Safety and Responsibility
What it's for — This page says plainly what CueSync is not, what stays with you, and what happens to the rig when something goes wrong, so that you decide the interlocks before doors rather than discover them in front of an audience.
CueSync is show-automation software. It sends cues to lighting desks, video servers, lasers and other equipment, and some of that equipment can hurt people: pyrotechnics, flame, CO2, fireworks and lasers, and strobing light for the people in the room who are sensitive to it. This page is short on purpose. Read it once, then use the checklist at the end before a show.
What CueSync is not
- CueSync is not a safety system. It does not know what is on stage, who is standing where, or whether a device is armed.
- CueSync is not a firing system. It can send a cue that a pyro, flame, CO2 or fireworks controller will act on. It has no arming step of its own, no continuity check and no way to see the result.
- CueSync must never be the only thing between a cue and a hazard. Every output that can burn, release gas, project a beam into a room or flash at an audience needs a protection that does not depend on this software, this laptop or this network.
A cue that CueSync sends is a cue that was sent. If the equipment acts on it, the equipment acts.
What stays with you
CueSync cannot tell you what your show is allowed to do or who has to approve it. That depends on where you are working and what you are firing.
- Permits and licences. Pyrotechnics, flame and fireworks normally need a licensed operator and the sign-off of the local fire authority. Laser shows aimed at or over an audience can need their own approvals; depending on where you work that can include classification under IEC 60825-1, a variance from the US FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and the venue's or the authority's agreement. CueSync checks none of this.
- A laser safety officer, where one is required. If your show or your venue requires one, they decide what the laser may do. The software does what it is told.
- Hardware emergency stops and interlocks. An emergency stop has to work with CueSync closed, the laptop off and the network switched off: it cuts power, fuel or the key at the device. A software Blackout in CueSync is a convenience, not an emergency stop.
- Photosensitivity. The guidance you will be held to is written outside CueSync. See the next section.
- Who is allowed to press GO. The person calling the show owns what the show does.
Flashing light
The figure public guidance is written around is no more than three flashes in any one second (Ofcom's guidance for broadcast, ITU-R BT.1702, and WCAG 2.3.1 for screens all use it). A small share of people can have seizures triggered by light that flashes faster than that, or by large areas of saturated red. CueSync counts flashes in only a few places. Everywhere else, the rate is whatever you sent.
| Where | What CueSync does |
|---|---|
| Pixel wall, Auto drop payoff | A new setup starts on one flash per beat, which is at or under 3 a second below 180 BPM. A setup saved by an earlier version keeps the choice it was saved with, including the two-flash-per-beat strobe (4 to 6 a second at club tempos). Check Settings → Pixels ▸ Behaviour → Auto drop payoff. Pixel Wall |
| Pixel wall, Strobe look | Held to a strobe cap only if the active venue sets one. Blank means no cap. Venue Profiles |
| Crowd phones | A ceiling you can lower from 3 to 1 flashes a second and cannot raise or switch off, a flashing notice before anyone joins, and a No flashing choice on the phone. Every noticeable swing in brightness counts toward the ceiling, the first move of a run included, and a sequence of red looks is held back as well as a single strobe. Crowd |
| Raw DMX strobe, blinder and shutter channels | Not rate-capped. A strobe channel on a conventional fixture is a level, not a flash CueSync counts. The strobe cap, the drop payoff and the Crowd ceiling do not apply to it. The level limits in a venue's output policy can hold a channel to a maximum or a floor, but none of them counts flashes. |
| Consoles, media servers and game engines | Not limited by CueSync. What a grandMA3, a Resolume clip or an Unreal level does when a cue arrives is its own. |
If your venue or your promoter has a flash limit, set it where it is enforced: in the fixture, the console or the content. Do not assume CueSync has applied it.
Pyro, flame, CO2 and fireworks over MIDI Show Control
MIDI Show Control names a command format for each kind of equipment. The formats for CO2 (0x53), Pyro (0x60), Fireworks (0x61), Explosions (0x62), Flame (0x63) and Smoke pots (0x64) reach equipment CueSync is not a firing system for. A new MIDI Show Control action is addressed to device 0x7F, every device on the port (the all-call), in format 0x7F, every type.
- The action editor warns. When the Format box holds one of those formats, the editor says: This cue can fire pyrotechnic/flame/CO2 equipment. CueSync is not a firing system and must not be your only interlock. If Device ID is also 0x7F it adds Address the intended device, not all-call. The warning never stops you saving and never changes what the cue sends.
- Flight Check lists it. The Pre-Show Check (called Flight Check on Home) shows a line for each enabled cue, pad, Look, Auto Pilot profile or timeline clip that has such an action: a warning when it is addressed to the all-call, an information line when it is addressed to one device. A pad that fires a Look is listed under the Look, not twice. It does not read a venue's own mappings or what a cue reference points at; the editor warns wherever you edit one. The line is a reminder and does not block the show.
- The panic is not a stop for it. The panic's MIDI Show Control ALL OFF is addressed to device 0x7F in format 0x01, lighting. It is not addressed to pyro, fireworks, flame or CO2 formats. Do not count on a CueSync panic to stop that equipment. See MIDI and MIDI Show Control.
- A jump does not fire it again. Back, Goto, a section jump or a timecode locate does not re-send a Pyro, Fireworks, Explosions, Flame, CO2 or Smoke pots cue while it puts the rig back. The log and a warning ("Not re-sent after the jump …") name the cue that was left out. The cue still goes out when the show plays through it, or you fire it by hand. A lighting desk's MIDI Show Control look is still put back.
