Stepping through Cues
Normally we would step forward through a list of cues; one after the other – like you would reading a book, one page after another. Unless you’re a monster and skip to the end early – or are reading a “choose-your-own-adventure” book (do they still make those?). Anyway, moving forward through a list of cues is pretty easy, simply press the [GO] or [Play] button. In the EOS software this can be found in the Virtual Keyboard.
Looking at the [Play] button, you might notice the hotkey note, you can also move forward by pressing the Spacebar on your computer keyboard; however, if you press the Spacebar, it’s possible that it’s been disabled. This is intentional in order to prevent accidental presses of the Go button. I’ve seen several productions accidentally move forward to the next cue because someone laid down a book or put their elbows on the table and accidentally pressed [GO]. If your board has the space bar disabled, you’ll be given the following warning.
The warning also gives you a solution, instructing you to press [Alt+G] to enable the Spacebar. Go ahead and do that now. We like to live dangerously.
If you want to go backwards through the cue list, you can press the [Hold] or [Back] button, which is [Ctrl+Spacebar] on your computer keyboard. If you keep going backward, you’ll eventually move to Cue 0, which is the EOS Blackout cue, a blank slate, an empty canvas, nothing.
Now you try going back and forth. Which is a little silly since you only have Cue 1 and Cue 2.
Next, go all the way to the end of your cue list, Cue 2. Sometimes we want to jump straight to a cue, without having to step through the entire list. To do this we can use the [Go To Cue] button or [Ctrl+G] on your computer keyboard. Unlike the [Play] and [Back] buttons, this is a command, so you’ll need to provide a cue number and then press enter. You’ll see this command in the command line. This is a bit silly here, you could just tap [Go] to get to the cue you want – but is really useful when you have 100 or 1000 cues.
You can also use this to technique to go to a Blackout when you’re finished using the light board. For this, type [Go To Cue] [0] [Enter]. This will send the light board into the Blackout cue and release any manual channels. BUT, remember to tell the people on stage that you’re going to a blackout – otherwise someone might get hurt … Just yell out “GOING TO BLACKOUT” … Try it out. Right now. Wherever you are. Shout it out.
