720 Speaker 1: we're getting into the sporting arena era of rock and roll, 521 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:13,840 Speaker 1: like when bands would fill out stadiums and not every 522 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,560 Speaker 1: place would be fitted to provide sound and lighting to 523 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: a big, theatrical rock and roll concert. That's not what 524 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 1: they were intended for, and so it meant that you 525 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: had to repurpose the space to get the effect you wanted, 526 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: and that opened up the opportunity for engineers to create 527 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: new companies that specifically we're catering to touring music acts, 528 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: because it was such a hassle if you were on 529 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: tour and your production team had to sit there and say, okay, 530 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,840 Speaker 1: well we've just arrived in Dallas, let's find out what 531 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 1: sort of equipment we can rent in order to get 532 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: the sound and the lights that we need. Then we're 533 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: going to move and go to Houston and we're going 534 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:52,360 Speaker 1: to do it all over again. Then we're going to 535 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We're going to do it 536 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,520 Speaker 1: all over again, which meant that the shows weren't consistent, right, 537 00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: because you wouldn't have access to the same equipment, either 538 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,680 Speaker 1: sound or lights, and so you couldn't create a specific 539 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,320 Speaker 1: effect that kind of defined that tour. It gave rise 540 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:13,320 Speaker 1: to companies that would essentially be hired to provide sound 541 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,959 Speaker 1: and lighting for a band as it went through its 542 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 1: whole tour. So the whole setup would travel from town 543 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,480 Speaker 1: to town. It wouldn't just be you know, go there, 544 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,920 Speaker 1: find what you can, cobble it together, and then break 545 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,000 Speaker 1: it down and return it. You'd be bringing your gear 546 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,960 Speaker 1: from one show to the next. And this was a huge, 547 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,480 Speaker 1: huge undertaking still is I mean, it's enormous undertaking to 548 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,320 Speaker 1: arrive in town ahead of the band, set everything up, 549 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,960 Speaker 1: test it, make sure it all works, operate it during 550 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: the show, break it down after the show, and then 551 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,400 Speaker 1: do it all over again. And because there was this 552 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: really healthy sense of competition in the rock and roll 553 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,960 Speaker 1: space in particular, artists naturally wanted that their tour to 554 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,400 Speaker 1: be more impressive than say that other band's tour, right, Like, 555 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: if you're a part of a big band, you want 556 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,560 Speaker 1: your show to really be the one that defines the 557 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,520 Speaker 1: rock and roll experience, not someone else's show. So you 558 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 1: also wanted to be bigger than your last tour. You 559 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 1: wanted everything to be built upon the past. So if 560 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: you're in Van Halen, you definitely want your show to 561 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: be bigger and more impressive than the one that Boston 562 00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: put on the band Boston that is, I mean, that's 563 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,040 Speaker 1: more than a feeling, so to speak, it is a need. 564 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: But to achieve these lofty goals of rocking the butts 565 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,400 Speaker 1: off your audience with sounds and sites that get positively overwhelming, 566 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 1: it meant that the tech companies that were setting up 567 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: these systems had to keep pushing for new approaches. Right. 568 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:42,280 Speaker 1: You had to solve for big problems like you weren't 569 00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 1: in the same space night after night, So you couldn't 570 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:46,880 Speaker 1: just set it and forget it, right. You couldn't just 571 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 1: create an experience for a show and then that's good. 572 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,320 Speaker 1: You're done. Your work is you just have to operate 573 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 1: and now you're finished. So another thing was that relying 574 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,760 Speaker 1: on standard theatrical lights meant that you started to reach 575 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:02,920 Speaker 1: a physical limitation of the venues themselves, because the rigs 576 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:06,120 Speaker 1: you would create sooner or later would get too heavy 577 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:09,440 Speaker 1: to be supported from the venues ceiling. By rigs. That 578 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,800 Speaker 1: means essentially the scaffolding that's holding up all those lights. 