What We Do...
Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (FTSI) designs, manufactures, and installs high performance automation machinery and controls for the entertainment industry.

FTSI's products are used in theaters, theme parks, touring productions, and motion pictures around the world.

A Little History...
Fisher Technical Services was founded in 1996. Scott Fisher's years of experience working with automated equipment in the entertainment industry instilled in him a vision of a better way. This vision has guided and kept the company on track providing high quality equipment and dedicated customer oriented service.

In 2004, Fisher Technical Services, Inc. relocated to our current headquarters at the speedway industrial center in Las Vegas. With over 30,000 square feet of space, FTSI continues to execute large-scale projects while manufacturing our core of stock products.

Also in 2004, FTSI launched Fisher Technical Services Rentals (FTSR). FTSR has provided high speed winches for the film industry with machines used on such films as "Spiderman 3", "Sky High", "Crank", and "Where the Wild Things Are", to name a few.

As FTSI surpasses 12 years of operation, we continue to provide high-quality equipment for a variety of automation and custom applications. This dedication to quality combined with Scott's comprehensive vision drives everyone to continue to achieve great success in all of our endeavors.

Some Background on the Navigator Automation System...
Fisher Technical Services, Inc (FTSI for the formal, “Fishtech” for the casual) began building theater automation systems in 1997. We began with building powerful and elegant hardware like winches, elevators and flying carpets but quickly realized that the rapid increase in computing power and networks could be harnessed for theater automation purpose. We wanted to couple the hardware to sophisticated software to enable creative teams to be able to express ourselves eloquently through the automation systems. Above all, we wanted to build this equipment without getting anyone killed.

The namesake of the company is Scott Fisher. Originally from a family of engineers, Fisher worked as a roadie as a youth and later as a theater automation operator. As an automation operator he grew frustrated with the limitations of the automation systems of the nineties and decided that, with a group of his theater cohorts, he would do better. With technical expertise pulled from around the globe but firmly grounded in the day to day needs of running a show, on time, every time, this small company is staged to revolutionize production automation.

FTSI personnel Vic Trujilo (Automation Specialist) Dana Bartholomew (Senior Manufacturing Engineer) and Scott Fisher (CEO) relax in front of a portable four axis system for single point three dimensional flight.

Although the winches, elevators, lifts, carousels, turntables and other machines that emerge from the FTSI 27,000 square foot production facility in Las Vegas are impressive in their design and execution, it is the control system “Navigator” (not to be confused with Netscape’s web browser) that allows for complex motion to be arranged safely and quickly. As the Production Stage Manager for the new Wynn show Phyllis Schray puts it: “For Le Rêve we were able to create beautiful, choreographically intricate flying sequences. The Fisher system gave us the tools and the flexibility to write very complex cues very quickly.”

This screen from the Navigator interface allows a user to visually simulate automation routines or, after sending the programming to the network, monitor the actual motion of the system. Pictured is a single performer being flown in a square room by four networked FTSI winches. The trace on the screen depicts the path the performer will take.

To achieve this level of sophistication, FTSI had to take a radical departure from traditional control system architecture. Most theater automation systems are based upon industrial motion controls. The Navigator system is a true computer network that is not dependent upon any centralized piece of hardware or software. The speed of that network also allows for real-time monitoring of massive systems, failure detection and a simplified but multi-layered safety system that features both rules and integrated Estop.

In an all FTSI environment every machine, winch, operator interface or safety device connected to the Navigator network is a smart node by virtue of the integrated computers that are built into the components. Each of these nodes shares data with all other nodes on the network using a redundant, load-sharing, real-time network that can reroute data traffic around damaged sections as well as alerting operators to any problems on the network. This architecture is a dramatic departure from traditional control systems.

Take a theater with ten flying winches, two elevators, twenty line set winches and a single user interface control center as an example. Equipped with Navigator controls, each winch and each elevator has an integrated and powerful embedded computer connected using conventional Cat 5 computer network cables and switching hardware. Each winch is capable of locally storing all of the information that it needs to perform its role in the show. The nodes are also in constant communication with each other reporting their current states (position, movement status, direction, velocity, health of the node, how long has it been in service, how much has it been used, etc). Therefore, if one winch has a problem, all the other winches know about it immediately and can actually be programmed to know how to react to the failure.

For instance: one of the elevators is ten feet high in its raised position and a performer iis supposed to be flown by another winch across the space occupied by the elevator. Navigator can be programmed so that the winch knows not to move the performer if the elevator is raised or Navigator can be programmed to tell the winch to do something entirely different if the elevator fails to retract. For instance: “If the elevator is still up then move the performer over the elevated platform and lower her five feet but if the elevator is fully retracted then move the performer over the retracted platform and lower her fifteen feet”. This allows technical and creative directors to actually plan ahead for a wide variety of contingencies.

FTSI embedded motion controllers are running a hardened, real-time, industrial operating system on each device. The front end for programming and monitoring the system runs on any Windows computer. However, since the control of the system is distributed amongst the real time nodes, the Windows GUI computer in not actually required for execution of the show which ensures further reliability.

Navigator can store multiple versions of any number of different shows. This allows creative directors to choreograph multiple versions of the automation for simpler and faster creative development. Multiple versions allow for easy comparisons and reversions of different cues and allow for planning for contingency variations of a single show. It can even allow a theater to be used for a variety of performances at different times of the day as is the case with many repertory theaters.

