[QLab] Running lights, sound and video from qlab on one mac

[Tobias Avlund Heiberg]

Hello.

I am running a small theatreproduction on tour from qlab on a macbook pro. On writing this I don´t have its specs, apart from 250 gb HD (Containing almost nothing not used by the show - loads of free space, and very few applications) and 4gb ram.

I have been toring with this setup running lights seperetalely, but now I am looking into having everything being run from qlab on the same mac. 

But how would this work, and what would I need? At the moment I just began looking into choosing the best setup. 

Would my mac have the power to run it all? 

What moore would I need (To go from the mac to the dimmer by DMX), and

would this be diffircult to setup and to run. I am only just beginning to know qlab properly....

sincerely

tobias

www.tobiasheiberg.no

@tobiasheiberg

[Ted Pallas]

I think you should look into lx cues - to my knowledge Qlab doesn't send "patchable" DMX messages by themselves, but can tell a lightboard to do so with MIDI. 

I never like having my whole show live inside what is really a prosumer product. If you do have a crash occur during a show what would your plan be?

Ted Pallas

Live Media Design

Sandwich Construction Consultant

cell - 516 286 9661

Pardon the typos, sent from my Casio SK-1

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[ra byn (robin)]

Light Factory 2 (512 universe) $500
Enttec DMX USB Pro $150
Parallels $79
XP install

LF2 uses very little resources.

I normally use a PC to run LF2 (I have what I've mentioned above) but in
the next week or two, I'm going to install Parallels, XP & LF2 on my mac &
then figure out how to trigger LF2 with Qlab. Either with virtual midi
ports or with a loop out / loop back in approach. I'll report back.

How many light cues do you find yourself using? As it is now, you set up a
midi trigger & then catch it in LF2. But you're limited to 127 cues before
things start to get more complicated. If Qlab had a native telnet cue, it
would make things a lot simpler to interface with LF2. With telnet, you
have direct access to every function in LF2 via the command line & also
triggering unlimited cues / cue lists / etc...

Using an internal IP, this might eliminate all wires accept for the one
coming out of the DMX Pro. There are other USB to DMX options & other
lighting apps out there but I have years of experience with LF2 & Enttec &
their tech support is on par with Figure 53. If it would be helpful,
Enttec also makes a IP based DMX device. Put as many as you need on a
network & distribute DMX anywhere. Put one on a wifi enabled network &
control your lights wirelessly.

If you're interested, we can chat about this offlist. I'll post once I've
gotten Qlab & LF2 to work via Parallels.

Best regards,

ra byn (robin)

[ra byn (robin)]

For Qlab, I always run a redundant backup.

With LF2 & an Enttec ODE (IP based DMX device), it can catch DMX output
streams from (2) different LF machines by merging at the ODE device. IF
you turn the master fader down on the backup & trigger both via midi, it's
ready to work the moment something happens on the main. LF2 also has a
tracking backup function that will auto switch between main / backup if it
sees a handshake missed between the two machines via an IP connection.

I have a small theater that has been running this rig for 2 + years & I
think the only issues they've had have been pilot error.

If you don't want to mess with Parallels, a cheap laptop, Enttec, LF2 & a
few midi boxes to bridge the mac & PC & you've got (2) baskets & (2) eggs.

Depending on the show, either crashing could stop the show so I just
always use (2) & as much redundancy as possible. Sometimes 3 :)

ra byn (robin)

On Sun, October 30, 2011 5:17 pm, Ted Pallas wrote:
> I never like having my whole show live inside what is really a prosumer
> product. If you do have a crash occur during a show what would your plan
> be?

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