579 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:16,640 Speaker 1: If you're loading up on more and more lights, as 580 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 1: your systems get far more complicated and you're trying to 581 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:25,160 Speaker 1: get these incredible concert effects, eventually you reach the limit 582 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: of what the venue itself can physically support and you 583 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: have to start thinking smaller, or at least think lighter. Now, 584 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,560 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why weight was such a challenge 585 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: had to do with color of lights. So with some 586 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,720 Speaker 1: lighting systems for theatrical lighting, if you're lighting a theater 587 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,200 Speaker 1: and you need to adjust the color or the temperature 588 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,560 Speaker 1: of a light in order to get a specific effect, 589 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,960 Speaker 1: maybe you want the light to be like natural sunlight. Well, 590 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: the lights put out by certain types of bulbs doesn't 591 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: look like sunlight. So typically you would use a gel, 592 00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: or maybe a collection of lights with different gels on them. 593 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: The gel refers to a thin sheet of colored material 594 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,320 Speaker 1: that you mount in front of a light, so the 595 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,360 Speaker 1: light passes through the gel and then hits the stage. 596 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,480 Speaker 1: So back in the nineteen fifties, a lot of the 597 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 1: gels were made from acetate, but later the industry would 598 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,560 Speaker 1: shift to other like polycarbonates with a higher melting point 599 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 1: because the lights they were using were really freaking hot, 600 00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: and even acetate would melt at the higher temperatures, and 601 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,440 Speaker 1: even with materials that have very high tolerance for heat, 602 00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: they would have a limited life span depending upon the 603 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 1: shade of light they were showing. So some gels that 604 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,759 Speaker 1: were like really heavily saturated, so like there's a lot 605 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,000 Speaker 1: of color in this gel, they often had shorter life spans. 606 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: They would you know, fade or melt after just a 607 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 1: couple of uses, or maybe even after a single show. 608 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,080 Speaker 1: Light with shorter wavelengths also had this issue, so like 609 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,759 Speaker 1: your blues and purples, for example, and you would have 610 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,879 Speaker 1: to switch these out much more frequently, so you might 611 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,799 Speaker 1: just use a you know, a single gel for a 612 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,959 Speaker 1: single light. So that also meant that if you wanted 613 00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,200 Speaker 1: to use lots of different colors in your show, well 614 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,040 Speaker 1: you had to have a dedicated lamp for each color 615 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:14,040 Speaker 1: for that particular area of your lighting rig. So depending 616 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,359 Speaker 1: on the number of colors you wanted to represent, that 617 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,799 Speaker 1: multiplies the number of lights you need to use, right, 618 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,799 Speaker 1: because you would have certain individual lights dedicated just for 619 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: blue and then others for green and others for orange. 620 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,399 Speaker 1: And others for red and others for white. And that 621 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 1: adds tons of lights to your lighting rig, and that 622 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:31,759 Speaker 1: means adding a lot of more weight. Now, with all 623 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,120 Speaker 1: these additional lights, you also need increasingly complex control systems 624 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,040 Speaker 1: as well as cooling systems. Like some of these lights 625 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,319 Speaker 1: get super dup or hot, and it can be a 626 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: fire hazard if you don't have ways of keeping things cool. 627 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,600 Speaker 1: It's interesting some companies actually experimented with water cooling their lights, 628 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,799 Speaker 1: but engineers and electricians were like, this might not be 629 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,840 Speaker 1: the best idea to introduce water to electrical systems that 630 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 1: could potentially short out and then you could even you know, 631 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: actually cause a fire as opposed to prevent one. Now, 632 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,279 Speaker 1: one thing that would help with this development early on, 633 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,920 Speaker 1: before the development of multicolor LEDs anyway, was the development 634 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:16,520 Speaker 1: of dichroic filters. So these filters, they are lenses. Essentially, 635 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:21,080 Speaker 1: they look like glass lenses, but they have these layers 636 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:25,560 Speaker 1: inside them that ultimately allow certain wavelengths of light to 637 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,799 Speaker 1: pass through and reflect other wavelengths of light. And that 638 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,520 Speaker 1: means that you get different colors to come through depending 639 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,240 Speaker 1: upon the nature of the filter you're using. And these 640 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,720 Speaker 1: would not fade or melt like glass is far more 641 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,800 Speaker 1: resilient than polycarbonate is. So if you used a motorized 642 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,360 Speaker 1: system that could raise or lower these filters or combine 643 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: the filters, then you could actually change the color of 644 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,520 Speaker 1: lights using a single lamp. Like the lamp itself would be, 645 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:55,719 Speaker 1: you know, whatever the normal color would be. So let's 