Special for Akiba

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lem fugitt

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Apr 8, 2012, 7:39:57 PM4/8/12
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Akiba

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Apr 8, 2012, 8:32:30 PM4/8/12
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Ha ha ha. That group is called Wrecking Crew Orchestra. Their creative director came to the space last week and we're working together with them now :)
 
Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
 
 


From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of lem fugitt
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 8:40 AM
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [THS:16272] Special for Akiba

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Torsten Wagner

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:04:06 PM4/8/12
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Is there any way of active sync or do they "simply" have a very tight
choreography.
Are the actors in any way able to control the lights?
Does they say were they reached technological limitations at the moment?
What do they wish to perform better or what do they want to improve?

I would guess that all other source of light need to have in common
that they can only be very partially (spot) like. I assume there are a
bunch of black dressed people on the stage which helps to do some of
the fancy tricks and they should not be exposed by any light right?

How about a THS-backstage visit e.g. during one of there trainings.
Guess a few of us visiting them, would come up with a bunch of ideas
later on.

Totti

Akiba

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:22:47 PM4/8/12
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They're using a lighting sequencer that was developed by their friend in
open frameworks. The light triggers just come from a CSV file that they
manually edit. I was surprised and told them we could do a graphical
sequencer instead, but they said that it's simple to use and they wanted to
keep it.

For the technical side, they're using XBees directly attached to EL wire
inverters. There isn't an MCU in between other than the one inside the XBee
which is closed. Everything is being controlled remotely by
OF(openframeworks).

One of the problems I mentioned to him is that they're using 2.4 GHz for
portable wireless comms. I explained to him that the wavelength at 2.4GHz is
roughly the same as water and people are mostly water. There's a lot of
signal attenuation by the dancers' body blocking the signals. If you look
closely at their full routine, you can see that they have some sequencing
misses. The link is below.

I'm designing a custom EL wire controller using 900 MHz for them and
improving the software robustenss so that the chance of sequence misses is
reduced. I'm also expanding the number of channels they can use (currently
2) to 6 so that they can isolate and illuminate different parts of their
body. Aside from that, we'll probably need to start doing more
openFrameworks development in the space (it's a C++ framework) to help them
improve and add features to their software.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ydeY0tTtF4

I'm also thinking about implementing a DMX driver for their app and trying
to test out sequencing using Ableton Live and a DMX plugin. I'm not sure if
they'll use it, but it'd be useful for the stage scene in general since it's
a graphical sequencer used by DJs during live performances.

In general, the guy was surprised that there were techies that were willing
to do this. They didn't think there were many that could cross the line
between tech and dance. There are other projects that we want to do together
like projection mapping and laser projection but at the moment, I told him
its best to focus on EL wire and make it robust. That video took off and
most likely, they're going to need to tour. An inverter and a bare XBee
won't survive a full tour across different countries. Ha ha ha.

Akiba

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:25:50 PM4/8/12
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One thing I should add is that I've known about Wrecking Crew Orchestra
since my days as a professional dancer. They've been dancing for about 20+
years now and they're all top-notch pros. That's why it'll be good to work
together with them. I've seen the other EL wire dance performances, but
they're focusing on lighting effects. I think it'd be much more impressive
to start with good dancing + choreography and then use lighting to
accentuate it rather than make the show about EL bling.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Torsten Wagner
> Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 10:04 AM
> To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [THS:16274] Special for Akiba
>

Mikele

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:46:13 PM4/8/12
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I'd like to see how their OF code looks like...



Taylan Ayken

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:55:37 PM4/8/12
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How do they attach XBees to inverters? I guess running the inverter at all times and switching the output to the EL wire on/off can give better results. Sparkfun's EL sequencer uses triacs to switch wires on/off. If they are using Xbees to turn the inverter on/off, that might be the reason for some of the glitches. Hmm, HV application, I'm interested. Lets talk more on this tomorrow?

@ Totti: You can see some of the guys helping the dancers on stage. They usually block/absorb the light so they are visible by looking at the light. Just like how you detect a black hole.


From: Akiba <ch...@freaklabs.org>
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 9, 2012 10:22 AM
Subject: RE: [THS:16275] Special for Akiba
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Torsten Wagner

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Apr 8, 2012, 9:57:53 PM4/8/12
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On 9 April 2012 10:25, Akiba <ch...@freaklabs.org> wrote:
> since my days as a professional dancer.
sure ;)
One point you might check and which can be very troublesome otherwise
on a worldwide tour.
Whatever you give them make sure it works out in most countries law-side like.
Would be stupid if they had to stop presentation (or couldn't even
start) e.g. in Germany because of some local FCC, CE, radio whatever
laws, which prohibited the use of this certain frequency band or the
that amount of radiation power. Thus, if you design your own
controller from scratch maybe there is place for a frequency band
selection and power selection. Also, it should not interfere or being
interfered by any other services (mobile phones, cell phone jammer,
etc.)

e.g. wikipedia quote

While the bulk of personal walkie-talkie traffic is in the 27 MHz area
and in the 400-500 MHz area of the UHF spectrum, there are some units
that use the 49 MHz band (shared with cordless phones, baby monitors,
and similar devices) as well as the *900 MHz* band;

I guess interference isn't that big of a problem you are most likely
going to submit a bit more then a single "fire and forget" trigger.
But anyhow it might be save to consider this.

Anyhow, keep us up to date. Guess we can come up with some nice
solutions for them and I like there performance thus, I am willing to
help if I can.

Akiba

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Apr 8, 2012, 10:00:55 PM4/8/12
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Yes, the transceivers I am using can do 780 MHz for China, 868 MHz for EU,
915 MHz for US, and 920 MHz for Japan. Of course there is also power
selection. But I always have it turned to 11.

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Torsten Wagner

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Apr 8, 2012, 10:02:42 PM4/8/12
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@ Taylan;

nah I usually determine black holes by bending of light trajectories
and by a wavelength modification (red-shift).
Even I do not have enough mass to have any significant effect towards
light in this direction ;)

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Torsten Wagner

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Apr 8, 2012, 10:11:00 PM4/8/12
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Good boy
did your homework


On 9 April 2012 11:00, Akiba <ch...@freaklabs.org> wrote:
> Yes, the transceivers I am using can do 780 MHz for China, 868 MHz for EU,
> 915 MHz for US, and 920 MHz for Japan. Of course there is also power
> selection. But I always have it turned to 11.

To be on the save side you could ask them to wire them up (all this
wireless fuzz is so yesterday).
200m of a spring-driven cable reels with NYM 2 x (1.5 - 35) mm²
300/500 V should do the job.
In addition you can pull them from stage in case they collapse.
Great win.

As for other illumination effects...

this could give us the legal reason to work on Tesla coils... nothing
beats 5 meter sparks.


Totti

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