I read this article...

[Johan Söderberg]

I read this article some time ago and thought maybe its something for this forum.

http://www.onstagelighting.co.uk/lighti ... g-control/

I agree to most of it, just not so much in the sci-fi part. Touchscreens are sci-fi enough for me I guess.

Its true that the development of Lighting consoles is a pretty conservative business and that a more graphical approach ought to be technically possible.

The LX-Series offers a good base for further development in that direction.
Using LX-series we can already point to a fixture in the plot and instantly have it marked and ready to be lit up in LX-console on the same screen.
The connection could be stronger of course. Now its two different apps communicating over a third (applescript)
But I think it's a start in the direction suggested by Paul in the article above.

Also support for Midi and OSC is in place which opens for the ability to make custom designed remote controls and connect to or from a whole lot of other apps out there.
But to me "simultaneity" is of greater importance than the mentioned "Convergence".

A modern lightdesk needs to be able to do many things at the same time.

Light designing is moving more and more away from the linearity in thinking that we comfortably have resigned to using that darn GO-button.
We had a decent level of flexibility further back in time when several techies jumped around backstage operating manual resistor faders.
Back then we had easily commanded musical intelligence and flexibility at channel level.

We need to find our way back to that without the need of 256 two-handed operators.
The era of running cue after cue, one replacing the other, isn't over yet.
It will always be sufficient for most occasions and events.
But some of us will also have to keep on stretching the boundaries toward the very old goal first formulated by Adolphe Appia: The poetry of space itself.

Our consoles need to be able to run several simple chase effects at different paces, whith or without input of bpm-info and musical signals, move around a bunch of moving lights individually and in various speeds all while we more or less independently of this also run a crossfade sequence and send/receive remote control signals to and from other apps.
I guess this will require some processing power for what I've learned at this forum is called "DMX-engines"

There is also a big growth going on in the graphical database: - We have lots of different fixtures at our hands and the library is growing fast.
A modern light console needs to either subscribe to a library online or have a very simple symbol editor allowing the user to quick and easy setup new devices at need.

The big challenge will be to make this growing complexity usable in a simple and easy to use graphical interface.

The app for this that's the most user-friendly will be the winner.

Or what do you think out there?

Greetings J.S.

[zebetz]

Now why don't posts like this get replies?

This different way of thinking about lighting control will open the door to a whole new world of performative lighting - lighting that is not so much a structure within which the performance sits, a pre-defined, dead, skeletal thing, as a living part of the performance. Another collaborative element that reacts and contributes to what's happening on stage, shaping the environment of the performance and the experience of the audience as a living part of the mise en scène.

And, after all, they are only just zeroes and ones right? We (speaking in the generic we, of course - coding on the level required to create, for example, LXCONSOLE is totally beyond me personally) can make them do whatever we want. Ultimately it's just 255 shades of DMX grey being spit down 512 little digital pathways - how we arrive at those values is (again, for real programmers) totally fluid.