Chapter 1 · An Introduction 5 entertainment, and museum exhibits. This limitation is meant to exclude film, video, audio or other types of "nonlive" media production, post-production, or presentation. Of course, the control technologies covered in this book can be applied to (or may have come from) other disciplines, but if I didn't narrow the topic, this book would be an encyclopedia--the scope of information really is that broad. E VOLUTION OF E NTERTAINMENT C ONTROL Humans have been wired by evolution with a strong desire to hear and tell stories. In show business, storytelling has always been our job, and modern entertainment technology provides a powerful set of storytelling tools which now extend beyond the traditional performing arts and include a wide array of venues and types of shows: corporate events, concerts, mega churches, cruise ships, museums, and so on. These powerful tools, however, come with the cost of increased complexity. In the early 1980s, lighting control systems could be relatively straightforward and easy to understand. They used one wire per dimmer, each wire sending a simple analog voltage to represent the level to which that dimmer should be set. Sound systems were analog and audio automation was generally not economically feasible for live performances. Video was prohibitively expensive in general, and display devices were always too dim and never had enough resolu- tion. Machinery systems were only used in the largest venues, with relatively simple control systems. Systems of this era were usually pretty easy to understand on an intuitive level, and