This article explains how automation works on the ENTTEC S-PLAY show controller: what the unit does when no operator is present, and how its building blocks fit together. The S-PLAY stores lighting content on the device itself and plays it back on its own, driven by a clock or by external inputs, so a permanent installation keeps running without a console, a computer, or anyone on site.
Everything on the S-PLAY reduces to four layers. Cues hold the lighting states. Playlists arrange cues on a timeline. Schedules start playlists at times you define. Triggers start playlists in response to the outside world. Each layer has its own detailed article in this folder; this page is the map, not the manual.
What automation means on the S-PLAY
In a live production, a person at a console pushes the show along. In a permanent installation (a foyer, a facade, a bar, a museum) nobody is driving. The S-PLAY fills that gap: it holds recorded or composed lighting states in onboard storage and outputs them as DMX, Art-Net, or sACN whenever its rules say to. All programming happens in its built-in web interface from a browser on the same network, and once configured, the device needs nothing connected to it. See Networking for reaching the web interface the first time.
Cues: the content
A cue is the lighting data itself. There are three kinds: static cues (a fixed DMX snapshot), dynamic cues (a recorded stream of DMX over time), and effect cues generated in the web interface. Dynamic cues are how console-programmed looks get onto the device: play the sequence from your lighting software or console into the S-PLAY over sACN or Art-Net, or through the physical DMX ports, and the unit records it for standalone playback across up to 32 universes. See S-Play Recording Best Practices for capturing clean recordings, and Output for how playback is mapped to DMX, Art-Net, and sACN destinations.
Playlists: the arrangement
A playlist is a timeline that combines cues with fades, durations, loops, and priorities. The S-PLAY supports up to 200 playlists with up to 4 cue tracks each, and multiple playlists can run at the same time on different fixtures or universes, which is how one unit serves several zones; see Can the S-Play control multiple rooms at once?. Playlists can also contain events: outbound actions the S-PLAY performs at a set point in the timeline, sending RS232, UDP, or OSC commands or switching its two onboard relays. That is how a lighting timeline also starts a projector, an audio source, or a motorised screen. Relay ratings are covered in What are the S-Play's relay specifications?.
Schedules: time-based automation
The scheduler starts or stops playlists on the clock. A schedule has a start condition, an end condition, and a frequency, so "run the facade show nightly from November to December" is one entry, not a maintenance task. Start conditions can be a fixed time or sunrise and sunset with an offset; the sun phase is computed from the latitude, longitude, and GMT offset you set on the settings page, so a show can begin 30 minutes before sunset all year without seasonal reprogramming. Schedules are only as good as the system clock: configure NTP sync and location correctly per Time & NTP Server before relying on them.
Triggers: event-based automation
Triggers start, stop, or pause playlists when something happens outside the unit. The S-PLAY accepts up to 200 triggers from:
- Digital inputs: four contact-closure ports on a screw terminal, so any pushbutton, pressure pad, motion sensor, or relay output from another system works.
- RS232: ASCII strings from AV processors and control-system gateways, received on the serial port.
- UDP and OSC: network messages from building automation systems, touch panels, and phone apps.
- DMX, Art-Net, and sACN: a channel value from another controller acts as the trigger.
The deep dive, including wiring and configuration, is Triggers. Two practical companions: Cycling Through Playlists Using a Single Button shows a common one-button pattern, and When sending UDP or RS232, how do I send a Carriage Return or Line Feed? covers terminating command strings correctly. If four inputs are not enough, the I/O Extender adds 20 digital inputs, 4 relays, and 2 analog inputs; see Making Sense of Sensors - S-Play and I/O Extender.
Interfaces and integration
For venue staff who should press one labelled button rather than open the full editor, the S-PLAY can host up to 10 lightweight custom control pages, phone-friendly and without access to configuration. There is also an open HTTP API plus OSC control for integrating third-party touch panels, PLCs, and building management systems. S-Play Interfaces compares these options and S-Play API documents the API itself.
Two planning-stage notes. The S-PLAY can also behave as a plain Art-Net/sACN node when needed; see Can I use the S-Play as an Art-Net/sACN node?. And in venues where a live console sometimes takes over from playback, sACN priority gives a clean automatic handover between the two; see Using sACN priority for seamless handover between playback (S-PLAY) and live console.
A concrete example
Picture a bar. A schedule turns the general lighting on at 4 pm daily and fades to the late-night look at 11 pm. The facade playlist is scheduled from 30 minutes before sunset until 1 am. Behind the bar, a single pushbutton wired to a digital input cycles the main room to its next look on each press, and a second button stops everything at closing time. Nobody at the venue ever opens a lighting program; the S-PLAY just runs.
Where the S-PLAY fits versus software
Software such as ELM or EMU running on a computer can also play back shows, and during programming you may well use exactly that as the source you record from. The difference is operational: a PC brings an operating system, updates, sleep settings, and a machine someone can unplug or repurpose. The S-PLAY is dedicated hardware that boots straight into playback, draws at most 8 W, and mounts in a rack, on a surface, or on DIN rail alongside the rest of the installation. For a permanent install that has to work every day with nobody maintaining a computer, that reliability is the point. Full specifications and resources are on the S-PLAY product page, and the full reference is the S-PLAY user manual.