cueswhile

Cueswhile is a concept in interactive media and live performance that describes a cueing model in which signals are tracked and acted upon while another process continues running. The term blends cues, the triggers that initiate actions, with while, signaling the ongoing evaluation of conditions. In practical terms, cueswhile enables actions to be scheduled and responded to not only at fixed moments but in the context of dynamic state.

Semantics: Cues are defined as stateful objects with conditions such as time, user input, sensor readings, or external events. The system continuously evaluates predicates and activates, suppresses, or chains cues as conditions become true. This enables parallel, dependent, or conditional execution, with support for grouping, sequencing, and causal relationships.

Architecture: A cueswhile runtime typically includes a cue graph representing dependencies, an event bus for communication, a scheduler, and adapters to integrate with media players, lighting, or sensors. Authors declare cues via a declarative graph or domain-specific language, with runtime resolving execution order, durations, and cleanup.

Applications: The model is used in theatre automation, live installations, broadcast automation, interactive games, and multimedia performances to synchronize media, lighting, sound, and effects while maintaining continuous operation of core processes. Example: while video playback continues, a cue switches lighting at a predicate threshold and starts an audio bed if a scene reaches a specific duration.

History: Cueswhile emerged in the early 2020s as part of the broader trend toward real-time media orchestration and reactive programming. The concept has been explored in academic papers and in various production tools that aim to simplify complex cueing logic.

See also: cueing, event-driven programming, real-time media, interactive installation.