Controlling Show Buddy externally

[Baylink]

I'm working on a project where I need the ability to build timelines of DMX against music (and save those, and move them around), and then, at runtime, have users -- from something like an X-Keys USB keyboard, possibly with the help of a macro program -- punch a sequence of buttons like so:

CLEAR
12
6
8
3
5
15
22
START

And have the program (in this case Show Buddy) load those timelines into a playlist of some type (a cuelist?), each preceded by a 'PAUSE For GO', such that someone with a powerpoint remote in their pocket (a dancer on a stage) can then trigger each song.

As a secondary function, I need other buttons on the same keyboard to pause anything that's playing, and just fade the lights to a preprogrammed scene.

Can any of the old hands here comment on how close to that platonic design ideal I can get with DPro 1.7, and how hard it would be?

[Baylink]

[ Moved from the D-Pro forum ]

[Baylink]

Further to that; the website seems to suggest that there's a demo for SB, but that it requires DMXIS to run, and that DMXIS, in turn, requires that you already have an interface (my target environment may well be Artnet).

Have I misread the SB page?

[ I didn't misread it, but it's a bit misleading. While SB requires DMXIS installed, you can use it in demo mode if DMXIS doesn't see a hardware interfaces; this is likely true of the DPro demo as well, but that blurb on the download page doesn't *say* you need DMXIS installed, so it appears to be a difference, even though it isn't. Sorry for the noise. ]

[Baylink]

Ok; now that I've managed to get back to my desk for the first time all week, and seen the overview video; I have 4 much better refined SB questions:

1) Can I add tracks to a playlist by a means *other than* drag and drop? Specifically: If I have a bunch of tracks named "01", "02", "03", etc... is there a way to add those to the current playlist from a keyboard, such that the MacroWorks package included with X-Keys keyboards can get it done? Like most macro packages, I don't think it can handle unconstrained drag and drop UI interactions.

2) Can I use something like an RF PowerPoint remote as the GO button, instead of a footswitch? If necessary, I can probably convince MacroWorks to translate that into something else, like the spacebar, if that's not already what it sends.

3) Can I put a Pause-for-GO inside a created track? Some of the numbers we need to light are just a series of looks with pauses in between, to be played behind a completely live performance, with no music track at all -- since you can't tell what tempo they'll play it at, they have to do the changes manually; I can't simply make up a 4:33 track of silence, and put the changes in the "right" place. If I can't do this, I can do it as a series of tracks to add to the playlist as a group, but that will complicate my glue layer more than somewhat.

4) I know that D-Pro has some degree of rig-independence, not requiring you to rebuild the entire track/show if you plug into a different set of fixtures; does Show Buddy provide any way to deal with that? We might not care, if our own two rigs are enough different, we might be forced to create the tracks manually in both cases... but I figured I'd ask.

My original target for this was VenueMagic, but it *also* wants drag-and-drop as the only way to build a playlist. In their milieu, there's actually a clear place for there to exist a menu item "Add To Playlist"... the item simply isn't on their menus, and they showed no particular inclination to put it there.

Plus, y'know, 4 times as much money.

[Dave Brown [admin]]

1) Can I add tracks to a playlist by a means *other than* drag and drop? Specifically: If I have a bunch of tracks named "01", "02", "03", etc... is there a way to add those to the current playlist from a keyboard, such that the MacroWorks package included with X-Keys keyboards can get it done?

Not in the current release. Remote control options are limited for Show Buddy, as it was not primarily designed to be integrated into a larger system. D-Pro is a more capable controller in this respect.

2) Can I use something like an RF PowerPoint remote as the GO button, instead of a footswitch? If necessary, I can probably convince MacroWorks to translate that into something else, like the spacebar, if that's not already what it sends.

Yes, a spacebar character should work fine.

3) Can I put a Pause-for-GO inside a created track? Some of the numbers we need to light are just a series of looks with pauses in between, to be played behind a completely live performance, with no music track at all -- since you can't tell what tempo they'll play it at, they have to do the changes manually; I can't simply make up a 4:33 track of silence, and put the changes in the "right" place. If I can't do this, I can do it as a series of tracks to add to the playlist as a group, but that will complicate my glue layer more than somewhat.

The "pause" logic lives in the song playlist, there's no way to define it within a track.

4) I know that D-Pro has some degree of rig-independence, not requiring you to rebuild the entire track/show if you plug into a different set of fixtures; does Show Buddy provide any way to deal with that? We might not care, if our own two rigs are enough different, we might be forced to create the tracks manually in both cases... but I figured I'd ask.

If you change your lighting hardware, you just need to edit the DMXIS presets. As long as the DMXIS bank & preset names are unchanged, your Show Buddy programming will remain intact.

You can also create multiple DMXIS shows (one for each lighting configuration) and switch between them by choosing the appropriate DMXIS show in the Show Buddy track editor. Again, all DMXIS shows would need to contain the same bank & preset names for this to work with your existing Show Buddy programming.

[Baylink]

Well, #1 is the one that's going to kill me, so I guess I'll refocus on D-Pro, as much as I'd rather not have to work around the complexity. Thanks.

RFE: A keyboard based method for adding completed tracks to the playlist.

To be clear: you're suggesting that I *can* get this accomplished in D-Pro? Take pre-built tracks and assemble and run a show without needing a mouse plugged in?

[Dave Brown [admin]]

To be clear: you're suggesting that I *can* get this accomplished in D-Pro? Take pre-built tracks and assemble and run a show without needing a mouse plugged in?

I don't know enough about your project workflow to say for sure. But D-Pro is far better equipped for turnkey integration into a larger system. External control can be via key strokes, MIDI commands or a comprehensive OSC API.

You can download the D-Pro demo, and try out a small project to validate its suitability before purchasing. The D-Pro demo is actually a fully-functional offline version of D-Pro. The only functionality omitted is the ability to transmit live DMX data.

[Baylink]

I have the demo, and I can test 95% of what I need to know without having the X-keys and its macro engine in house; I'll be reading the manual tomorrow. Thanks again.

[Baylink]

Well, after reading the manual tonight, I quite like the package for straight lighting control, but the only way I can see to do with it what I need is going to be to write a show with each number as a cuelist, and then have some external driver program that accepts the user input of which items are played in which order, and manually triggers the cuelists via OSC or something, unless I'm misunderstanding the architecture.

Can cuelists contain other cuelists?

Can a cuelist be created from external control, in a fashion suggested by my original inquiry?