Say you have a 1 minute slow fade of intensities, channels 1 - 5, from full to 0%. (cue 12)
The next cue (Q 13) is snap blackout, but without a command directly telling ch 1 -5 to be at 0%, since that already happened. It should be called sometime after Q 12 has completed.
However, if the actor jumps a page of script, and the Cue 13 needs to happen while Q 12 is running. . .
If you triggered the blackout cue while the slow fade was still running, channels 1 - 5 would continue their slow fade. That was their last instruction. The Ion/Eos can have multiple cues running at 1 time, with different fade times.
If you "Assert" cue 13 during the cue to cue session as a safety measure, and the actor skips text, cue 13 will take over from cue 12 (including times), and everything will go to a state of cue 13 in a time cue 13.
I believe it is possible to Assert on a Cue level, or on a channel level with-in a cue, if you didn't want movers to "Assert" to a new position during an intensity command. (I don't have movers, so I don't know how they re-act: if Assert is only for intensity, or if it can include Non-intensity Parameters as well.
The Eos family of products are "movefade" consoles. What that means is that when a "GO" is executed, only the move instructions included in that cue are replayed. In the same way that "block" is used to treat a tracked value like a move instruction when it comes to editing, "assert" is its playback equivalent. It treats a tracked value like a move instruction.
The example given above is a common one when working in a single cue list environment. When working with multiple cue lists, the move fade concept is how channel ownership is determined. So, if a second cue list has provided a new channel value, that value will remain on the second list - and under the ownership of the second list until a move instruction is provided by the main cue list. So, assert can be used to force control back to another cue list.
Assert can be applied at the following levels:
On an entire cue list. This is done in the cue list index, where you will find an assert field.
On an entire cue.
On an entire channel.
On a channel parameter.
You can also do live asserts either from the command line or the playbacks. [Assert] (this would be the assert button associated with the playback fader controls) + [Load] effectively replays the active cue on that fader, forcing all control back to it. [Cue] [n] [Assert] [Enter] does the same thing, but from the command line.