The system menu on the top allows the user access to all controls. The top display to the right is the device message log that displays any event on the system. In the upper left hand corner is a real time display of the current axis status and position in decimal feet. Like most everything else in Navigator the unit of display is user configurable. The next pane to the right details the commands that comprise the currently selected cue. Menus on the far right show available cue commands. Lower pane shows the player with various list of cues. There is a tremendous amount of data is not being displayed on this particular screen, but multiple screen configurations can be set up, stored, and recalled by the operator on demand or automatically through cues. In a big system the desired information will fill four big LCD screens.

To manage the complexity of a massive 100+ axis system Navigator has very sophisticated monitoring capacities. The monitoring screens can be customized (one operator added a picture of his wife to personalize the display screens) and programmed to only display the pertinent data to the operators at any given time. In a big installation the operator conducts the automation with four LCD screens displaying relevant data about cues, machines in motion, machines on e-stop, status of the machines to be used in the next cue or any alerts generated from any of the myriad sensors deployed throughout the system. The motion of the theater machinery can be displayed via a 3D graphic model on another monitor (like a nice 42” plasma screen) that allows the operator to witness the positions of all equipment and the axes in motion even if they do not have a line of sight into the theater.

All of this control can be used in a simulation mode as well. New cues can be written and tested virtually on the monitor system and seen from all angles. If the cue is acceptable, it can be switched from the simulated axes to the live axes for subsequent playback and inclusion in the performance cue list. It looks intimidating, but according to Fritz Schwentker, programmer for the Wynn Front Feature on Navigator the learning curve isn’t too steep, even for a system with 70+ axes: “The first week on the simulator was spent just trying to figure out the nomenclature and what things are called. Then I was able to understand how to program cues and how to run things. Once I understood what all of the devices that are addressable by the system were my ability skyrocketed.”

The relentless pull of gravity is one constant force in theaters, budgetary pressure is another. In order to free up spare cash to pay for slick monitors and plasma displays for the operators, designers can skimp on some of the controllers for some of the axis in the theater. Navigator is very flexible about interfacing with other brands and manufacturers of equipment allowing designers to use smart axes (variable speed and variable position) on some machinery and use cheaper dumb controls (on/off, or single speed with no positioning data) on other machinery. Designers are not restricted to one type of machinery allowing for an integrated system of winches, hydraulics, pneumatics, multi-axis machinery, linear motion (like deck tracks and linesets) as well as rotary motion (like turntables) all controlled through a single system. The system even accepts data from audio and video system to allow for perfect time stamp synchronization.

Navigator integrates a flexible Estop solution to vastly simplify the configuration and deployment of this critical safety function. The multiport networked Estop controllers can be set up to allow for easy deployment of Estop stations. An Estop station can be dropped anywhere one is needed and configured so that Estop station can signal single or multiple axes. The Navigator Estop immediately places the equipment in a safe state by removing the energy to the system be it electric, hydraulic or pneumatic. If a single axis is being problematic, that axis can have its Estop signal disabled without taking down the rest of the system.

The blue component is a garden variety Ethernet network switch for Estop and data traffic. Second component is a multi channel Estop controller. Each channel can be a supplier (something that initiates, like a big red button) or a consumer (being told to Estop) of Estop commands. For instance, a single component like this one can distribute up to nine Estop buttons or nine devices to stop or any combination between the two. In some cases the circuit can both instantiate the command and receive it allowing for nine devices to be both the stoppers and the stoppees. These controllers can also be daisy chained or starred to allow for massively complicated Estop systems to be easily configured, installed, or expanded. The last component is a one of the aforementioned node computers for a winch axis that for packaging purposes is mounted here in the rack instead of on the winch itself. It collects data from the machinery and communicates that data to the entire network as well as receiving and interpreting data from every other component on the network be it an Estop controller, the user interface or the other axis controllers.

Navigator has also been used for high speed action stunt and camera work for major motion pictures including Spiderman 2, Blade 3, Sky High and Dukes of Hazzard. Navigator allows for high speed equipment to function with close tolerance due to its rapid refresh rate and real time architecture. A stunt man is happy to hear about real-time data transfer when that solid oak table is being hurled toward him by one winch at thirty miles an hour and he is depending on Navigator to pull him away with another winch just as the table is about to occupy the same space. The Navigator system can also import motion data from some CGI systems. This allows a stunt coordinator to design stunts (such as flying someone down an alley) in a virtual world and then export the stunt routine into the Navigator system for the winches to replicate the motion in the physical world.

Although in theory Navigator can be used to control the action of anything that can be controlled (FTSI is still perfecting the “Temperamental Talent” driver), it is currently interfacing with equipment produced by: FTSI; Scenic Technologies (Stage Command System); Allen Bradley Control Logix PLCs, Ingersol-Rand air compressors; motor drives from SEW, Toshiba, Hitachi, Baldor, Fincor, Allen Bradley, Kollmorgen, and Siemens; hydraulic equipment from Parker, Vickers, and Rexroth; special effects (smoke, fire, fog etc) from AET; and the Medialon show control system.

Showing its international roots, Navigator is currently fluent in the following protocols and languages: TCP/IP, UDP, RS232, RS45, Modbus, CANbus, ControlNet and standard analog and digital control input and output signals. Navigator can also process and utilize position feedback from incremental encoders, absolute encoders, variable voltage feedback, resistance feedback, tachometers and load cells.

The biggest challenge left for FTSI is ramping up production capacity in order to meet demand. Submit resumes to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .