Mister Brister Says...

For those who don't know already, I am an Automation Technician for the Las Vegas show "The Beatles LOVE" by Cirque du Soleil.  Over the past couple of months, I've been giving a lot of backstage tours to various visitors to our stage.  In doing this, I've discovered that many people (sometimes even those in my industry) have very little or no awareness of what Theatrical Automation is.  In short, I'm often answering the question...

"What the hell is automation anyway?"

I thought it would be fun to write out a little bit about what it is I do for the benefit of my friends and family who might be interested in a little behind the scenes peek.  Let me start by saying that I got permission from my Manager to write this and he edited it before I posted it here.

Automation is the remote control of moving scenic elements and performers including stage lifts, scenery, flying rigs, and sometimes animatronics.  It is very closely related to industrial automation (lifts, elevators, factory robots, conveyors, and cranes) and uses a lot of the same equipment.  In addition to automation, I also work in a discipline called Show Control (but not at LOVE).  Although they are often confused or combined together in some venues, Show Control is very different from Automation though it does have some technology in common.  Show Control is a centralized method for controlling other systems (lighting, audio, video, special effects, and even automation).  I'll talk about that in another posting though.

Automation is relatively new in the entertainment industry and is probably the least standardized discipline currently.  By that, I mean that the methods and equipment are VERY different from venue to venue.  That is starting to change as it is used more often and more manufacturers are dedicated to building it.  Now, it is true that lifts, moving scenery and flying systems have been around as long as the theater itself but as a discipline, Automation hasn't really existed as it's own entity for very long and most of these devices were manually operated with ropes or simple motors.  In modern Automation systems, these devices are now usually controlled by computers playing back pre-programmed sequences of moves using sensors for real time feedback and safety monitoring.  The precision and repeatability of the movements are significantly improved, which makes a better, safer show and allows designers to create much more complex show elements.

But just because these systems are automated by computers doesn't mean that the human element is out of the picture.  In fact, it takes crews of specialized Technicians to operate and maintain these systems.

At "The Beatles LOVE", I am part of a crew of 12 Automation Technician's responsible for the maintenance and nightly show operation of 122 automation elements including 20 moving stage parts (12 vertical lifts, 4 over-sized trap doors, 2 horizontal moving stage floor parts, and 2 "pop up book"-style set pieces), 13 trolleys suspended on 9 ceiling tracks (7 trolleys can also rotate and 4 can travel as fast as 10' per second), 6 large format moving video screens (4 can change shape and retract into the ceiling), 43 cable winches (32 ride on the trolleys with 2 or 4 to each trolley), and 12 scrims (huge sheer curtains that we project video on).  The bulk of the show's automation is made up by the lifts and trolleys.  The lifts create the entire surface of the stage and allow us to change it's shape, add multiple levels, or create different sized openings in it.  The trolleys, which behave similarly to small gantry cranes, are used to suspend almost all of the flying people and set pieces in the show.

Our crew of 12 is broken up into 4 different jobs and many of us are capable of more than one of these jobs: 2 Managers, 5 Maintenance (they work early in the day), 3 Console Operators (that's what I do), and 2 Rovers (these guys do troubleshooting and maintenance during the nightly performances as needed).

All of our computer equipment as well as the winches and trolleys were built by a company called Stage Technologies.  This company built the theatrical automation for many of the other Cirque du Soleil shows including KA, Zumanity, Wintuk, Believe, Zaia, and some of the new shows opening in the next couple of years.  They've also created systems for several cruise ships including for the Disney Cruise Line.  There are a few other companies that also build this kind of equipment including Fisher Technical (Le Reve, Zed, Phantom of the Opera), Hudson (Finding Nemo at Walt Disney World), and Scenic Technologies (several shows on Broadway).

Every show and equipment brand is different but here are some basics about my show, much of which is similar in other shows.

For two shows each night, I sit behind one of 3 consoles (a customized computer called a Nomad) and play back my part of 289 cues per show.  If you include all the cues before and after both shows too, we play back 646 cues a night (and that doesn't include the hour or two of rehearsals each afternoon).  If the show cues were evenly spaced, we would be playing a cue about every 20 seconds for the entire 90 minute show.  This makes LOVE the busiest show for Automation of all the North American Cirque du Soleil shows.  To keep this organized and consistent, the three consoles are divided up by specific responsibilities:

Board 1 - Runs most of the aerial automation that the audience can see.  This includes people, set pieces, and props.
Board 2 - Runs all of the moving stage parts (mostly lift cues), the 6 video screens, and some aerial work in one scene.
Board 3 - Runs all of the loading and unloading (called set and strike) of people and set pieces on the trolleys behind the scenes.

Each Board Operator can run up to 5 pre-programmed cues simultaneously and will have control of as many as 34 of the 122 moving elements (called an axis) at a time.  The cues are all numbered and each one is told when to start by either a Stage Manager calling a "go" or by another Technician calling a "clear".  We listen for these calls by headset on any of the 6 channels of communication we monitor simultaneously.  In the event of a last minute change or if something goes wrong, we manually take control of the needed axes.  Having the ability to run 5 different cues at once gives us the flexibility to run manual movements where the trouble is while still letting the rest of the show cues continue.  

There are many safety systems that are running automatically as we work including a lot of sensors, emergency stop buttons all over the theater, and some anti-collision software (called interlocks).  The sensors automatically stop equipment for a variety of reasons including a lack of cable tension, cables being tangled or caught, too much weight on a line, improper movement from a winch, or something getting in the way of a pinch point on a lift (called a safe edge or astragal).  Emergency stop buttons called E-stops for short, allow anyone in the building to stop equipment if they see a problem.  This is also commonly used in industrial automation and theme park ride systems.  At LOVE, interlocks keep trolleys that share a track from bumping each other.  Some of the other shows have more interlocks to keep moving stage parts from hitting each other.  LOVE has very few interlocks because the trolleys are used differently in nearly every scene.  What would be a collision in one scene is not in the next.  That is where the human operators come into play.  We watch carefully to ensure that everything moves where and when it is supposed to.  For safety sake, operation of this equipment always requires 2 or more actions to make it move but only 1 to make it stop.

Running the show comes with a lot of responsibility.  I like to use the analogy that we are each remotely driving 5 cars at the same time but all we can see are the dashboard displays and the GPS.  There are cameras but many of the movements we control are outside of our vision.  We rely heavily on Stage Managers and other Technicians around the theater to tell us when something is clear to move.  This is important because so much of what we control is very large, very fast, and usually has people attached to it or standing on it.  Most of our cable winches have a top speed of 10 feet per second and one of them actually reaches 20 feet per second.  Despite the speeds, the equipment is very accurate.  A movement will hit the target position consistently with 1/1000th of a foot accuracy.

All of these computers and machinery and Technicians are there to create a unique and dynamic environment for a one-of-kind performance (that has to be repeated consistently 10 times a week).  Thanks to this technology, the stage is a performer too and those of us behind the scenes work to keep it's choreography safe and spectacular 5 nights a week.

I hope you enjoyed this little backstage peek.  For more information about LOVE and it's technical elements, see these links:

On Las Vegas Stages, Daring Feats of Engineering Steal the Show
Love is All You Need - Live Design