646 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: just say it's giving out white light. But you could 647 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,280 Speaker 1: have these filters that pop up or or retract down 648 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,200 Speaker 1: through a motorized system to go in front of the 649 00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:08,479 Speaker 1: light and then change the color of light. And that 650 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:11,439 Speaker 1: means that you could have a single light represent many 651 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: different colors and thus reduced the complexity and the weight 652 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,839 Speaker 1: of the system. Right, it doesn't You don't need all 653 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:21,479 Speaker 1: these dedicated lights for specific colors. Now. In addition to that, 654 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,680 Speaker 1: innovations and lamp size were helping a lot too. So 655 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,719 Speaker 1: there were like tungsten and halogen lights that led up 656 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,800 Speaker 1: to this, but then after that were much smaller lights 657 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,040 Speaker 1: discharge lights for example, that could still put out a 658 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:40,440 Speaker 1: pretty decent intensity of light, but they dramatically reduced the 659 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,520 Speaker 1: size that you needed. So the lamps themselves got much smaller, 660 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: and that would allow for more varied lighting effects as well, 661 00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 1: and that was good for the folks who are shredding 662 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: on the stage. I also, you know, if you've been 663 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,560 Speaker 1: listening to tech stuff for a long time, there is 664 00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,239 Speaker 1: a word that we used to use a lot more 665 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,120 Speaker 1: frequently on the show, but still plays a part in 666 00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:06,800 Speaker 1: later episodes, which is convergence. Right, this convergence of different 667 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,959 Speaker 1: factors that because of all those different factors, we would 668 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 1: get this new thing. So in this case, there were 669 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,040 Speaker 1: a lot of other advancements that were going on in 670 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,719 Speaker 1: technology that were converging that would help create the modern 671 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,840 Speaker 1: amazing stage lighting system. For one thing, the development of 672 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,000 Speaker 1: the transistor in the nineteen fifties led to solid state 673 00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:31,319 Speaker 1: electronics and integrated circuits. I cannot express how huge that 674 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:35,359 Speaker 1: is or really how small ironically, because it would lead 675 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 1: to miniaturization. Right, Suddenly, all this complex circuitry that used 676 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:43,840 Speaker 1: to require physical components connected to physical wires and you 677 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,440 Speaker 1: would just have like this mass of wires and cables 678 00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:50,320 Speaker 1: and stuff. Now you could have solid state electronics takeover 679 00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:54,520 Speaker 1: a lot of that and reduce the amount of space 680 00:38:54,640 --> 00:39:00,359 Speaker 1: needed dramatically, and that would be a huge help these 681 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,800 Speaker 1: lighting systems. It also meant that computer technology was advancing rapidly. 682 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:09,279 Speaker 1: Once we got to miniaturization, the brakes were off. That's 683 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,240 Speaker 1: when we start getting into things like Gordon Moore making 684 00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:15,359 Speaker 1: his observation that every two years or so you could 685 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,040 Speaker 1: double the number of components on a square inch of 686 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:21,960 Speaker 1: silicon chip, and thus effectively you could double your computer 687 00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:25,440 Speaker 1: processing every two years or so. That's where we get 688 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:29,560 Speaker 1: Moore's law. Well, that same thing meant that the introduction 689 00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:32,799 Speaker 1: of semiconductors and integrated circuits would open up huge new 690 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:37,759 Speaker 1: opportunities in computerized systems in general, and control systems for 691 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,520 Speaker 1: lights would be one of many ways we would see 692 00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,440 Speaker 1: that manifest Now, going back to Michael Mell, who I 693 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,719 Speaker 1: talked about earlier, he says that the first computer light 694 00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:53,800 Speaker 1: board for stagecraft on Broadway. So remember Broadway lagged behind 695 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:56,759 Speaker 1: the rest of the theatrical industry, but the first one 696 00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:01,000 Speaker 1: that was a computerized system for controlling light was for 697 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,279 Speaker 1: the debut production of A chorus Line, a musical that 698 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,960 Speaker 1: I personally despise but of course line, which debuted in 699 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:14,160 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. The system used was called an EDILS 700 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:18,319 Speaker 1: eight EDI in this case stands for Electronics Diversified. That 701 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:22,760 Speaker 1: was the company that made this, and it was created 702 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,920 Speaker 1: by a guy named Gordon Pearlman in North Carolina, and 703 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,080 Speaker 1: it consisted of a computer, a control board, and a 704 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:32,840 Speaker 1: terminal display and the whole thing was like the size 705 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,000 Speaker 