Show Cue System

I have a couple of instances where I have tracks that will sometimes play through and sometimes require me to end it sooner with a SFR cue (depending on the actors delivery speed usually!).

It would appear that, at the moment, if a cue finishes naturally you have the 'orphaned' SFR cue which needs to be actioned before continuing down the cue stack. Hitting the space bar twice is no big issue, (although you need to know to do that) but I wondered if it would be possible to remove or rather skip the 'orphaned' cue if the cue it relates to has a status of 'Completed'?

If this is possible, it might be an idea to apply this processing to any cue type (not just SFR), which actions a previous cue.

Cheers


Graham

I think this is a very good idea.

Many times a new operator wont actually pay attention to what cue is in standby and just hit spacebar only to find that it was a stop cue and then panic and hit spacebar again only a couple times causing chaos and then a panic stop.

Automatically bypassing cues that would actually do nothing would be very helpful.

Eric

Hi
I have also had this happen and would find it a useful addition.

Jon Wiles

The reason this hasn't currently been implemented is to avoid what could be a worse scenario of starting the next cue too soon. For example, suppose you have a cue that has a length of 30 seconds but you have an SFR cue because you may want to stop the cue early due to an event on stage, such as the entrance of the actor playing a particular character. If the timing of this actor's entrance happens to occur very close to the natural end of the cue, eg at 29.8 seconds, then hitting spacebar (or whatever) to activate the SFR cue is OK. But you need to be very careful because if the cue had actually just finished, eg the actor entered 30.1 seconds after the cue started, then if SCS had automatically skipped the SFR cue then hitting spacebar would start the following cue.

For this reason I have adopted the approach that by retaining the SFR cue you always progress thru the cues the same way, eg you always activate the audio file cue, and then you always activate the SFR cue even if the audio file cue has already ended.

To more safely implement auto-skipping I suggest that if the audio file cue ends then the automatic skipping of an associated SFR should be delayed by a few seconds. This would be user-definable time and be an option. The default action would be the existing standard of no auto-skipping. Any comments?

Mike, you are quite right, in that for some users, in certain circumstances, it could cause the operator to trigger a cue too early.

Mike Daniell wrote:To more safely implement auto-skipping I suggest that if the audio file cue ends then the automatic skipping of an associated SFR should be delayed by a few seconds. This would be user-definable time and be an option. The default action would be the existing standard of no auto-skipping. Any comments?

I had presumed that if this feature was to be added, it would be an option anyway, as we all seem to use SCS in different and weird and wonderful ways and what works for me may not work for others!

Personally I would still like to be able to enter a time of zero seconds (or perhaps .5), but I am more than happy to see what the consensus is.

As mentioned in the original post, I do think it should apply to other types of cue that affect a completed cue (not just SFR) but perhaps also Level Change for example.



Graham

I definitely agree that if the feature is added it should be optional. In the typical usage I see the operator is following along in a script with cues marked. I would expect hitting go to execute every cue and it would be confusing hitting GO once for every cue in the script sometimes got out of sync depending on timing.

If the operator is watching the computer screen it should be pretty obvious whether the next cue is a sound or an SFR.

If the operator is mostly watching the script instead of the computer screen there could definitely be trouble if SCS skipped a cue and the operator didn't realize it.

Mike, I agree this would be a good feature and should be optional with a time set. The show I just finshed I had SFR's orphaned after the cue finished on it's own. Once or twice I forgot to clear the SFR and then scrambled. Being able to set a time of 1 or 2 seconds to auto release an orphaned SFR would be great.

I know no one is talking about this feature for awhile but I was bored and wanted to suggest something. Why not program your SFR in to a Hot Key, I know now the operator need to know how to push another button but lets get real he need to know what his is doing anyway. Now with a Hot key SFR it will not affect any que that is not running, so if the track ends on its own it will not cause any problems. If the show is being called by a stage manager, he can call the Hot Key "A" command on the headset, or on the que sheet, operator can hit the Hot Key as his next instruction. You can skip the Hot key if you don't need it. One thing I have done is to have one hot key to fade all Playlist, Pre-show, intermission post show. It only affects the Que that is actually running. So your Hot key concept can be that it stops what ever you want. Use it in level changes too.

A little piece of glow tape can help out.

The hot key sounds like a good way to avoid misfiring incidents wrt orphaned cues ...

Another idea is to have orphaned cues blink noticably (like the rude solo light on the Mackie boards so the operator is aware that the cue is orphaned, and can then make the conscious decision as to when to dismiss it by firing.

In a similar manner, cues that are paused and stay on the playing cue panel maybe should start blinking as well after a few seconds, so the operator is aware that they are still there and can close them down properly.

I like this idea of the hot key SFR. My one worry would be the possibility of ending all the cues since hotkeys are normally placed at the end of the cue list. I haven't played around with it yet... might be something to try out the next time I have a few moments.

I really like John's idea of the rude abandoned cue flashing. It could definitely save some potential misfires.

Eric

The Hot Key SFR will only stop the Cue or Cues it is programed to stop. If you have five cues running at the same time and the Hot Key is set up to stop only the third one it stops only the third one.

paul3263 wrote:The Hot Key SFR will only stop the Cue or Cues it is programed to stop. If you have five cues running at the same time and the Hot Key is set up to stop only the third one it stops only the third one.

I know how SFR cues work, I've been using SCS for some time now. The hotkey method would have to be a "stop all previous cues" type of SFR. So that it stops whatever is running. The thing I see possibly happening is that the stop cue might end all the unplayed cues because the hotkey cue would be placed at the end of the show. I haven't had the time to try it out yet, but it sounds promising. Like I said in my previous post "the possibility"

Eric

pcarver wrote: If the operator is mostly watching the script instead of the computer screen there could definitely be trouble if SCS skipped a cue and the operator didn't realize it.

Our scripts are fully marked up with the Cue numbers and the operator is expected to follow the script and hit the button at the marked point in the script.
As some of our cues come thick and fast, there is not time to watch the screen to see if a cue has run out. We only consult the screen to check the next cue is ready (If we have time) I do not want the SFR to be skipped if the cue has finished (unless it can be made a global option to disable it)

The following mod has been added in 10.1.2: If the 'Next Manual Cue' has nothing to do because it is an SFR or Level Change cue that operates on an Audio File cue that has already completed, then a warning message is displayed in the status line at the foot of the run screen.

NB I had to slightly abbreviate the subject line of this topic so I could add "(done)" within the available size. Didn't want to abbreviate it any further - I would otherwise have added "(mod in 10.1.2)".

http://www.showcuesystems.com/forum/vie ... f=1&t=1007 shows a way to skip that SFR cue if the cue it relates to is finished. It needs a little more time in the editor, but you have even more control, because you can do this on a per cue basis...

einhirn