Evolution of Show Control

Show ControlEntertainment Technology
Written By John Huntington

Note: I’m in the process of extracting the Show Control information out of my “big book” Show Networks and Control Systems into a new book. In the process, I’m retiring some of the historical information and instead posting it here so it’s available.

The extract below was originally on page 343 of the second (2017) edition of my book Show Networks and Control Systems, Chapter 28: Show Control. I’ve posted it here as written; see the end of the post for more recent examples and updates.

EVOLUTION OF SHOW CONTROL

You could probably trace the development of electronic[1] show control back to Disney’s Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln animatronic show at the 1964 World's Fair; a version of this attraction also opened at Disneyland 1965.[2] That show marked one of the first instances where show producers started integrating then new automation technologies (many analog) into their attractions to enable story telling on a large scale. These (mostly) time-based technologies delivered an unprecedented level of sophistication and repeatability, making it cost effective to create shows that reached a huge audience through dozens or hundreds of performances a day; I would argue that show control automation techniques in many ways made the theme park possible in the modern era.[3] These centralized, time-based show control techniques and technologies continued development, and reached another milestone in terms of scale and sophistication with the opening of Disney’s EPCOT® in 1982. This kind of time-based, “canned” show control evolved with the widespread adoption of digital technologies, and is still an important part of shows in theme parks, concert tours, museums, corporate events, and many other venues today.

Footnotes:
[1] I’m saying electronic here to exclude mechanical automata, which are very cool but really a separate area of interest, going back hundreds of years.

[2] This progression of landmark show examples is not exhaustive, but each of these shows was significant and represents to me a phase in the development of show control.

[3] Huge theme park spectacles were of course done in the early 1900s in Coney Island and elsewhere, but were obviously not done with electronic show control.

By 1994, when the first edition of this book was released, increased computer horsepower was becoming available that allowed show control systems to become far more interactive and flexible. One of the best known landmarks of this development progression was the performer–interactive Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular!, which opened at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios®) in 1989 [Note: I wrote part of my Yale Thesis on this show, you can read it here; also see video below], and is still running as of this writing [still true in 2023]. It of course contains time-based playback technologies, but in some scenes, the performers are actually operating show action equipment and triggering sound and other effects from switches and sensors not obvious to the audience (with safety overseen by a human technical director).

Another landmark show with sophisticated, performer-driven interaction was 1993’s George Lucas’ Super Live Adventure (which was produced in the United States, but unfortunately toured only in Japan) [Update: More on this show here] which was followed by EFX in Las Vegas in 1995, with much of the same creative team. These live shows used time-based techniques, but additionally used then new technology to enable performer interaction with show elements. These shows had enormous technical crews backstage, so the producers were not using show control to reduce labor costs, but instead were leveraging technology to provide cueing sophistication and precision to enhance story telling for the show in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

An important successor in the use of Super Live-style performer-driven interactivity is the amazing KÀ™ from Cirque du Soleil™, which opened in Las Vegas in 2005 (and is still running as of this writing) [Update: still running in 2023, here’s a link to an extensive article I wrote about the show in 2005].

KÀ photo from 2005, courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

In one scene (shown in the photo), performers wirelessly operate their own hoist winches, while their positions are sensed in near real time and sent, along with the positions of incredibly complex moving stage machinery, out on the show networks. Sound effects are triggered based on this data and a sophisticated graphics system creates interactive imagery in real time, based on the position of the performers. These graphics are projected back onto massive moving platforms, immersing the performers in a beautiful, interactive, real-time performance environment. Robert Lepage directed this show, and he has used similar techniques on subsequent shows, like La Damnation de Faust at the Metropolitan Opera, which led to his 2011 Ring Cycle at the Met, which again used similar interactivity.

