What is Tracking

Tracking is the principle to store only the changes in the cues.

If a fixture is turned On in blue color, it will stay like this until it is told to change. It does not matter how many cues there are between being told to turn On and the cue where it is told to turn Off.

Instead of each cue between turning On and Off having the information that the fixture should be On in blue color, it is only needed to store it once - from there it is tracked.

Quite simply, tracking is the idea that once a parameter is set to a level, it stays there until it is told to go somewhere else.

Example

Fixture number 1 is stored in blue color, at 100 percent dimmer value in cue number 1. If there are 6 cues and fixture number 1 does not get any new information, then it will stay at 100% in blue color in all 6 cues.

The best way to see this information is by turning the Sequence Sheet into tracking sheet mode. This can be done by tapping Track Sheet in the title bar.

Notice the difference in text color between the values in cue 1 and the others. The magenta color indicates that the values are not actually stored in the cues, but it is a tracked value from a previous cue.

Now change the color of the fixture to red and set the dimmer to 100% again.

Store this as cue 4 (using the Merge option), now it looks like this:

The text color of the dimmer value and the green color attribute is now white. This indicates that the value is stored here, but it is the same value as the tracked value. This is called a "Blocked" value. This means that if any value is changed in any previous cue, then it would still be 100% in cue number 4. It is currently blocking the tracked value from cue 1 (the same value) and the value stored in cue 4 is tracking to the end.

The redundantly stored values can be removed from the cue by removing the stored dimmer value - this is also called "unblocking".

There are several ways to do this.

One option is to have the dimmer value for fixture number 1 as an active value in the programmer (it does not matter what the value is) and store cue 4 with the "Remove" option. This would remove the dimmer value from the cue.

A second option is using a command like this:

This removes all redundant blocked values from the entire sequence number 5.

Notice that using the unblock command keeps the green 0 value. Even though it is technically a redundant value, it is part of the defined color together with red and blue.

 

Tracking Distance

Tracking values can have a distance. This can be changed in the Tracking Distance column.

There are two types of tracking distances: Track a number of cues (delta) or track until a specific cue.

Both types release the attribute when the tracking distance ends. This will return the attribute to a previous tracked value or it will release it from the sequence. See the examples below.

The attributes affected and the number of cues the tracking distance is valid is displayed by a vertical white line next to the value.

Examples

This is an example of a sequence with fixture 1 at 100% intensity and in blue color. In cue 4 the color is changed to red and the tracking distance is set to Δ1 by editing the cell.

As a result, the red color is tracking from the stored cue and one more cue. Then the fixtures return to the previous tracked values.

 

Setting an absolute number indicates what specific cue number the tracking should be valid. In this example, the fixture is stored in cue 1 with a blue color. The red and blue color attributes are changed in cue 4.

The tracking distance is set to cue number 2 in cue number 1.

The result is that the values stored in cue 1 are tracking until and including cue number 2. The values are then released. There are no other values from previous cues, so the result is that the fixture is released from the sequence until it get some color values in cue 4.

 

Cue Zero

Cue Zero is an automatically created cue containing a link to default values of attributes. Cue zero cannot be modified manually. This cue provides default values when starting the sequence and provides the missing default data when moving or copying cues.

 

Off Cue

The Off cue is not a real cue. It does not contain attribute values. It has timing information used then the sequence is turned Off.

 

Release

The sequence sheet has a Release column. Editing a field in this column changes the cell to Yes. This means that tracked values will be released from this cue and forward.

 It makes a white horizontal line above the released cue. This indicates that tracked values are stopped and if there are not any other values in the sequence, then the attribute is released from the sequence - empty black cells. 

When an attribute is released in the sequence, then it is the same as the sequence no longer sending any information to the attribute.

If a different sequence is sending values to the attribute, then these values are used.  Sequence priority can be important in this case - read about priorities in the Play back Cues topic. 

If the attribute does not receive values from any sequence or the programmer, then they go back to the default values.

It is also possible to store values using the Release option. This empties the relevant fields in the sequence tracking sheet.

 

Turning Tracking On or Off

Also in the sequence settings, there is the option to turn On or Off the tracking function.

When tracking is Off, the tracked values are gone and where the value was tracked it will be released instead.

Looking at the sequence used in the example above, it would look like this without tracking:

Fixtures 1 would only be On in cue 1 in blue. In cue 2 it would return the default values. In cue 4 it would turn red, but the dimmer is Off. In cue 5 the color returns to the default.