Briefingroom on LiveDesignOnline: Author, educator, and industry veteran John Huntington has released Show Networks and Control Systems, the completely updated and revised edition of his industry standard reference text, which was previously titled, Control Systems for Live Entertainment. The book includes an in-depth examination of the control and networking technology used in lighting, lasers, sound, stage machinery, animatronics, special effects, and pyrotechnics used in concerts, theme parks, theatre, themed retail, cruise ships, museums, interactive performing arts, and special events.
4 comments:
when I first joined the theater world I did not think to pick up books on how to actually execute tasks on a production. But as time went on I collected books on design, rendering, construction, and technology and I realized how useful these are to refer back to. There are always useful facts one can learn.
It is really great when editions are consistently being updated because in the theater world new technology is constantly being released. As technicians it is important to know what shows are using and what equipment is available to designers and TDs.
This looks like a really interesting read - it's exactly what I am interested in learning about. I like the section in the article that highlights the fact that this book focuses on the methodology and standards involved in control networks as opposed to strictly discussing technology, which becomes outdated rather quickly. I also enjoyed seeing that David Boevers has a review of the book published in the article. Nice.
Great to see that John's updated edition has been published! We used his previous edition, "Control Systems for Live Entertainment", as the basis for our seminar in Show Control last year. I really appreciate, and look forward to reading, the new content organized around networking concepts - in the old version, it was almost like reading two separate books: an overview of each theatrical element and how it is controlled, and then a reference book for different networking protocols. I'm hoping in this new edition for more conceptual discussion of system design, with sufficient vocabulary to actually communicate intelligently with each department/control system, but really looking at which protocols would be most efficient to use to link and control the various elements.
I would recommend that anyone even relatively tech-minded or in any design field read this book and try out some show control projects. You'll be amazed by the extent of control that you can have over many different elements through networking protocol, and how synchronicity is your best friend. But most of all, you get to find out how to make the job of the stage manager obsolete! Who wouldn't want that opportunity to invalidate four years of higher education of one of your compatriots with the push of a few buttons?
(SM's, get savvy. The robots are coming for your jobs.)
This is a tough book to write. This technology is changing so fast. I took Show Control last year it and we used the edition of this book. As the teacher went a long, he often said of the book, “Yes, but that has changed, John is going to update that in his next book.” Good to see that he finally has. It was a good general resource. It was nice that I had a back ground in many of these systems. If a person was starting from scratch this is a LOT of information to walk through. All of this control will soon be done on Ethernet cable in 10 years anyway.
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