The more modern referal to what a scene is, I think this comes from the latest computer controlled lighting software, is as follows.
A scene is a collection of steps that define what lighting fixtures do over a period of time. It could be one step that just turns on all Par Cans or could be many steps which turns off all “green and blue lights” and then turns on the “red lights” then turns off the “red and blue lights” and turns on the “green lights” then turns off the “red and green lights” and turns on the “blue lights” then repeats its self.
The more traditonal referal to what a scene is, I think this comes from the original use of lighting in theatres, is as follows.
Other desks and software define a scene as a single step and you would combine these scenes (steps) into a cue. What I mean by this is that a single step would contain all DMX channel settings for that single step. i.e. Posistion any scanners/moving heads, select gobos, select colours and any other required settings. You would also define any fade and/or wait time for this scene (step). You would then create another scene (step) to open any shutters, turn on lights. These two scenes would then be combined into a cue which would then be managed by a Cue List Manager.
Depending on the desk or software in use, you might be able to link scenes, reverse a scene, control the overall speed of the scene and other things. Some software allow multiple scenes to run at the same time and again depending on the desk or software they might have overriding HTP/LTP settings for the scene.