Show Control for Everyone
Introduction to Show Control: Connecting Entertainment Control Systems for Live Shows
Reviewed by Richard Cadena
As a tech, you are only as good as the tools you have and use. A carpenter wouldn’t dare show up to work without a hammer and a saw, and a master woodworker might also bring a moisture meter, a sliding bevel, a layout square, and a lot more. If you’re interconnecting and synchronizing control systems, whether it’s for audio, video, lighting, lasers, automation, or special effects in live events, one of the most important sets of tools you can have is John Huntington’s books, including his newest, Introduction to Show Control: Connecting Entertainment Control Systems for Live Shows.
This book is the companion to another of his books, Introduction to Show Networking. Both were spinoffs of Show Networks and Control Systems, which began life as Control Systems for Live Entertainment in 1994. Huntington first wrote it after realizing that there were no tools (a.k.a. books) on the topic. It was a comprehensive piece of work, covering everything related to entertainment control systems, including audio, lighting, video, pyrotechnics, animatronics, and more. As control systems evolved, so did the book, which kept getting thicker with each revision. Eventually, he decided it should be deconstructed and reconstructed in two different versions.
Spinning off separate volumes was a smart move, resulting in a more focused set of books with more information specific to each topic.
If you’ve ever wondered how SMPTE time code works or the difference between MIDI show control and MIDI, this book has all the answers and more. In only 79 pages, it covers everything about show control from the basics, like cues, triggers, synchronization, and more, to system architecture and design principles.
The book starts off on a basic level, defining show control and networking while examining its components and defining related terms. It covers cues, show types, triggers and synchronization, the architecture of show control systems, and how it relates to different departments such as lighting, audio, video, etc. He explains the difference between linear shows and non-linear shows, the difference between time-based and event-based triggers, and the difference between open-loop and closedloop systems. That’s just in the first chapter.
Chapter 2 covers several protocols beginning with ASCII and progressing through Open Sound Control (OSC), Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), MIDI Show Control (MSC), time code, DMX512, Remote Device Management (RDM), contact closures, and various other miscellaneous protocols like MQTT and positional tracking. Chapter 3 goes into the design process, and it presents a logical approach with an emphasis on safety. It also addresses very important topics within the scope of designing a show, including redundancy, reliability, security, backing up your data, documentation, scalability, and more subjective concepts like elegance and simplicity in design.
The final chapter gives detailed examples of typical systems using show control, starting with a very simple synchronization project involving lighting, audio, and video. He then steps it up by adding complexity one piece at a time. Each subsequent example involves more and more complex scenarios until the final example, which, in addition to lighting, audio, and video, involves special effects and audience participation via a phone-based voting system. The resulting script is long and involved, and, as in all the examples, the author describes the mission, safety considerations, type of show and its triggers, system architecture, and interfaces, and, finally, offers up a script. In his conclusion, he offers a survey of show technology and talks about how it has removed obstacles and cleared the way for creatives to focus more on telling a story. And that’s what good tools do.
Huntington approaches all these topics from a unique perspective, both as a practitioner and a teacher/author. His voice is somewhere between that of a roadie and a scholar, and the information in his books strikes a good balance between the two. He has years of practical experience, in venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the more controlled environment of academia as a (now recently retired) professor of entertainment technology for more than 24 years at New York City College of Technology (a.k.a.
Citytech), part of City University of New York (CUNY).
For many of those years, Huntington was heavily involved in an annual project at the school called Gravesend Inn, a haunted house attraction with lots of automation and show-controlled elements. It seems like it was the perfect playground/laboratory for his work. He meticulously maintained a blog about it as well as many of his other hobbies and interests, which include photography and storm chasing.
His blog is both very interesting and very informative, and, unlike so many out there, he’s very consistent about posting to it. It’s a real treasure trove of information. He has also been known to post his lectures online, and he offers workshops on show networking and show control.
His website (www.controlgeek.net) is a great resource for the industry. Now that he’s retired from teaching at CUNY, I expect that he will devote even more time and resources to writing about what he knows best, which is control systems.
I highly recommend his books for both beginners and experienced professionals.
There is a lot to be learned in either case, and the technology is changing rapidly. Huntington’s expertise is on tap for anyone to access for a mere $25 for the paperback version or $15 for the Ebook on Google Play.
