Soundcraft BROADWAY User manual

BROADWAY Automation 6.1

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6.2 BROADWAY Automation

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All audio parameters on Broadway, including switches, rotaries, faders and text
displays, are included in the snapshot automation system.

View parameters, such as the current BANK, SEL settings, solo's etc. are not
stored or recalled. VCA Master Fader positions are stored on a per-cue basis, as
are the assignments of faders to VCA's.

VCA master faders are included in the automation system, but may be scoped
out, effectively leaving them in manual mode. The idea is that the relative balance
between a group of faders (perhaps a group of radio microphones) can be set up
on the input faders, and these may all be moved together, retaining the relative
balance, via a single fader - the VCA master.

The dB offset applied via the VCA master will almost certainly be different from
day to day. When a scene is recalled, therefore, the input faders are returned to
their stored values (as long as their scope is switched in), and the appropriate
VCA master fader offsets are applied to the gain for each of the inputs slaved to
that VCA.

BROADWAY Automation 6.3

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Complete console snapshots are stored as Cues. Cues may be named, and may
have MIDI and Event data associated with them. Cues may be arranged into a list
called, unsurprisingly, the Cue List. A complete cue list may be stored as a named
Project on the internal hard disk, or onto a Floppy Disk.

The highlighted row in the cue list is marked with the cursor - an inverted bar. The
cursor may be moved around the screen via the jog wheel, or, in some cases, by
touching areas of the screen. The jog wheel includes a push-switch for selections and
editing.

Below the touchscreen are a number of transport switches which are used primarily
for moving between cues. Only those switches which are illuminated are available for
selection.

6.4 BROADWAY Automation

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Once the console has been set up as desired, pressing Make Cue will bring up the
cue creation window.

At the top left of the screen is a selector which allows the user to select ADD
MAIN CUE or INSERT SUB CUE.

To add a new cue to the end of the list, check that ADD MAIN CUE is selected,
and press [Create It]

To insert a cue at the current cursor position, select INSERT SUB CUE, and
press [Create It]. A new cue will be inserted after the cursor position, and allocat­ed an appropriate sequence number half way between the two numbers either
side. So, inserting a cue between cues 3.0 and 4.0 will generate a cue in between
those two, numbered 3.5. Insertion of additional cues will follow the same num­bering principle, as the system attempts to find a suitable half-way point to the
nearest single decimal place. Once no further legal sequence numbers remain in a
given space, it is advisable to renumber the list before adding more cues. See
Renumbering below.

To overwrite the highlighted cue with the current console status, press
[Update Cue]

New cues are created with a default name of Unnamed Cue, which may be
edited by touching the name box in the top right area of the touchscreen.

At the bottom of the screen are [Renumber All Cues] and [Cue List].

[Cue List] returns the user to the Cue List screen, as would pressing the Cue List
hard switch.

BROADWAY Automation 6.5

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[Renumber All Cues] assigns integer sequence numbers to every cue from 1.0 to
X.0, where X is the number of cues.

Once part of a cue list has reached saturation (i.e. too many inserted cues), it is
advisable to renumber the list before more cues can be added. Renumber will do
just this, and will ask for confirmation to avoid unfortunate mishaps.

It might also be useful to renumber a list once rehearsal or setup time is over, and
the project has settled down.

The user may choose to renumber cues automatically when insertions or deletions
are made. See Auto Renumber (5.4.3.2) above.

6.6 BROADWAY Automation

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In normal operation, the Cursor Bar will lie on the current, or last recalled,
cue. The [NEXT] and [LAST] switches will recall the next and last cues respec­tively, and the cursor will follow the current cue.

The jog wheel will scroll through the available cues for the current project. When
any cue is highlighted, the [EXECUTE] switch will flash. This indicates that [EXE-
CUTE] will recall the highlighted cue to the desk, and that cue will become the
current cue. In this way, it is possible to recall cues out of sequence, especially
useful in rehearsal or unpredictable live set environments.

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Although cues are normally recalled to the console immediately, Broadway is also
able to crossfade settings from the current desk state into the next cue. This can
be useful when smooth transitions are required (for example a fadeout of a sound
effect and a fade in of some live Microphones).

Crossfade will take the current position of all faders, and move them to the set­tings stored in the upcoming cue over the defined length of the crossfade. Since
the time is defined globally for the cue, all faders will take the same time to fade.
Therefore channels for which the adjustment in the new cue is greater will "move"
faster than those with small adjustments.

Note that only Fader levels are crossfaded - all EQ settings, switches, filters etc.
are snapshot as usual, but the POINT in the crossfade at which the various ele­ments are switched may be reconfigured. Note also that although the audio is
crossfading, the physical faders on the surfaces DO NOT move during the cross­fade - they will move into position only once the crossfade is complete.

Crossfades can be achieved in one of two ways: timed crossfade, or manual cross­fade.

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The user may define a crossfade time for each cue. The time is edited by pressing
the area in the "Fade" column on the Cue List screen for the associated cue. Note
that this time relates to the duration over which movement INTO that cue will be
performed. It has no effect on the crossfade time into the next cue.

By default, Broadway will ignore the crossfade time when executing cues out of
sequence with the jog wheel and EXECUTE switch (for example when program­ming during a break). However, the EXECUTE=FADE toggle switch on the Cue
List page will result in crossfades being performed even when cues are recalled via
the EXECUTE switch.

