New technology is giving human followspot operators a bad name

A system called Autopilot pioneered this back in the 1990s. But a new wave of systems over the past few years has seen this approach adopted by some high-profile shows.

The appeal is obvious: for the designer, the opportunity to use lots of lights, sometimes in inaccessible locations, as followspots; for the producer, fewer people to pay. On some shows, the sound department also makes use of the position data. Everyone wins…

Broadway pays its experienced spot ops well because the stars know – and are happier – when their light is with them

Except perhaps the audience, who must surely wonder why the light is not quite on target, or is jiggling around when the performer is still, or is half a pace behind them when they move – anticipation, it turns out, is hard for computers! It’s tricky to pin down where the problems are – are they fundamental to the system or about the set-up or because of the big, heavy moving lights often used? I predict a resurgence of the moving mirror light, since moving just a tiny, lightweight mirror must surely help with this.

In the early days of Autopilot, it was the performers themselves who noticed all this, some big names demanding the return of humans on the end of their lights. Broadway pays its experienced spot ops well for the same reason: the stars know – and are happier – when their light is with them.

There’s probably no going back now, either with the trackers or with the in-between systems that have a human operator controlling the moving lights remotely through a ‘fake spot’-type interface. But we just need to be sure everyone understands that even though the technology is already on shows, it still needs to be better. Until you can’t tell whether it’s a machine or the best of humans, the machine isn’t good enough.