Show Cue System

Dear SCS Team,

we started using SCS for our theatre productions this year, and we absolutely love it - very flexible, very reliable, and yet simple to use. We currently use it for audio playback and OSC control (X32, ETC colorsource). I´m still in the process of learning all the capabilities, so if this is something I´ve missed in the documentation, please forgive me...

Before show start, during intermission, and after show end, we are typically running a playlist cue with background music. At frequent intervals, this is interrupted by recorded announcements. Currently, for each announcement, we have a cue with 3 sub-cues: level change (playlist -x dB), audio file (the announcement), level change (playlist +x db). This works as expected. The only downside is that if we need to change e.g. the levels or fade times, we need to do this for 2 subcues for each announcement, which sometimes leads to errors/inconsistencies.

So my thought was: If SCS would allow to pass the audio file name as a parameter to the audio file subcue, I could set this up as a callable cue containing the 3 subcues, passing along the required audio file. Any changes in times, levels etc. could then be made at a single point.

Is this something that would be possible in a future release? Or is there some other way to achieve this that I missed?

Thank you very much in advance,
brgds - Didi

Didi wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:13 pm

...we have a cue with 3 sub-cues: level change (playlist -x dB), audio file (the announcement), level change (playlist +x db).

What you can do is create a Level Change callable cue to lower the playlist level -x dB, and another Level Change callable cue to raise the playlist level +x dB. Then for each announcement, use Call Cue sub-cues to lower and raise the levels. So if you need to change the level adjustments or fade times, you only need to do this to the two Level Change callable cues.

Does that make sense? I can provide an example from a test cue file if you wish.

Hi Mike,

thanks for your reply. Of course - that totally makes sense. We would still have 3 subcues per announcement, but it would solve the centralized settings for levels and times.

From a show programming point of view, it would of course save some typing if we could do it with one callable cue containing all 3 subcues - so it would still be awsome to see this feature sometime in the future

Actually, thinking about parameters, there would be a 2nd request - a callable control send subcue with variable substitution in the message string; this would allow setting up commands (e.g. a cue call for a light desk) and reuse it without retyping the basic command string again and again. But I guess I should start a separate topic for that?

Thanks again,
and brgds - Didi