When a crossfade is underway, the XFADE switch to the left of the Touchscreen
panel flashes, and the XFADE fader begins to move from 0% (the bottom of its
travel) to 100% (top) to show the percentage of the crossfade completed.

BROADWAY Automation 6.7

At any point during the fade process, the user may interrupt the process by touching
the XFADE fader. This will halt the process, and the user may then complete the fade
manually by moving the fader towards the top of its travel. Of course, the fader may
equally be moved downwards to reverse part of the fade, but at some point it must
either be parked at the top, or the crossfade cancelled.

The user may also touch any channel fader to drop that channel out of the fade, and
return it to manual operation.

When the XFADE fader reaches the top of its travel, the cue is deemed to be
recalled, and the touchscreen display will be updated to show this.

To remove a FADE time from a cue, enter the edit box as usual, but type "0.00".

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A manual crossfade is begun simply by pressing the XFADE switch. The switch will
illuminate to show that a crossfade is active.

The XFADE fader will snap to the 0% mark, and the user may then use the fader to
perform the crossfade at the desired speed.

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The point at which switched functions (i.e. anything other than Faders) may be config­ured per function block, per cue. This is achieved using an extension of the REPLAY
SCOPE functions.

Pressing REPLAY SCOPE will, as usual, bring up a list of the available scope blocks.
Choosing one of these blocks will show the list of available scope choices, each of
which has an associated percentage.

The percentage will show either:

1% Switched as soon as the crossfade starts

50% Switched half way through the crossfade

100% Switched at the end of the crossfade

To edit the percentage of a particular scope, simply turn on the EDIT PERCENT tog­gle switch, and press the appropriate scope to cycle that scope through the percent­age options.

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The console will usually only recall cues when the User manually activates a recall, or
the system receives a valid incoming MIDI Program Change.

However, cues may also follow on automatically from each other. This is achieved
using a function called "WAIT".

The WAIT time is listed alongside the Fade time for a cue, and is edited in the same
way (just press the space in the WAIT column for the appropriate cue). WAIT time is
defined as the time that the associated cue will wait before automatically recalling the
next cue.

So, if two cues exist - A and B, putting a wait time of 3 seconds against cue A, then
recalling Cue A will result in Cue A being recalled immediately, and 3 seconds later
Cue B will be automatically recalled.

Note that a wait time of "0.00" will result in the next cue being recalled IMMEDIATE­LY. So, to produce a fast sequence of automatic Cues (for example for a series of
chained sound effects cues with MIDI Note Transmission), just give all the cues WAIT
values of "0.00".

To remove a wait time from a cue, enter the edit box as usual, but type "-.--".
Remember that "0.00" is not "WAIT OFF", but "IMMEDIATE RECALL".

6.8 BROADWAY Automation

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Whenever a cue is created or updated, the console stores every audio parameter
to the automation system. However, upon recall, the user may define which areas
of the console should be recalled with each scene.

There is a useful "copying" function which can be achieved with REPLAY SCOPE
(see section 7.4 "Selectively Copying Data Between Cues".

Pressing [Replay Scope] will replace the touchscreen switches at the bottom of the
Cue List screen with a list of areas of the console, most of which are highlighted in
the default state. Each of these areas (EQ, FADERS, MUTES, etc.) is presented as
a toggle switch - that is, pressing the switch once will deselect that area of the
console, pressing it again will reselect it.

When any cue is recalled, the Scope settings associated with that cue will define
the areas of the console to be recalled in that scene.

By scrolling through the cue list with the jog wheel while [Replay Scope] is select­ed, the Replay Scope of each cue may be set individually. It might be useful, for
example, to ignore fader positions for ten scenes in a row to allow for live
adjustments, then include the faders in the eleventh cue, to reset them to a
required absolute position.

The replay scope areas available for selection or deselection are:

Channel: Source A/B, Phantom Power,Gain

Faders + Mutes Fader levels and mutes

Insert + Pre/Post Insert switch and Pre/post EQ switch
Routing Main Outputs & Pan

Sends Sends to all GrAuxes

EQ EQ settings and switches, including

filters

Graux: Faders + Mutes Fader levels and mutes

Inserts GrAux inserts

Routing Main Outputs & Pan

Sends Sends to all Matrices

Matrix: Faders + Mutes Fader levels & mutes

Miscellaneous: VCA Faders Fader levels

VCA Mutes Mutes

MIDI + Events MIDI messaging and event relays

I/P Surface Assignments Assignments of inputs

BROADWAY Automation 6.9

6.10 BROADWAY Automation

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To the right of [LAST] is [VIEW]. This is a latching mode switch. When selected,
pre[VIEW] mode will allow the user to recall cues to the surfaces whilst leaving
the rack audio as it was when [VIEW] was first pressed.

This can be useful if the operator needs to recall upcoming cues to check their
contents, whilst a fairly static scene is being performed on stage. There will be no
changes to the audio, but the surfaces will reset just as they would normally.

It is also possible to edit and store data when in pre[VIEW] mode. The syntax is
just as when in normal operation, except the audio will not follow the surface con­trol movements.

Coming out of [VIEW] mode will return the surfaces to the settings of the audio
racks.