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A forgiving show

The problem

It's 4 am. The operator has been on their feet for seven hours, it's loud and dark, there's a drink next to the fader wing, and they may not be entirely sober. Or a friend takes over for an hour and has never seen your layout. The show still has to look good, and nothing should be able to break it.

Most show failures at that hour aren't creative. They're mechanical:

  • a stray value left in the programmer that overrides everything
  • the wrong page, so the hit buttons now start something else
  • a strobe toggled on and forgotten
  • an accidental Store, Delete or Kill
  • a colour combination that looks like a mistake
  • no idea how to get back to "normal"

A show can be designed so that a tired, distracted or impaired operator still gets good results. Professionals do the same for exhausted crews and guest operators. Smart people make mistakes when their judgement is off, so the show shouldn't depend on judgement at the critical moments.

Practice

This page is working practice. The protection features (user rights, Lock, protect options, momentary key functions) are documented in the manual and linked under Sources.

Principle 1: every choice is a good choice

Limit choices to ones that work:

  • Colour looks instead of free picking: a dozen tested combinations on buttons, no colour picker during the show (see Colour concepts for busking).
  • Layers that can't collide: colour buttons only change colour, position buttons only position (playback filters), so any combination of buttons is valid (see What goes on an executor).
  • Fade times on looks: a slightly late or sloppy press still looks intentional when the change fades over half a second.
  • Everything rhythmic on one speed master: one tap tempo fixes it all.

Principle 2: nothing dangerous stays on by accident

  • Hits are momentary: full-white and strobe hits on Flash (or Swop), not on Toggle. Let go and they stop.
  • Limits for the extremes: a group master as a hard ceiling for a fixture type that should never reach full in this room. It limits that type's hits too, which is the point here (see Busking intensity), and keep strobe rates reasonable for the audience.
  • Protect what must survive: Kill Protect and Swop Protect on haze, key light and the atmosphere base, so a Kill or Swop never leaves the room dark.

Principle 3: the show can't be broken

grandMA2 has proper tools for this:

  • A show user with limited rights. Create a user (Setup → User & Profiles Setup) with the rights level Playback (can run the show, cannot store anything) or None (no programmer at all, only executors and views). Log in as that user for the late hours or for guest operators. Assigning a world to their user profile also limits which fixtures and attributes they can reach.
  • Lock important objects: a locked cue, sequence, executor or preset can't be changed or deleted (Lock Executor 1.1, Lock Sequence 3 …).
  • Desk lock (via the MA key) when you walk away from the console.
  • Save before the show, with a note. Every save keeps the previous ten versions, and Oops undoes recent actions.

Principle 4: one button home

Build a "home" macro on a fixed, clearly labelled key that brings the show back to a known good state, for example:

  • clear the programmer completely (ClearAll)
  • go to the main page
  • turn off hits, specials and effects that shouldn't be running
  • start the default atmosphere and colour look
  • reset the speed master

When in doubt: press home, then continue. The same idea works as a safe look: a protected executor with a pleasant, neutral state that can always be brought up.

To verify in onPC: check 7

Principle 5: the layout explains itself

  • The same layout on every page; fixed controls (hits, home, atmosphere master, speed) always in the same place.
  • Names and colours on executors and pool objects, readable in the dark.
  • Few pages. The fewer page changes the show needs, the fewer chances to be on the wrong one.
  • No programming surface during the show: the show view has executors, colour looks and the masters, and no fixture sheet or preset pools to touch by accident.
  • A one-page cheat sheet for guest operators: what each area does, where home is, what not to touch.

Principle 6: the operator isn't the only safety

Some things shouldn't depend on the person at the desk at 4 am at all. Anything safety-critical (pyro, moving scenery, haze limits for the venue) belongs with someone who is fit to handle it, and ideally off the busking surface entirely.

When it matters, and when not

  • Long nights, shared operating, guest operators: all of it. A show user with Playback rights and a home macro are the two biggest wins.
  • Short gigs you operate yourself: principles 1 and 2 still make the show calmer to play.

Sources

Mostly working practice. Manual facts used: