Show Control Demystified

03/31/08

I hang out on several theatre and haunting-related message boards and quite frequently I see posts from people who have created these amazing props that look incredible, are animated with all kinds of pneumatics, motors and servos and would give a prop at a theme park a run for its money. Then at the end of the posts they ask "so now that I have it, how do I control it?"

All Halloween parties need 11 tracks of audio!

It surprises me just how much of a black art controlling things is, even in this day and age where electronics are dirt-cheap and easy to find. I took a quick look around the Intertubes for information on show control and didn

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Category: Show Control

Posted by: Scott

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So what's all the stuff in the picture doing?

Posted by ScareFace12 on 04/01/08 at 16:18:17

The picture is of "Master Control" for a Halloween party I helped with a few years ago. There was a haunted tunnel on the side of the house that people had to go through to get to the party.

The equipment in the picture ran the 11 tracks of audio and the video playback. Some of the tracks just ran on repeat. The intro was hooked up to a remote control that the host activated right before a group got to go through. There was also a surround-sound scream effect that was triggered by motion sensor. There was also a reed-switch activated creaking crypt door and a live-echo effect in the bat cave.

We also had a room with a video projector outside the window that was triggered when the host pushed a button.

There was also a lighting control system, but that's not in this picture.

Don't worry. I'll show you easy ways to do some of this stuff.

Posted by Scott on 04/01/08 at 17:08:50

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