Year one BFA · MDTAudio · Lighting · Video
Computer Systems & Networking
for Theatre and Entertainment Arts
Every signal in a modern show is, at some point, a number in a computer's memory, travelling over a shared network, with a deadline.
Five classes. Everything here exists to unpack that one sentence and to make it usable at 18:00 on a Friday when something has stopped working.
Seven Saturdays
Two hours to open, two on a production visit, sixteen of content across four consecutive weeks, four for the practical exam. The run from week 7 to week 10 is the dense part: four classes, one a week, nothing skipped.
- Week 1 5 Sep Sat 14:00–16:00 Class 1 · Why This Class Exists
- Week 5 3 Oct Sat 11:00–13:00 Production visit Interstage
- Week 7 17 Oct Sat 14:00–18:00 Class 2 · The Machine
- Week 8 24 Oct Sat 14:00–18:00 Class 3 · The Network
- Week 9 31 Oct Sat 14:00–18:00 Class 4 · Control
- Week 10 7 Nov Sat 14:00–18:00 Class 5 · Media Over IP and Systems
- Week 14 5 Dec Sat 14:00–18:00 Practical exam
The other courses, and who they are for
Three cohorts and four courses, and nobody takes all four. Technical Direction takes Electronics then Computer Science; Media Design and Technology takes Computer Systems; the elective assumes neither. Where two of these reach the same object they reach it from different positions and ask different questions of it, which is set out in full on how the four relate.
- →
Electronics for Theatre
Technical Direction, year 1 · core
Below the connector: what electricity does in a building, proved with a meter. - This one
Computer Systems and Networking
Media Design and Technology, year 1 · core
The machine and the network under the show, for audio, lighting and video artists. - →
Computer Science for Theatre
Technical Direction, year 2 · core
The instructions themselves: code, AI, and what your program does when it is alone. - →
Show Networking and Control Systems
Elective · assumes none of the others
The agreements between two devices, protocol by protocol, against the standard text. - →
showstack
Open index · not a course
Where all four check their numbers and their bilingual terms, with a citation on each.
The five classes
Why This Class Exists
The argument, the Four Flows, and the two calculations that run through everything.
Open → 2The Machine
What a show computer is, why it is configured differently, and how sound and light become numbers.
Open → 3The Network
The OSI model as a diagnostic ladder, subnet arithmetic, and separating departments with VLANs.
Open → 4Control
State against event, DMX512, Art-Net against sACN, universe maths, OSC, MIDI and timecode.
Open → 5Media Over IP and Systems
Audio and video over the network, the tyranny of clock, designing for failure, and the paperwork.
Open →The model that runs through every class
Any traffic on a show network is one of four kinds. Learn the table, then use it to classify everything you meet for the rest of your career.
Control
Small, urgent, must arrive
Media
Large, continuous, on time and in order
Clock / sync
Tiny, ruthlessly regular
Management
Housekeeping, no deadline
The one to watch. Management traffic has no deadline and therefore no manners. It is the only flow that cannot itself be broken, and the one most likely to break everything else. Sort twenty four real examples →
What is on this platform
A preparation path
What to do before each class, what you must already be able to do, and a five question readiness check that points at the exact thing to go and fix.
Foundations
Bits and bytes, powers of two, binary and hex. Forty minutes, done once, and the rest of the module stops fighting you.
How we got here
Why each of these technologies exists, and what it refuses to do. Audio to the network, DMX to sACN, VGA to DisplayPort, parallel to serial, floppy disk to NVMe.
Eighteen calculators
Subnet, VLAN plan, PoE budget, timecode, LED wall, delay time, data rate, latency budget, universes and more. Each shows its working.
Four drills
An endless subnetting trainer, a fault diagnosis simulator built from real failure signatures, the Four Flows sort, and flashcards for every examinable number.
349 terms, bilingual
English and 繁體中文, grouped by domain, with a live filter and a flashcard mode.