Technical Direction16 classes · 64 hours
Electronics
for Theatre and Live Performance
Every effect in a live show is a controlled release of energy, and everything you will learn here is about controlling it deliberately, proving that you did, and knowing what happens when it fails.
Sixteen four-hour classes. Every one has an idea to understand and something to build, because in this trade knowing and doing are the same skill measured twice.
The shape of the course
Eight units of two classes. The first class of a unit opens the idea and gets it onto the bench; the second builds something that only works if the idea was understood. That is the whole structure, and it repeats eight times.
- Unit 1 Electricity, and proving it 12 8 h
- Unit 2 Parts, and joining them 34 8 h
- Unit 3 Loads and switching 56 8 h
- Unit 4 Analogue signal 78 8 h
- Unit 5 Data, protocols and rigs 910 8 h
- Unit 6 Microcontrollers 1112 8 h
- Unit 7 Sensors and actuators 1314 8 h
- Unit 8 Safety, faults and the capstone 1516 8 h
The sixteen classes
Unit 1Electricity, and proving it
What Electricity Does in a Theatre
Voltage, current, resistance and power, defined by what they do to a show rather than by their formulae.
undefinedh bench Open → 2Measure, Test, Prove
The multimeter as an instrument of argument: what each mode really asks the circuit, and how to be sure rather than confident.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 2Parts, and joining them
Components and Connectors
What each part does when you ask it for something it cannot give, and why the industry settled on the connectors it did.
undefinedh bench Open → 4Soldering and Fabrication
Heat, wetting and strain relief. A joint fails mechanically long before it fails electrically.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 3Loads and switching
Loads, Switching and Isolation
Relays, transistors and opto-isolators: how a 5 V thought turns into a 230 V action without either killing the other.
undefinedh bench Open → 6Build a Driver Board
One board, built and proved: logic in, protected switching out, and a flyback diode you can explain.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 4Analogue signal
Analogue Signal, Impedance and Grounding
Levels, balanced lines and the ground loop: why a working system hums the moment two boxes meet.
undefinedh bench Open → 8Hum Hunting and Scope Work
The oscilloscope as the first instrument that shows you time, and a method for finding hum that does not involve guessing.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 5Data, protocols and rigs
Data, Protocols and Networks
RS-485, DMX512, MIDI, OSC and sACN. Four wires, one differential pair, and the reason terminators exist.
undefinedh bench Open → 10Build and Break a Rig
Build a working DMX and network rig, then break it deliberately, one fault at a time, and learn what each failure looks like.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 6Microcontrollers
Microcontrollers
A chip that does one thing forever, very fast. Pins, the ADC, PWM, timing, and why delay() ruins a show.
undefinedh bench Open → 12Program a Prop
Firmware for something that has to work on the eightieth performance, not the first: debounce, state, and a safe power-up.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 7Sensors and actuators
Sensors and Actuators
How the machine finds out where something is, and how it makes something move without being the thing that hurts somebody.
undefinedh bench Open → 14Build a Triggered Effect
Sensor to decision to actuator, on a cue, repeatably, with a defined behaviour when it loses power halfway.
undefinedh bench Open →Unit 8Safety, faults and the capstone
Safety Systems and Fault-Finding
Emergency stop, interlocks, dual channel monitoring and isolation, then a method for finding faults that works when you are tired.
undefinedh bench Open → 16Capstone and Fault-Finding Exam
Build it, prove it, document it, then find three faults in somebody else’s under time pressure.
undefinedh bench Open →How every class runs
An hour of why
The idea, with figures you can break. Not a lecture: the animations exist so you can push the circuit into the failure the class is about, which is the only way the numbers stop being decoration.
Two to three hours of bench
Measure it, build it, prove it. Every class produces something you keep, or a measurement you wrote down and can defend.
A quiz you have already seen
Five minutes of numbers at the top of every class, drawn from the same deck that is on this site. Nothing is a surprise and nothing is a trick.
What is on this platform
A preparation path
What to do before each class, what you must already be able to do, and a readiness check that names the exact thing to go and fix rather than telling you a score.
Foundations
Prefixes, powers of ten and the three formulae. Forty minutes, done once, and the rest of the course stops fighting you.
The safety card
The rules that are not negotiable, why each one exists, and what to do in the four situations where hesitating is the dangerous choice.
17 calculators
Ohm’s law, power and breakers, dividers, LED resistors, RC filters, cable drop, wire size, decibels, PWM, ADC scaling and DMX timing. Each shows its working.
Four drills
Flashcards for every examinable number, component identification against real markings, spot the myth, and a fault diagnosis simulator scored on the order you investigate in.
187 terms, bilingual
English and 繁體中文, grouped by domain, with a live filter and a flashcard mode.
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.
- This one
Electronics for Theatre
Technical Direction, year 1 · core
Below the connector: what electricity does in a building, proved with a meter. - →
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.