[QLab] Syphon integration in QLab

[Michele Cremaschi]

Do you know Syphon? ( http://syphon.v002.info/ )

from website:

"Syphon is an open source Mac OS X technology that allows applications to share frames - full frame rate video or stills - with one another in realtime. Now you can leverage the expressive power of a plethora of tools to mix, mash, edit, sample, texture-map, synthesize, and present your imagery using the best tool for each part of the job. Syphon gives you flexibility to break out of single-app solutions and mix creative applications to suit your needs."

Seems something really powerful. There's a QC plugin ready to use, too. Here is my feature request: see one day QLab supporting Syphon... together with OSCsupport, that i remember to read somewhere is to come, would strongly open up QLab to integration to other video apps.

mic

[*]

Greetings,

I'm working on a Qlab project & have been asked about controlling it via a
touch screen.

Any things to consider?

What is difficult to do with Qlab that is easy to do with a keyboard &
mouse / touch pad?

Is there an full proof way of controlling Qlab via an Ipad? Not a hack but
either screen sharing or other option?

It needs to be 100% reliable.

Ultimately, it would be excellent to use a mac mini bolted inside the box
somewhere & no screen / mouse / keyboard.

The video would output to a 10" screen, audio out the headphone jack &
control via some external wireless option.

Wireless is as important as reliable so if wireless control options should
be avoided, no problem.

A wired touch screen would be fine.

But I'd like to know of any things that others have discovered using Qlab
with a touchscreen before I buy one.

Favorite brand? size?

Thanks in advance,

*

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[Steven Sokulski]

Sounds a bit like Soundflower for video. Neat.

If it's already accessible via a QC patch, we should already be able to interact with it already.

Steven

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 13, 2010, at 2:12 PM, Michele C. wrote:

Do you know Syphon? ( http://syphon.v002.info/ )

from website:

"Syphon is an open source <http://syphon.v002.info/#license> Mac OS X

[Morgan Calma]

I use VNC to access a mac mini running qlab with my ipod touch in one of
my theaters. Although I don't run it without a screen the thought has
crossed my mind a few times. There is a lag on the screen refresh and
I would stay clear of wifi connections to keep disconnections down to
almost none.

I am interested why touch screen though?

Morgan

[*]

real state basically. Picture an exhibit where you sit down & watch a
video & listen to an audio sequence.

The person needs access to GO & selecting the right cue. Everything else
can be hidden.

I was just looking at the tech specs for a new mac mini...

It has an HMDI out & a mini display port.

I would hope that these two outputs would work at the same time & show
different material.

One for Qlab video
The other for the touch screen / other screen to control Qlab.

The purpose of the remote if used would be to select a cue list & then hit
go. No programming duties. So lag isn't an issue & if the remote didn't
work, it would just mean the person using it has to walk over to the touch
screen. But I wouldn't want to involve a remote at all if it's going to be
a pain to deal with or won't work all the time. Better to just allow one
option.

Re: Qlab without a screen to control it

I'm guessing that a system without an actual screen (only a Ipan / Iphone)
might become frustrating real fast so I think I'll just plan for a screen
of some sort.

Is there any issues with using the two video outputs on a mac mini as I've
described above?

Thanks in advance,

*

On Sat, November 13, 2010 6:42 pm, Morgan Calma wrote:
> I use VNC to access a mac mini running qlab with my ipod touch in one of
> my theaters. Although I don't run it without a screen the thought has
> crossed my mind a few times. There is a lag on the screen refresh and
> I would stay clear of wifi connections to keep disconnections down to
> almost none.
>
> I am interested why touch screen though?

________________________________________________________

[*]

Looking over the mac mini some more & wonder...

Is there a solid way of making the Apple remote act as a GO button for
Qlab or is it the sort of thing that is can only be used with applications
that allow IR remote access via OSX?

It would be great if the remote could be set to just do GO & FF / RR thru
a cue list.

Is it IR based or RF?

I want to hide the mac mini inside a box so that might be an issue if it's
IR based.

If this is possible & someone is doing it with Qlab, I'd love to see the
details.

*

[Charles Coes]

Take a look at the mimo monitors, I can't speak to their reliability in a performance situation, but it might just work for you.

Charles Coes
cco...@gmail.com 
www.charlescoes.com
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." - Buckminster Fuller

[Andy Dolph]

apple remote is ir.

you could use a powerpoint remote which comes as rf...
I use this one
http://www.smklink.com/index.php?id=Njg5
The mac sees it as a keyboard
I had to use another bit of software to get it to act as a qlab go
because the "forward" button sends a down arrow, which is not mapable
in qlab... I don't remember what the other software is, but I think it
was recommended by someone here...

it worked great, I just haven't done it in ages.

Andy

[*]

With the help of the list, I've made it where the screen on my Mac Book
dims down automatically when I trigger a cue in Qlab. Then another cue
brings it back to full brightness. Handy for show mode versus work mode.

I've never used Qlab with anything but a laptop but am wondering if you
can control brightness on a Mac without a built in screen? Like a mini or
pro?

