Theatre Design & Technology - May 1965 - 20

the buyer to expensive remodeling and the user
to years of inconvenience and poor lighting.
Many existing systems limit the designer in the
fulfillment of desired effects and make other
effects impossible. There is a heavy obligation
on the person specifying a control system to
provide equipment which makes possible lighting
of maximum affective power. In the absence of a
clear belief in what light can and should contribute to production, system designers and buyers
alike have for the most part felt safest when
foljowing previous systems with only minor modifications. Major innovations have been resisted
if not ridiculed and, although there are many
rumors about the mechanical reliability of particu lar manufacturers' products,obj ecti ve eval uation s
of the usefulness and convenience of systems in
performance are a Imost never c ircu Iated.
The manufacturers themselves have been forced
by economic limitations to proceed slowly. The
greatest demand for lighting control systems in
this country has not been for large flexible installations but for low-cost systems in grade and
high schools. Most of these systems have been
built by "scenic studios" and school supply
firms working against a quoted low price and
have resulted in virtually no innovations or improvements. What commerc ial deve lopment there
has been is primari Iy the result of work by the
firms specializing in lighting equipment for the
stage. In a very real sense, these relatively few
companies {and their clients} have borne the
deve lopment costs for the many com pan ies who
have built boards without contributing advances
in system design.
Because the major lighting companies produce
relatively few control systems each year, they
have not had the funds to engage in extensive
research programs. The money which has been
available has understandably gone into the development of saleable hardware rather than into investigations of what a control system could be
and what it could do for an operator or lighting
designer. Any research program which attempts
a theoretical or philosophical basis for control
system design will meet with the practical objection that the companies cannot afford it.
The information vacuum indicated by the conditions I have enumerated leads inevitably to the
repetition of past designs rather than to broad
experimentation. To help fill this vacuum, the
Theatre Engineering Subcommittee of USITT and
the Technical Developments Project of AETA
have embarked on a "paper symposium" on the
future of lighting control systems. This symposium is to draw on the minds of those who do
have the necessary background knowledge both
in dramatic production and system engineering to
discuss present control systems and to project
the possible needs of lighting designers of the
future. In these discussions, we are not interested in the construction of currently avai lable

equipment except as it provides a springboard
for advances in lighting equipment. We are not
concerned with the type of dimmer 1 or even with
particular characteristics of the dimmer except
as they affect the operation of the lighting during performance. None of the assumptions on
which the design of contemporary equipment is
based wi II be accepted without carefu Ire-eva luation. Preset controls, about which there has
been considerable controversy, and master contr ols are not to be treated as inherently useful
devices which can safely be proliferated without
limit. Our attempt will be to find guides to the
number and distribution of controls which can
profitably be included in a lighting control system. We will consider some of the aspects which
in the development from power distribution
equipment have been forgotten or at best only
half remembered in the design of lighting control
systems. Hopefu lIy we wi II borrow from the experience of the builders of data processing
machines, si"nce a lighting control system may be
thought of as a machine for handling and rehandling data. And we must explore the capabilities of the human operator. Inevitably some
of our speculations will take on a science fiction
quality far removed from the limitations of present technology and the ability of theatre managements to pay for the equipment. It is only by
temporari Iy freeing ourselves from the limits of
today that we can project the goal toward which
we should strive in the system designs of tomorrow. The control systems of the immediate
future will continue to be the result of compromise, but it is our wish for the symposium that
it will provide a clearer picture of the ideal so
that our imperfect systems may be conscious
steps toward the time when equipment no longer
keeps earthbound the soaring imagination of the
lighting designer.
It wi II be helpful to divide our discussion into
five broad subject matter areas: 1. the concept
of dramatic production and the role which lighting control plays in production; 2. the practical
requirements of production; 3. human capabilities and limitations; 4. machine capabi lities
and limitations; and 5. the reliability with which
the control system must operate. The function of
the essay to follow is to raise questions concerning these five areas. Inevitably, the point of view
of the writer will be seen in the presentation.
Hopefully this will not stifle discussion and may
even provoke useful thought and articulate rebutta I.
1. We need to make a clear distinction between control systems and dimmers. In the evolution of control systems
from power distribution panels, the dimmers coupled with
on·off 5wi tches were the only control means avai lable.

With the advent of 'emotely controlled dimmers come the
reoti zatian

that the control

separate ports of the total

system and the dimmer ore

control machine. Different

control systems con be devised for a particular type of
dimmer and conversely different dimmers may be used
with the same control system; a singly potentiometer may
control several dimmers and several controls con be made
to operate the same dimmer either sequentially ar simul·
taneously.

I OSITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND ITCHNOlOOY

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