My Original 1994 Control Systems for Live Entertainment Searchable PDF Now Free Online

In celebration of the release of my new book, Introduction To Show Networking, I sent my first book from 1994, Control Systems for Live Entertainment, out for scanning and it’s now available free in a (large) searchable PDF here. 26 years after the release of this first edition, my first book is a bit of a time capsule and somewhat quaint. There are two references to Ethernet there, while the new 150 page Introduction to Show Networking book is all about Ethernet. The 1994 book reflects its era and covers a lot of wiring techniques, bit-level details of standards and explanations of connections and control at very low levels. The new book has almost no low-level wiring details, because we are now working on a mature platform of Ethernet and IP addresses, and generally work at a much higher level in software. I’ve written extensively about that evolution and maturity and have two articles and a timeline here. However, for some of our more ancient standards like DMX and MIDI, some of the information in the 1994 edition is still (mostly) applicable. And the pictures are hilarious (one of the reasons my last few books have no pictures).

If you’d like to buy a copy a bot is selling one for $800 on Amazon!