Rig Check

Random geeky post alert.

For some time I've been wondering what the most efficient way of programming an automated rig check is. I'd love to know how other people do it. 

I used to keep the rig check at the end of the main cue list  and have a bunch of cues that triggered effects which ran through each type of scroll / moving light etc. The eminent Mr Simmons suggested a way of doing it on separate cue lists, one per type of light etc. Which meant never running another cue list through the main cue list, but then this can involve lots of linking in and out of the main cue list etc. Also, the effects were great but it was hard to pause if something was wrong, and go back etc etc. 

Would like to know if there are any rep houses out there who do any of it in an automated fashion, rather than just manually because once you've refocused everything for that particular show, you know everything works anyway, right?

How do you do yours please?

Jane

I have found that having a separate cue list just for the rig check works really well.

You can break it down so that the cues bring up all of the lights in a system - position, purpose, whatever works best for you. A lot of the touring shows that come thru here have cue 1 as the FOH, then cue 2 is the 1st electric/pro towers, etc, etc

In a separate list (or the same depending on how you do the check out) you can run thru all of the moving lights / LED's / scrollers, etc. I have mine setup so that each cue goes thru each part of the light (with all the lights up so I can see the 1 that's misbehaving), & I can make sure the color wheels, gobo wheels, zoom, iris, etc all work.

A word of caution: depending on how you run your check out, the iRFR (currently) will only playback the cue list that is loaded into the master fader. With some clever links or macros you can make it so that you can go in & out of your checkout cue lists, & then back to the primary 'show' cue list. If you run your checkout from behind the desk, you just need to make sure to release the cue list before your preset so the checkout list doesn't keep control of your lights.

I also have been running rig checks on a different cue list. Usually Cue List 99.

A lot of the time I have it mostly triggered from one Go at the start, numerous Hangs throughout, but usually it will stop at designated times e.g when its a change in fixture or I need to walk to somewhere else on stage.

You can link the last cue of your rig check to your main show cue list then it will nicely flow into everything.

One thing I would suggest though if you're using separate cue lists is to use a Assert and All Fade at the top of your show. Usually on the first Cue. The Assert will take control of channels if there was any other playback live and the All Fade will Fade everything that isn't in that cue to zero.

Also just make sure you know whether a playback is live or not and how to navigate between the two and loading it onto your master playback, I would hate for you to find you go into the top of your show, houselights down, and u still have a rig check cue live on stage.

[Go To Cue] [99][/][Out] might come in handy.

or even:

[Go To Cue] [Out]

[Cue] [1] [/] [Enter] [Load]

[Go]

We do much of the same here at our venue. One cue list for our conventional check which runs through all of the conventional fixtures, then through scrollers, rotators, film FX, etc. Then we use another cue list for our automated fixtures. We run through the IFCB for each type of fixture at once in order to diagnose any issues. 

Sorry for not replying sooner, thanks for your replies. All this is stuff I'm already doing too, that's good to know!