1: of a desk. It had one hundred channels and Melsa's 706 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,160 Speaker 1: ninety six of them were used for a chorus line. 707 00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:41,239 Speaker 1: And it cost a cool one hundred thousand dollars back 708 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:43,800 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five. If we adjust that for inflation, 709 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,359 Speaker 1: it means that it would set you back about six 710 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:50,680 Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars today, So very expensive system for controlling 711 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:55,360 Speaker 1: your lights. The EDILS eight incorporated a different computer that 712 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,120 Speaker 1: was created by the Digital Equipment Company or dec Deck, 713 00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:03,040 Speaker 1: and it was the DP eight mini computer. So the 714 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: LS eight was a twelve bit system that probably sounds 715 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 1: odd to a lot of y'all out there, because often 716 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,399 Speaker 1: we talk about systems that are eight bit or sixteen bit, 717 00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 1: or a thirty two bit or sixty four bit, and 718 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,919 Speaker 1: you see how that pattern goes right eight eight times 719 00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,280 Speaker 1: to his sixteen sixteen times to his thirty two, thirty 720 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,360 Speaker 1: two times to his sixty four, et cetera. But this 721 00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:26,399 Speaker 1: was a twelve bit system and it was made back 722 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,360 Speaker 1: in the days before we gravitated toward the whole eight sixteen, 723 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:32,640 Speaker 1: thirty two, et cetera approach. It also had sixteen whole 724 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:37,360 Speaker 1: kilobytes of memory. That's very very little memory, being very 725 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,040 Speaker 1: facetious when I say sixteen whole kilobytes, but it was 726 00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:44,040 Speaker 1: sufficient to store the lighting cues for a show. And 727 00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:47,319 Speaker 1: the memory was also non volatile. That's important. It meant 728 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,120 Speaker 1: that when you turn the system off and then you 729 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,520 Speaker 1: turn it back on again, the preset cues that you 730 00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:56,640 Speaker 1: had stored in its memory would still be there. They 731 00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,400 Speaker 1: wouldn't be wiped clean. And that's good because apparently it 732 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,640 Speaker 1: took quite some time to get the system up and running. 733 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,000 Speaker 1: For programming, there was a thirty two instruction boot sequence 734 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,359 Speaker 1: for the system, and you would have to load the 735 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: operating system in. You couldn't. It didn't just automatically go 736 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,520 Speaker 1: into boot right. You had to feed the operating system 737 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:19,440 Speaker 1: into this this system, and that was on paper tape. 738 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,040 Speaker 1: So you would feed paper tape with the operating system 739 00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,440 Speaker 1: into this machine and then it would be ready to go. 740 00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,959 Speaker 1: And that whole process would take like half an hour. 741 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,040 Speaker 1: So if you think your boot up time is slow 742 00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:33,840 Speaker 1: at least you weren't using the EDILS eight, but the 743 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,920 Speaker 1: system could store all of the course line's lighting cues. 744 00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:40,480 Speaker 1: The actual operation of the show was not automatic, however, 745 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: It's not like the computer was watching and listening to 746 00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:45,640 Speaker 1: the show and then switching lighting at the right time. 747 00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,360 Speaker 1: So instead you would have a human operator who would 748 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,680 Speaker 1: mann the console and when appropriate, would initiate the next 749 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 1: lighting cue using cross faders and other actual manual controls, 750 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,920 Speaker 1: but all the information for those cues would be in 751 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,560 Speaker 1: the system. So essentially, the operator saying all right, I'm 752 00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:08,439 Speaker 1: going to Q number fifty six and the lights would 753 00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:11,359 Speaker 1: all come on for Q fifty six. All the lights 754 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,640 Speaker 1: that are not involved in Q fifty six would come down, 755 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: and the operator wouldn't have to manually adjust all these things. 756 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,520 Speaker 1: They would just go from Q to Q, which still 757 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:24,160 Speaker 1: is a big job. It's not I don't mean to 758 00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:26,320 Speaker 1: say that it was easy, but it was definitely easier 759 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: than manually controlling everything live every single night. So it's 760 00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,319 Speaker 1: still pretty cool that that came out as early as 761 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,719 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, even though again Broadway was lagging. So 762 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:40,560 Speaker 1: it was this convergence of technologies and trends in technology 763 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,279 Speaker 1: that would allow for the spectacle of moving lights and 764 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,759 Speaker 1: live shows. And with all that tech, you still had artistry, right, 765 00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,279 Speaker 1: You still had a designer would have to determine what 766 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:52,360 Speaker 1: lighting effects the show would need and for what purpose, 767 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,640 Speaker 1: and how to highlight things that were going on on stage. 