Sidebar: KÀ’s Connections

I would speculate that shows such as KÀ are possible not just because we now have so much computer horsepower (we had less, but still enough in the early 1990s, as evidenced by Super Live) but, even more importantly, because a critical mass of artists and technologists have worked with show control technologies long enough to become comfortable with them. J.T. Tomlinson gives some interesting history and supports my premise: “Show control for GLSLA [Super Live],” Tomlinson told me in 2007, “was a Golder Group system, specified by myself, then designed and built by Damon Wootten, with George Kindler as consultant. Damon previously worked for Charlie Richmond, who recommended him to me for this show. We used show control to trigger multiple systems on commands from the stage manager, and also to sync various systems via time code from the LCS/Doremi sound system (LCS serial number one!) or 35 mm film projectors. Commanded systems included lighting, automated scenery, projection, lasers, fog effects, and pyro. One real challenge during production was getting SMPTE from an optical film sound track! GLSLA and KÀ are also similar in that regardless of the amount of computerized controls, neither show is/was automated in the theme park or cruise ship sense; i.e., all or mostly to time code. GLSLA and KÀ are both cued in the classical theatre fashion: a calling Stage Manager maintains the pacing. We had good help on Superlive, including the fine fellows mentioned above, and these current Las Vegas players: JT Tomlinson (now Head of Automation at KÀ) was Technical Director, Todd Toresdahl (now Head of Automation at Mystere) was Head Carpenter, Bill Wendlandt (now Assistant Head of Automation at KÀ) was Assistant Carpenter, Keith Bennett (now Production Manager at Mama Mia) was Head Electrician, JO Henderson (now Lead Automation Operator at O) was the Show Control operator, and Jonathan Deans (now Cirque Sound Designer) was Sound Designer.” I am sure all would concur that GLSLA was ahead of its time.

The next step in this evolution was exemplified for me by the Australian dance troupe Chunky Move, whose 2006 production Glow built a foundation that was extended into an amazing 2008 production of Mortal Engine[More on this show here].

Photo: Andrew Curtis; Performer: Harriet Ritchie, photo courtesy Chunky Move

This beautiful “dance-video-music-laser performance” took place on a blank, white raked stage, and the dancer’s movements were used to drive the creation of the audio, video, and laser environment—all in real time. This kind of interactivity had been done by others for years (e.g., companies like Troika Ranch), but Mortal Engine for me marked a maturing of these concepts and techniques into an amazing piece of art; it was the first time I’ve seen a dance audience crowding around the control position in the back of the house after a show! And while they had some custom software, this show was done using a lot of off-the-shelf tools, meaning Chunky Move (and countless other companies) could do a sophisticated show like this at a tiny fraction of the cost of KÀ.

The 2010s brought the widespread adoption of affordable, powerful networking technologies for data transport and interconnection, leading to even more affordable, sophisticated, technological story telling tools. A great example for me of the next step along this technological continuum is Marvel Universe LIVE!, which opened in 2014; an updated version toured the US until 2019. [2023 Update: the Jurassic World is the successor to this].

Marvel Universe Live, Photo by the author

This show is incredibly sophisticated, but here, 20 years after Super Live, Marvel Universe, was constructed primarily with off-the-shelf systems connected together. While the show is largely time-based, with the advancement of the available tools, the level of polish in this show is light years beyond what was possible in the days of Super Live. Again, there is a huge crew on this show, which moves every week or even more frequently; the technology is there to maximize what’s possible and leverage all the people’s capabilities.

So it seems to me in the mid 2010s that we have arrived at a point where pretty much anything’s possible in terms of show-control systems; we are now limited only by imagination and budgets.

Video

When I released this second edition of the Show Networks and Control Systems book in 2017 I made lecture videos for each of the main chapters. Here’s a video I made then which also goes through much of the information of the chapter, and video quotes from a bunch of the examples I talked about in the show:

Further Evolution

As part of the ongoing entertainment technology evolution and maturity (about which I wrote a lot which you can see here), a lot has happened since I released this in 2017; take a look at my blog category “Interesting Shows” for more recent examples of shows that have pushed the state of the art. I also recently introduced “Huntington’s Theorem” about the development of this technology, and why performer interactivity never caught on on a large scale. You can see a 2023 video talk about this topic here.

John Huntington www.controlgeek.net
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