- Format 0x7F is not flagged. It is the default, and it means every type. If you are not sending to pyro equipment, set the format to the one your desk answers to.
Address the intended device. Keep the equipment disarmed, or its key out, until the show needs it.
Lasers
- CueSync treats laser output as a human-safety matter. The generic automatic actions (Blackout, Set Intensity, Set Effect), a venue's house state and a laser Look that Auto Pilot picks by its affinity reach a laser only when the active venue has Let automation drive lasers switched on, and it is off by default. With it off, Auto Pilot skips the Look, writes a skipped entry in Recent Fires and raises one toast per Look per track. Pangolin Beyond
- A laser Look, pad or cue that you fire, or a laser action you put into an Auto Pilot moment, always fires. That is your decision.
- The panic latches the laser dark. Turning the switch on lets a machine re-enable laser output, so turn it on only where the venue's laser safety arrangements allow a machine to do so.
What happens when…
These describe what CueSync does; they are not promises about your equipment. Where the answer depends on the device at the other end, the row says so.
| What happens | What the rig does |
|---|---|
| CueSync crashes, is force-quit, or the laptop loses power, with Art-Net outputs | Art-Net has no message that says "this sender has ended", and CueSync sends nothing on its way out. The frames simply stop. While CueSync runs it keeps re-sending what each universe is holding, so a node does not time out on a look you are still holding. After a crash, many nodes keep showing the last frame; some fade or go dark after a timeout of their own. That is a setting on the node, not on CueSync. Set the node's loss-of-signal behaviour and timeout for the room. |
| The same, with sACN outputs | When you close the output or quit normally, CueSync tells receivers the stream has ended, so they let go of it at once. A hard crash or power loss sends nothing, so receivers fall back to their own data-loss timeout, which the sACN standard sets at about 2.5 seconds. Until then the receiver still treats CueSync as a live source, and your console cannot take those channels back. |
| Timecode signal is lost | The clock freewheels: it carries on from the last good frame at the last rate for the Freewheel Duration in Settings → Timecode → Advanced, 5 seconds by default (1 to 30). Timecode cues keep firing from that extrapolated clock for the whole window, one-shot cues included, so a pyro or video-start cue that falls in the window fires on CueSync's estimate and not on a live signal. If no other source takes over, the clock then stops, a red Timecode lost alarm says so, and timecode cues stop firing until a signal returns. This is not the Freewheel duration under Settings → Show Control (15 seconds by default), which only decides how large a jump in the clock counts as a recovery event. Art-Net timecode is the exception: Silence means stopped (Settings → Timecode) is on for Art-Net by default, because a paused grandMA3 slot sends nothing at all. When that stream goes quiet CueSync holds the clock and fires nothing until the stream returns, instead of freewheeling. A pulled cable reads the same as a pause; switch the setting off to ride through dropouts. Timecode |
| Crowd phones lose the desk | A phone keeps time on its own. After 5 minutes its dot turns amber. After 15 minutes it stops following the show and shows the dim idle look. Crowd |
| You press the Run Mode BLACKOUT button | The first press arms it and starts a countdown; a second press inside the arming window fires it. The window is 3 seconds by default and can be set from 1 to 5 seconds in Settings → Show Control. The Transport ▸ Panic menu items and their keyboard shortcuts act on a single press. A blackout sends each connected output its own blackout verb; two have none CueSync can send, and a sticky banner names them. How CueSync Works |
| You open a show that was saved on another computer | Its network outputs stay off, sACN multicast included, and a notice lists them with the address each would dial. Nothing is sent to those addresses until you press Connect or switch an output on. MIDI outputs are not held. A show this computer saved opens connected. Troubleshooting |
| A cue was already sent | It stays sent. CueSync cannot recall a command from a device, and a panic or blackout is a new command, not an undo. |
Before a show
- Run every cue in DRY. DRY advances cues and sends nothing. Do not use REHEARSE+ for this: it fires to exactly the same outputs as SHOW.
- Run Pre-Show Check (Transport ▸ Pre-Show Check) and read every line, including the information lines.
- Check the device addresses on every MIDI Show Control, DMX and laser action that can burn, release gas or project a beam. No all-call.
- Set the flash limit where it is enforced: the venue's strobe cap for the pixel wall, the node, console or content for everything else.
- Set the node's loss-of-signal behaviour for every Art-Net and sACN node, and know what it will do if CueSync stops.
- Test the hardware emergency stop with CueSync closed.
- Test your panic on the actual equipment. The MIDI Show Control panic does not address pyro formats.
- Know who owns the laser and the pyro, and have them in the room or on comms.
- Open the show on the machine that will run it and read any notice about held outputs. Press Connect only if every address it lists is the rig's.
Related
- How CueSync Works — the safety layers: Blackout, Freeze, Manual Override, DRY and REHEARSE+
- Preparing the Show Machine — the machine side of a reliable show
- MIDI and MIDI Show Control — formats, device IDs and what the panic sends
- Pangolin Beyond — lasers and the automation switch
- Venue Profiles — the strobe cap and the output policy
- Pixel Wall — the Auto drop payoff
- Crowd (Audience Phones) — the flash ceiling and the no-flashing choice
- Timecode — freewheel and signal loss
- Art-Net and sACN — what is sent and what happens when the output closes
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