Record Options
Snapshot & SmartTag
Snapshot
Snapshot will store a value for every single parameter of every single fixture in the cue, ensuring that the lighting state you see is exactly what is recorded.
It is especially useful if you are recording cues with tracking behaviour, as it can be used to record cues that you know you never want values to track into. Once a cue is recorded with snapshot, it can sometimes be referred to as a "Block Cue" or "Blocked Cue", as it blocks values from tracking into the cue.
Rather than choosing Snapshot from the Record Options window to enable it (indicated with a red stripe on the Snapshot button), the shortcut to record a Snapshot cue is to hold Shift and tap Record. On FLX this will bring "Record All" into the command line, and Snapshot will be preselected in the Record Options window.
SmartTag
Ultimately, when SmartTag is enabled, the console decides what gets recorded. With SmartTag disabled, it is down to you.
SmartTag ensures the lighting state you see on stage, is exactly what is recorded. This means that the console will include parameters that you have adjusted manually, or "tagged", but will also include any other values required to achieve your current lighting state. SmartTag will therefore see if you have any other playbacks active, and will also record these parameters into the cue too. With SmartTag disabled, only the parameters you manually controlled, and "tagged", would get recorded.
It does not store every parameter into every cue, and therefore SmartTag and Snapshot are different functions that cannot be enabled together. The reason SmartTag doesn't simply record every parameter into every cue, is for three key factors. The main one being, is that if all cues included all parameters, it would make mixing playbacks much harder, as all the cues would be fighting over all the parameters. SmartTag also helps you use two other functions on the console, which are the other two reasons SmartTag doesn't simply include all parameters into all cues.
These functions are Tracking and Move On Dark, which are explained in other sections.
This is because with SmartTag enabled, indicated with a red stripe on the SmartTag button, the console will only include values that are different to the previous cue - the logic is there is no point telling a fixture to do something it is doing already! It therefore doesn't store "block" values, and so allows you to use tracking to easily update multiple cues at once.
When SmartTag is enabled, it also will not store parameters of a fixture, if its intensity is at 0%. All it will do, is store the intensity value at 0, and leave the remaining parameters untouched. This allows Move On Dark to be able to prepare that fixture for when it is next used.
When SmartTag is disabled, indicated with a blue stripe on the SmartTag button, you decide what gets stored into cues and palettes, by tagging required fixtures, attributes and parameters. This means that when SmartTag is disabled, you then have access to the filtering options, found under the "Tracking Options" in the Record Options window.
If a cue is recorded or updated with SmartTag enabled, ZerOS will not include information for a fixture, if the fixture's information is identical to the previous cue. SmartTag can therefore be used to unblock a cue.
To do this, go into a cue you wish to unblock. Then tap UPDATE, ensure SmartTag is enabled, and then tap your playback's button. ZerOS will remove any blocked values from this cue, meaning information will be removed from the cue for fixtures that were being told to go to a value they were at already in the previous cue.
Now instead, the fixtures will track from the previous cue.