Countdown Timer and Message display.

[micpool]

I was looking for a way of having a countdown timer pop up on a cue and countdown to an event, announce the event and then clear itself. This is for a stage manager operated show where some cues will be called on cues which relate to timings of sound cues. This means that the timer the stage manager is meant to follow is explicit and visible even if the groups are collapsed, or the cue has scrolled off the screen, or is running on a different list etc.

I also wanted the messages, countdown duration and display times to be editable in the cue list  rather than by editing the actual scripts.

My solution is a bit of a kludge but seems quite workable.

It uses QDisplay which is downloadable  here http://figure53.com/downloads/QDisplay.zip

In the screenshot and attached example workspace Cue 0 opens QDisplay (if installed)

The countdown timer is run by the group cue called QDisplay Countdown. This group can be cut and pasted wherever you want the timer to run. IMPORTANT LIMITATION: The group must be the last thing to run on any GO. 

The group shouldn't be changed beyond renaming the cues between the red highlights and altering the time in the post wait of the SET DISPLAY TIME Script.

In the group:

The first script cue sets the duration the event is displayed for  before the QDisplay window resets. It uses the time in the Post Wait Column which can be changed

The Q name of the second script cue (Standby Revolve in the example) is the text that is displayed with the countdown. 

The Countdown timer is set to the pre wait of the third script cue and the name of this cue is what is displayed when the timer completes.(Revolve Go in the example)

The fourth script is not edited. It resets the display but it's pre wait is automatically calculated.

Cue 6 in the example is a variation which just displays the Q name of the first script in the group as a message (DISPLAY THIS MESSAGE  in the example) and resets the window after  the pre wait of the second script cue

As usual, test thoroughly for your intended use, before deploying on shows!

Mic

[Daniel Richert]

Awesome work, as always Mic.

I have had another approach and thought I would share it here.

We mostly do corporate shows and there is me running the content, mostly videos whit qlab and then there is a data mixer who likes to know when the videos end so he can fade them off.

He has one personal monitor where I run countdown timer for each video.

This is the 30 second timer video I use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRNoiCwpZU

And this is the script (hotkey K) to  set the post wait time, so the countdown video will start when 35 seconds are left of the original video.

set userDelta to -35 

repeat with eachCue in (selected of front workspace as list)

set post wait of eachCue to ((duration of eachCue) + userDelta)

set continue mode of eachCue to auto_continue

end repeat

Add your videos and after each video add the 30second timer video, then select your video and press hotkey "K"

+ assign the 30sec timer videos to your secondary screens.

Im sure Mic will have a more efficient way of programming this

All the best from Finland

[Adriaan Gerber]

Hey Guys

IM rather new to scripting and running video files from Qlab. I believe im one of the only people using Qlab in South Africa and just love its potential. What im trying to do seems to fit into this thread. I am busy building a corporate show where i need to have a constant countdown timer with numerous different timing ranging from 30minutes to 1 minute. I usually utilise bling clock but this is very labour intensive on the day. The show is being broadcast so the time keeping is essential. What i want to have is a display output which automatically starts playing the countdown timer as soon as I activate the cue. Each Session has 6 speakers and each speaker has 5 minutes and then also every session has Q&A which speakers need to reply within 1 min. 

Is this possible?

[micpool]

You might find something in this thread which is a countdown timer you can run on any video display using titles cues

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qlab/ztcluhEd_Xk/discussion

The QDisplay method still works as well  for prompts on the operators monitor, but if you are running a video monitor for the speakers to see then the titles method is probably better

Mic

[micpool]

As countdown timers are a frequent request I have  included  a more comprehensive version in The QLab Cook Book:

https://qlabcookbook.com/1975/02/08/countdown/

Mic

On Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at 2:03:21 PM UTC+1, Adriaan Gerber wrote:

[Michaël]

Love this Mic, it's great for the room escape we're creating. One question: How to make the timer count up in stead of down? Is that a whole other script or just some alterations?

Cheers!

Michaël

Op donderdag 3 augustus 2017 00:14:53 UTC+2 schreef micpool:

[micpool]

If you go back to this page

https://qlabcookbook.com/1975/02/08/countdown/

I have appended a download link for a version that counts up

Mic

[Michaël]

Great! Thank you so much Mic!

Op zaterdag 11 november 2017 22:36:31 UTC+1 schreef micpool:

[a2a...@gmail.com]

I wasn't a fan of the cookbook counter, maybe just because I didn't make it and I'm wary of programming I don't fully understand or didn't make myself.  I just like to know exactly how everything works that I use.   I also have found myself in need of many many timers that I can implement quickly.  Therefore I ended up making my own based off of Mic's script, and made a few changes to fit my use case.  Primary difference is that time is kept in hms rather than a mass of seconds.  This makes setting the initial time much more fool proof (looking at myself here), as well makes the variable memo cue more readable.  Also, making a multiple timers required renumbering some of the cues as well as updating where those cues are addressed in scripts and OSC cues leaving lots of room for error as well as taking quite a bit of time.  So in the end, I made a script that builds the timer with a user entered unique name and action name that is used in the displayed text.  

This timer continues to count up after reaching 0:00, but could easily be reverted to land on a final text.  

I am completely self taught in scripting so I welcome any feedback on best practices or things that stand out.  I tried to comment in some of the known pitfalls or places I am not checking for compatibility.

Cheers and thanks to everyone for the constant supply of solution options,

Brian

[Taylor Glad]

With the luxury of an extra external display, I made a 31 second video of our university mascot holding a countdown timer.

Inside a group's timeline view, it's really easy to just snap the end of this video to the end of the content in the group.

Then it just takes 5 seconds for any group cue I want to throw this in to.

I haven't added a title cue above the countdown to create a label, but wouldn't be too hard to throw in with the rest of the group.