768 00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:58,239 Speaker 1: They would have to work with engineers to achieve those 769 00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,480 Speaker 1: effects and then save the settings presets, and the system 770 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: would store these presets and then handle those transitions from 771 00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:08,239 Speaker 1: one set to the next. Allegedly it was during a 772 00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,480 Speaker 1: demonstration with a company called Vera Light, which came out 773 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,560 Speaker 1: of a company called Showco where you know, they specialized 774 00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,680 Speaker 1: in doing these lighting rigs for rock and roll shows. 775 00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,360 Speaker 1: And supposedly it was during a demonstration where it was 776 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,640 Speaker 1: purely by accident, where they showed a transition where all 777 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:27,200 Speaker 1: the lights were still on, because typically you would bring 778 00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:30,399 Speaker 1: the lights down, go to a transition where the lights 779 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,800 Speaker 1: would reposition, and then bring the lights back up again 780 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,400 Speaker 1: and so then you would get your new effect, but 781 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,640 Speaker 1: instead the lights were on the whole time when they positioned. 782 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,719 Speaker 1: You reposition from one set to the next, and that 783 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:45,440 Speaker 1: effect blew everyone away. They were like, oh my gosh, 784 00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:47,920 Speaker 1: all the lights are still on while they sweep across 785 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:50,919 Speaker 1: the stage in this dramatic fashion, and so reportedly something 786 00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,960 Speaker 1: that happened by accident would end up becoming like a 787 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:58,920 Speaker 1: best practice's mainstay for concerts moving forward, which is, you know, 788 00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:00,839 Speaker 1: when we get up to a like what I saw 789 00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,560 Speaker 1: over this past weekend, as various lights were sweeping across 790 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:07,879 Speaker 1: the band and the crowd. Now this show's growing long, 791 00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,960 Speaker 1: I got a ton of other things I could talk about, Like, obviously, 792 00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:13,680 Speaker 1: we could talk about the development of LEDs, because that 793 00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:18,400 Speaker 1: would make a huge difference in both size and color 794 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,680 Speaker 1: for stage lights. We could talk about mirror lights. Mirror 795 00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,640 Speaker 1: lights use a mirror to reflect light from a lamp 796 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 1: onto a stage. Big advantage of mirror lights is that 797 00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:32,400 Speaker 1: you don't have to move the whole lamp to redirect 798 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:34,279 Speaker 1: the light. You just have to move the mirror, so 799 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,040 Speaker 1: the mirror can be much smaller than the lamp is, 800 00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,400 Speaker 1: which also means you can move it faster, so you 801 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:43,280 Speaker 1: can get these really quick transitions where a light moves 802 00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:46,160 Speaker 1: from one queue to the next super fast, and it 803 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:49,040 Speaker 1: can be a really dramatic effect for the audience. Lots 804 00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,080 Speaker 1: of these things would play in but I probably would 805 00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:54,440 Speaker 1: need to do a second episode to really get into it. 806 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:58,800 Speaker 1: So rather than rattling on about lighting and lighting control 807 00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:03,000 Speaker 1: systems for another, you know, forty minutes, let's wrap this 808 00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:05,799 Speaker 1: one up. Maybe we'll revisit and start talking about some 809 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,320 Speaker 1: of these specific technologies in greater detail. But I'm worried 810 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:13,239 Speaker 1: about narrow casting beyond what I'm already doing, so we're 811 00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:16,000 Speaker 1: going to wrap this up. I hope you're all well. 812 00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,160 Speaker 1: If you have the opportunity to go and see a 813 00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,239 Speaker 1: rock and roll show, you should take it. Like you know, 814 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:25,560 Speaker 1: they're fun and seeing the technical display I think is 815 00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:28,760 Speaker 1: really fascinating. You know, even if you're not losing yourself 816 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,640 Speaker 1: in the moment with the music and the crowd and everything. 817 00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:35,800 Speaker 1: The technical aspects are really phenomenal at shows these days, 818 00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:37,800 Speaker 1: at least if you're going to one that's like a 819 00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:41,960 Speaker 1: medium or larger sized venue, check them out. It's really 820 00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:46,560 Speaker 1: interesting way to see how technology can marry with artistry 821 00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:50,200 Speaker 1: to create effects. I think that that's just a fascinating thing. 822 00:46:50,640 --> 00:47:00,960 Speaker 1: And I will talk to you again really soon. Tech 823 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:05,440 Speaker 1: Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 824 00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,479 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 825 00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,