{"id":4387,"date":"2016-11-03T06:35:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T13:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=4387"},"modified":"2016-11-03T07:05:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:05:07","slug":"creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you go to a Broadway show or a big rock concert, you might see pieces of scenery move on their own\u2014rising and descending, shifting side to side, or rotating in place. Behind the scenes, specialized machines make it all happen, coordinated by a software-driven automation system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gareth Conner founded Rhode Island-based Creative Conners<\/a> in 2004 to bring that kind of automation to regional and school theaters. Now his staff is using Fusion 360 to create new designs for the machinery that controls how scenery dances around on stage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Regional Theater to Big-Time Productions and Entrepreneurship<\/h2>\n

\"creative1\"Conner got his start in technical theater when he joined his high school\u2019s stage crew. He liked it so much that he ended up getting a fine arts degree in college, then working in regional theaters in the Southwest. \u201cI\u2019ve always really enjoyed technical challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t take long to figure out that the really fun stuff to do wasn\u2019t building the static scenery, but the machinery that moves the scenery around. So I kind of got hooked on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conner went to Boston in the early 1990s to work for a firm that made high-end theatrical machinery for television studios, Disney theme parks, and the like. The company was just beginning to incorporate automation, and Conner ended up doing a lot of CAD work, as well as learning on the fly how to write automation software.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wanting to get back to his artistic roots\u2014and start his own company\u2014he found himself thinking: \u201cWhat would be really fun would be to take this technology, simplify it a bit, and then bring it back to the theater space.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Designing Machinery, Electronics, and Software From the Ground Up<\/h2>\n

\"floorpocket\"These days, the Creative Conners team designs and manufactures every component required to automate scenery. The company makes various machines to raise, pull, or spin pieces of scenery, as well as an electronic control device and the software that runs it all. The result is a modular system that allows a stage crew to program how scenery should move around, then hit one button and have it all happen automatically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He likes the work so much because of the fun of wearing different hats, from software programming to product design to hands-on engineering and manufacturing. As he puts it, \u201cYou are there when it\u2019s just a blank sheet of paper, and you\u2019re there when it\u2019s a finished product\u201d being put on a truck to go to a rock-and-roll show or a high school production of Les Mis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Improving the Design Process With Fusion 360<\/h2>\n

\"creativef\"For years, Conner and his crew relied on SolidWorks for CAD, but they moved to Fusion 360 this summer. Several things pushed them in that direction. For starters, they needed designers working remotely to execute a lot of work in parallel. \u201dThe cloud component and collaboration in Fusion 360 were great for that,\u201d Conner says, adding that \u201dthe idea of buying a bunch more SolidWorks licenses was unattractive, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Initially, Conner was worried that Fusion 360 might not be robust enough for his company\u2019s design needs. In fact, though, he\u2019s found that it\u2019s \u201cjust better all the way around.\u201d Besides being much faster and making it much easier to implement changes, he says, \u201cit\u2019s a much more pleasurable experience designing in Fusion 360 than it ever was in SolidWorks.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Years of using SolidWorks had conditioned Conner \u201cto design the machine before you design the machine,\u201d so to speak\u2014for example by carefully planning out file structures ahead of time\u2014so as not to run into trouble later. There\u2019s a big downside to that mentality, he notes: \u201cIf your design tool intimidates you at all, then you start to get a little skittish about your design work.\u201d\"conner4\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By contrast, Fusion 360 gave him the confidence to rip apart the design for a new turntable machine to make major changes to the drivetrain and other major components. \u201cYou can lay out the design with reckless abandon,\u201d Conner says. \u201cThe history [feature] really frees you up, and you stop being timid. . . . You just do it, because it\u2019s all being captured right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another big help has been Fusion 360\u2019s tight integration of CAD and CAM, which Conner calls \u201csuch a breath of fresh air.\u201d When the team needs to make changes to a design, there\u2019s no need to re-export or merge files; they simply make their tweaks and go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That freedom and speed allowed the team to make large changes to the turntable design and still get it done about three times faster than they would have otherwise\u2014two weeks, instead of six. \u201cYou\u2019re doing it better because the software is working so quickly with you,\u201d Conner says. \u201cIt gets out of our way and lets us really do what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Serving Both Broadway and High Schools<\/h2>\n

Conner wants to keep growing his product roadmap at both the high and low end. The company\u2019s Pro line is designed for bigger shows that need more complex effects. For all of the same reasons the equipment has been popular in smaller venues\u2014including ease of use and low price\u2014it has also started to find its way into some Broadway shows, for example a recent run of \u201cMisery\u201d starring Bruce Willis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Apprentice line is aimed at the school market. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me the number of high schools using our equipment,\u201d Conner says. He laughs when he adds that the company gets the fewest tech support requests from the youngest users\u2014especially high school students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Either way, he says, \u201cWe are the company, that when you get handed the design of the show and realize that the stuff has to move around, we\u2019re your next phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":4873,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCreative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters - Fusion Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters - Fusion Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fusion Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T13:35:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-03T14:05:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png?fit=400%2C220&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Walker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Walker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters - Fusion Blog","description":"Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters - Fusion Blog","og_description":"Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/","og_site_name":"Fusion Blog","article_published_time":"2016-11-03T13:35:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-03T14:05:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":220,"url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png?fit=400%2C220&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tim Walker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Walker","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/"},"author":{"name":"Tim Walker","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d9d3173db7bb290d374a5fd2ef7612"},"headline":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters","datePublished":"2016-11-03T13:35:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-03T14:05:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/"},"wordCount":993,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png","articleSection":["Fusion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/","name":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters - Fusion Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png","datePublished":"2016-11-03T13:35:23+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-03T14:05:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d9d3173db7bb290d374a5fd2ef7612"},"description":"Creative Conners, Inc. offers a line of products that make scenic automation possible for theaters and scene shops of all sizes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CreativeThumbnail.png","width":400,"height":220},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/creative-conners-quality-automation-theaters\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Creative Conners Delivers Broadway-Quality Automation for Small Theaters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/","name":"Fusion Blog","description":"Product updates, tips, tutorials and community news.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d9d3173db7bb290d374a5fd2ef7612","name":"Tim Walker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cfdf3eac21e715c5c00cbf4de1a31830d0feea20aad18b7a7adccc873b5f0c?s=96&d=wp_user_avatar&r=gd9ecd9ce1b25f7b4471a0e5c752f5c2b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cfdf3eac21e715c5c00cbf4de1a31830d0feea20aad18b7a7adccc873b5f0c?s=96&d=wp_user_avatar&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84cfdf3eac21e715c5c00cbf4de1a31830d0feea20aad18b7a7adccc873b5f0c?s=96&d=wp_user_avatar&r=g","caption":"Tim Walker"},"description":"Tim has been writing about technology as a journalist, analyst, and marketer for more than 15 years. He enjoys reading (fiction, science, history, business, you name it), lifting weights, traveling, spending time with his family, and hiking the trails in his hometown of Austin.","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/author\/tim-walker\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4387"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}