There is something I have noticed as networking has become more accessible and practically commonplace: GrandMA3 software is being used to trigger automation and rigging cues and build effects that used to take a whole department to run manually.

Automation in live events isn't just about motors and winches anymore. It's about the network behind them, the same infrastructure carrying DMX, Art-Net, and sACN to every moving light on the rig is increasingly the same backbone triggering rigging cues, scenic automation, and effects sequences. Riggers, programmers, and automation operators are all speaking a common language now, and that convergence is where I want to be.

To remain on the cutting edge of tech and show design, this is the next area in which I intend to grow my proficiencies. I have been a rigger and a lighting programmer for two decades, and automation brings both of these departments together. Show control used to live in silos: rigging on one channel, lighting on another, video on a third. Now the best productions are the ones where all of it talks to each other, and cue stacks move scenery, lights, and effects in the same breath.

I'm actively building my automation skill set, from cue-based rigging systems to networked show control, so I can bring that cross-department fluency to touring productions, corporate events, and everything in between.

More to come…