These are great tools for show technology craftspeople.
As a tech, you are only as good as the tools you have and use. A carpenter wouldn’t dare show up to work without a hammer and a saw, and a master woodworker might also bring a moisture meter, a sliding bevel, a layout square, and a lot more. If you’re interconnecting and synchronizing control systems, whether it’s for audio, video, lighting, lasers, automation, or special effects in live events, one of the most important sets of tools you can have is John Huntington’s books, including his newest, Introduction to Show Control: Connecting Entertainment Control Systems for Live Shows.
This book is the companion to another of his books, Introduction to Show Networking. Both were spinoffs of Show Networks and Control Systems, which began life as Control Systems for Live Entertainment in 1994. Huntington first wrote it after realizing that there were no tools (a.k.a. books) on the topic. It was a comprehensive piece of work, covering everything related to entertainment control systems, including audio, lighting, video, pyrotechnics, animatronics, and more. As control systems evolved, so did the book, which kept getting thicker with each revision. Eventually, he decided it should be deconstructed and reconstructed in two different versions.
Spinning off separate volumes was a smart move, resulting in a more focused set of books with more information specific to each topic.
If you’ve ever wondered how SMPTE time code works or the difference between MIDI show control and MIDI, this book has all the answers and more. In only 79 pages, it covers everything about show control from the basics, like cues, triggers, synchronization, and more, to system architecture and design principles.
The book starts off on a basic level, defining show control and networking while examining its components and defining related terms. It covers cues, show types, triggers and synchronization, the architecture of show control systems, and how it relates to different departments such as lighting, audio, video, etc. He explains the difference between linear shows and non-linear shows, the difference between time-based and event-based triggers, and the difference between open-loop and closedloop systems. That’s just in the first chapter.
Chapter 2 covers several protocols beginning with ASCII and progressing through Open Sound Control (OSC), Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), MIDI Show Control (MSC), time code, DMX512, Remote Device Management (RDM), contact closures, and various other miscellaneous protocols like MQTT and positional tracking. Chapter 3 goes into the design process, and it presents a logical approach with an emphasis on safety. It also addresses very important topics within the scope of designing a show, including redundancy, reliability, security, backing up your data, documentation, scalability, and more subjective concepts like elegance and simplicity in design.
The final chapter gives detailed examples of typical systems using show control, starting with a very simple synchronization project involving lighting, audio, and video. He then steps it up by adding complexity one piece at a time. Each subsequent example involves more and more complex scenarios until the final example, which, in addition to lighting, audio, and video, involves special effects and audience participation via a phone-based voting system. The resulting script is long and involved, and, as in all the examples, the author describes the mission, safety considerations, type of show and its triggers, system architecture, and interfaces, and, finally, offers up a script. In his conclusion, he offers a survey of show technology and talks about how it has removed obstacles and cleared the way for creatives to focus more on telling a story. And that’s what good tools do.
Huntington approaches all these topics from a unique perspective, both as a practitioner and a teacher/author. His voice is somewhere between that of a roadie and a scholar, and the information in his books strikes a good balance between the two. He has years of practical experience, in venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the more controlled environment of academia as a (now recently retired) professor of entertainment technology for more than 24 years at New York City College of Technology (a.k.a.
Citytech), part of City University of New York (CUNY).
For many of those years, Huntington was heavily involved in an annual project at the school called Gravesend Inn, a haunted house attraction with lots of automation and show-controlled elements. It seems like it was the perfect playground/laboratory for his work. He meticulously maintained a blog about it as well as many of his other hobbies and interests, which include photography and storm chasing.
His blog is both very interesting and very informative, and, unlike so many out there, he’s very consistent about posting to it. It’s a real treasure trove of information. He has also been known to post his lectures online, and he offers workshops on show networking and show control.
His website (www.controlgeek.net) is a great resource for the industry. Now that he’s retired from teaching at CUNY, I expect that he will devote even more time and resources to writing about what he knows best, which is control systems.
I highly recommend his books for both beginners and experienced professionals.
There is a lot to be learned in either case, and the technology is changing rapidly. Huntington’s expertise is on tap for anyone to access for a mere $25 for the paperback version or $15 for the Ebook on Google Play.
These are great tools for show technology craftspeople.