Bytecraft's State V Theatre Automation System: Fault-tolerant stage motion control for opera, ballet, music and television

Bytecraft's State V Theatre Automation System
Fault-tolerant stage motion control for opera, ballet, music and television

Bytecraft's State V Automation System provides real-time motion control of complex stage scenery in medium to large theatres. The State V achieves a smoothness of movement equivalent to that of manual equipment operation, with no jerk, shake or rattle. A typical State V Automation System consists of a SysCon console, an optical rail, and a number of winch controllers or axis controllers linked by the distribution panel into a data network. The safety-critical system controller features a dual-computer, redundant, multiprocessor architecture to ensure optimum reliability during performances. Specialized operator interfaces allow any piece or collection of scenery to be moved, and actions and cues can be designed and recorded for later play-back. World-class theatres and arts centers such as the Sydney Opera House, the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, and San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House have used Bytecraft's stage automation technology.

The LynxOS® real-time operating system is used in State V's dual-computer system controller for mission-critical handling of motion control. Because safety is crucial, the system relies on the determinism of LynxOS, which guarantees response time of system events.