To create and export a script for the SBC Spectra Series firing system, please follow these three steps:
- Design the show.
- Address the show (“Addressing > Address show”).
- Export the script (“File > Export > Export firing scripts“).
Step 3 creates the script file, which is a CSV file that you can import into the SBC Spectra Series software.
Figure 1 – SBC Spectra Series control panel
The CSV header row defines the fields, and the terminology is similar to the column headers in Finale 3D.
Table 1 – File format and encoding
| File format | Extension | Text encoding | Field delimiter | End-of-line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | .CSV | ASCII | , (comma) | CRLF |
The script contains rows for the firing events, i.e., unique combinations of module, pin, and ignition-time. Multiple effects can be combined on a single cue. The special characteristics of the script are shown in the following table:
Table 2 – Special characteristics
| Special characteristics | Description |
|---|---|
| Sort order of rows | Rows sorted ascending by event time. |
| What rows represent | Each row represents a unique firing event, a module/pin/event-time combination. For example, a chain of five shells will be one row, not five. A pair of shells shot together from the same position will be one row, not two, even if the shells are different effects. A flight of shells shot together from multiple positions with the same module-pin using scab wire is still one row. Events at different times are necessarily different rows, even if their addresses are the same. For example, two flame projector shots at different times, triggered by the same module-pin address, will be two rows because they are at different times. |
| Multiple hosts | A show design for multiple types of firing systems or multiple hosts of the same type of firing system uses the “Universe” property of the positions to partition the show, specifying which firing system or firing system host the events in that position belong to. SBC firing system host IDs are integers: 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. If your show contains universes for multiple SBC firing system hosts, those universe names must therefore be integers. The export function will export one script file for each universe. The script filename will have the form XXX_1 or XXX_2 for host 1 or 2. The file will also contain the host number as a header row in the contents of the file. A default host ID of 0 applies if the Universe field is empty or does not contain a valid integer. |
| Header | The file contains a single header row with the column names, in the same format as the CSV data rows themselves, in addition to text rows beginning with “#” to specify other information including the host ID. |
| Multi-hit pins | Non-pyro effects like flames and relays can be triggered multiple times on the same module-pin address. The standard pyro addressing functions in Finale 3D assign pins sequentially, so it may be easiest to address multi-hit pins in Finale 3D by editing the script table by hand and then locking the edited rows so the show can be re-addressed for pyro without affecting them. |
| Special characters | The file uses the Excel CSV convention for escaping special characters. Fields that contain commas or double quotes are enclosed in double quotes, and any interior double quotes are doubled-up. |
| Minimum separation between cues | None required; millisecond resolution supported. |
| Module specifications | Supports 100 modules (numbered 0-99), each module with 32 pins (numbered 0-31). |
| Segments | SBC Spectra Series supports dividing a show into multiple segments corresponding to songs. By default, every song file you add to your show in Finale 3D corresponds to a separate segment, beginning with zero for the first and counting up. See segments for instructions. |
Table 3 – Export options
| Option name | Description |
|---|---|
| One segment for entire show | Show will contain one segment, even if it has multiple songs or segment markers |
| One segment per song or segment marker | Each song file or segment marker will delineate a segment of the show that can be triggered separately (see Segments) |
After the header, each row in the script has a number of fields separated by the comma character. The names of these fields and their descriptions are the following:
Table 4 – Specifications of script fields
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Cue | Row number starting from 1. |
| Segment | The segment number 0-255; 0 being the default value (defined by songs or segment markers in Finale 3D). |
| EventTime | The event time relative to the beginning of the show or segment, in millisecond resolution, in the format HH:MM:SS.FFF. |
| EffectTime | The effect time relative to the beginning of the show or segment, in millisecond resolution, in the format HH:MM:SS.FFF. |
| Module | The module address 0-99. |
| Pin | The pin address, 0-31. |
| DeviceCount | Number of devices (integer). |
| EffectName | A description of the effect (string, 80 characters max). |
| Caliber | The diameter of the effect, including units, e.g., 75mm or 3″ (string, 20 characters max). |
| Angles | Angles of the shots, separated by commas; negative = left from audience perspective (string, 20 characters max). |
| Position | The position name (string, 80 characters max). |
An example script is shown below.
#SBC script
#Exported from Finale3D
#Version: 1.0
#Host ID: 0
Cue,Segment,EventTime,EffectTime,Module,Pin,DeviceCount,EffectName,Caliber,Angles,Position
1,0,00:00:02.760,00:00:05.000,0,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",0,P-01
2,0,00:00:04.010,00:00:06.250,1,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",0,P-02
3,0,00:00:05.260,00:00:07.500,2,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",0,P-03
4,0,00:00:06.510,00:00:08.750,3,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",-45,P-04
5,0,00:00:06.510,00:00:08.750,4,1,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",0,P-05
6,0,00:00:06.510,00:00:08.750,5,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",45,P-06
7,0,00:00:10.260,00:00:12.500,6,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",-45,P-07
8,0,00:00:11.510,00:00:13.750,7,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",0,P-08
9,0,00:00:12.760,00:00:15.000,8,0,1,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",45,P-09
10,0,00:00:17.760,00:00:20.000,4,2,3,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""","-45,0,45",P-05
11,0,00:00:27.760,00:00:30.000,4,0,3,"White Chrysanthemum, Red Chrysanthemum, Blue Chrysanthemum","2""","-45,0,45",P-05
12,1,00:00:21.764,00:00:21.764,0,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-01
13,1,00:00:21.864,00:00:21.864,1,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-02
14,1,00:00:21.964,00:00:21.964,2,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-03
15,1,00:00:22.064,00:00:22.064,3,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-04
16,1,00:00:22.164,00:00:22.164,4,3,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-05
17,1,00:00:22.264,00:00:22.264,5,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-06
18,1,00:00:22.364,00:00:22.364,6,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-07
19,1,00:00:22.464,00:00:22.464,7,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-08
20,1,00:00:22.564,00:00:22.564,8,1,1,Red Comet,"2""",0,P-09
Figure 1 – Example SBC Spectra Series script
Table 5 – Example files
| Download link | Explanation |
| test-sbc-spectra-series.fin | Example show file |
| test-sbc-spectra-series.csv | Example exported file (CSV) |