Typically, a cue with data recorded for all channels - meaning that when in Tracking mode no information from earlier cues will be used. Within Genius Pro on Strand Lighting consoles a block cue is referred to as a Soft Block.

A blocked channel is a level recorded that will affect (that is, when played back) any previous value that was setting the output of the channel.

In a tracking console, it is often desirable to make certain cues (particularly at the end of scenes) contain definite ("hard", or "blocking") values for every channel in the console. For example, if the scene ends with a fade-to-black, you would not want a new level in a look preceding the fade-to-black to "track" into the black cue and spoil it. So the black cue would be recorded as a complete list of zero levels, a "Block" cue.

Such zeros have meaning beyond "channel at zero". They also mean "do not accept a tracking value from before this cue". On many console displays, a blocking value appears in boldface or a color like blue for up-move or green for down-move, while a tracking value (that comes from a previous cue) might be in the non-bold font, or a subdued color like magenta.

Now consider the possibility where the final cue of the scene is a single special on a character, followed by a general fade up on the next scene. In this case the "Block" cue would be all channels at zero except the special. The "Block" cue levels are not affected by re-recording previous cues. So if the designer later changes the level of the single special, that new level would have to be recorded into both the cue where it comes up, and into the "Block" cue where it is the only channel that does not go out.

A few consoles have a global cue attribute with a name like "allfade". This can mean that a new non-zero level can track into the cue and will then stop there. This makes it unnecessary to re-record a desired level into the "block" cue.

This logic still has meaning in newer control systems. For example, a cue might block all channels that have "intensity" values, but leave all non-brightness parameters unblocked. Then, changes in (for example) moving light positions will track through the cue and remain correct the next time the moved fixtures are used. If the position parameters were also blocked, a new position would not be available after the "Block" cue has been executed.

The question of what happens when cues are played back "out of order" is slightly different. It's a console design decision as to whether pressing "Go To" calls for the complete state of the destination cue, or only to affect channel values recorded in the cue. In most cases, the destination cue is temporarily treated as a a complete snapshot of all console channels, like a blocking cue, although it may not actually have any blocking channels recorded in it.

The bolded levels show that Cue 4 is a blocked focus down to a single special, and that Cue 5 is a blocked fade-to-black (or a blackout, since the timing information has been omitted.) As discussed above, it's a matter of judgment whether Cue 4 ought to be a full block. As illustrated, earlier changes in the level of Channel 7 will not track automatically into Cue 4. Whether that is the right result or not depends on how the designer choses to do the "housekeeping".

In Cue 2, Channel 4 decreases intensity to 25%, but the level the console shows in Cue 3 would most likely be a "track" of that change, so that if the change in Cue 2 were revised to 35% and recorded "to track", the number shown in Cue 3 would change automatically to 35:

If the designer didn't want the new 35% value to track (because the 25% value looked good for the rest of the scene), the new level would be recorded (with the addition of one keypress:) "Cue-Only", and the 25 in Cue 3 would become a "hard move". This is important because if the Cue 2 value is subsequently changed again, it has become impossible to track that value into Cue 3 because the value of 25% there has automatically become a "move" instead of a "track". It is understood to be the correct value for channel 3 at that time, until explicitly changed:

In most light boards, the choice of "Cue-Only" or "Track" only affects the recording of cue levels. When cues are played back, which channels have a value recorded for them does affect the results. But playing back the same cues with either mode set does not produce different results onstage.

See Also

• Tracking
• Cue Only