Are their dim up / down buttons on a mac keyboard? If so, do they adjust
the brightness of a non apple monitor?

thanks,

[Andy Leviss]

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 11:20 PM, * <ra...@rabyn.com> wrote:
> I've never used Qlab with anything but a laptop but am wondering if you
> can control brightness on a Mac without a built in screen? Like a mini or
> pro?
>
> Are their dim up / down buttons on a mac keyboard? If so, do they adjust
> the brightness of a non apple monitor?

Not quite, but you can use a program called Nocturne to tint the
screen with a shade of grey, the digital equivalent of an ND filter.
I've used it on FOH computers to tint the screen deep blue in the
past. Launching the app repeatedly toggles between day and night mode,
so you can have a script cue toggle the screen state real easily (back
then, I had to create a keyboard shortcut to launch it, and then use a
MIDI cue to trigger that via MIDIstroke).

[*]

Can you also black the screen out for night mode?

*

[Andy Leviss]

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 9:33 AM, * <ra...@rabyn.com> wrote:
> Can you also black the screen out for night mode?

Nocturne will let you do just about anything, including inverting
color, tinting, going to monochrome/dual-color with any desired color
for both black and white, etc. You can get yourself into trouble if
you color things in a way that you can't see anything to click back
out of it...

It's pretty straightforward, just download it, RTM, and play with it.

--A

[Emery Roth III]

I've also gotten into using Shady, very similar to nocturne, though it will only dim (no color, no invert) BUT it leaves your cursor (and the white outline around it) and all the OSX interface popups (the volume popup, etc) at regular brightness.

Shady:
http://instinctivecode.com/shady/

Nocturne:
http://nocturne.en.softonic.com/mac

--E

[Emery Roth III]

One more thing....I think Shady will be seen on the remote end of a VNC connection but Nocturne wont.

--e

On Nov 15, 2010, at 10:06 AM, Andy Leviss wrote:

[*]

So far Shady seems perfect!

Since it's open source & free, what are the chances there could be a
"screen adjust" cue in the future for Qlab?

After all, who doesn't need to dim their screen down some come show time?

*

On Mon, November 15, 2010 1:07 pm, Emery Roth III wrote:
> I've also gotten into using Shady, very similar to nocturne, though it
> will only dim (no color, no invert) BUT it leaves your cursor (and the
> white outline around it) and all the OSX interface popups (the volume
> popup, etc) at regular brightness.
>
> Shady:
> http://instinctivecode.com/shady/
>
> Nocturne:
> http://nocturne.en.softonic.com/mac

[Eric Lott]

If you like Shady, then you may like Shades (http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades). Its also free and has some of the color overlay features of of Nocture. 

Eric

[Emery Roth III]

On Nov 15, 2010, at 2:23 PM, * wrote:

> So far Shady seems perfect!
>
> Since it's open source & free, what are the chances there could be a
> "screen adjust" cue in the future for Qlab?

I bet there is a better way but you could use two appleScript cues in an all fire group (one with a fraction of a second pre-delay) first script:

tell application "Shady"
activate
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s"
end tell

----
second script:

tell application "Qlab"
activate
end tell

----

Then assign a key or midi command to the all fire group. As I said there is probably a better way I'm no Rich Walsh :-P

--Emery

[*]

I forgot some relevant information.

Thanks to Rich, I have been able to get the screen on my laptop to go off
& on via a script but it also killed the video output screen which is NOT
the desired behavior.

I basically want to be able to start the cue sequence & then have the
control screen go OFF but leave the video output screen unaffected.

*

On Mon, November 15, 2010 4:28 pm, Emery Roth III wrote:
>
> On Nov 15, 2010, at 2:23 PM, * wrote:
>
>> So far Shady seems perfect!
>>
>> Since it's open source & free, what are the chances there could be a
>> "screen adjust" cue in the future for Qlab?
>
> I bet there is a better way but you could use two appleScript cues in an
> all fire group (one with a fraction of a second pre-delay) first script:
>
> tell application "Shady"
> activate
> tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s"
> end tell
>
> ----
> second script:
>
> tell application "Qlab"
> activate
> end tell
>
> ----
>
> Then assign a key or midi command to the all fire group. As I said there
> is probably a better way I'm no Rich Walsh :-P

________________________________________________________

[Andy Leviss]

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 6:22 PM, * <ra...@rabyn.com> wrote:
> I basically want to be able to start the cue sequence & then have the
> control screen go OFF but leave the video output screen unaffected.

Is there a reason you can't just load a black image full screen on the
control screen?

--A

[Rich Walsh]

On 15 Nov 2010, at 23:22, * wrote:

> I have been able to get the screen on my laptop to go off
> & on via a script but it also killed the video output screen which is NOT
> the desired behavior.
>
> I basically want to be able to start the cue sequence & then have the
> control screen go OFF but leave the video output screen unaffected.

That's odd. Based on your scripts at:

http://groups.google.com/group/qlab/browse_thread/thread/a0f05cbd9d6c3570/835217b49e660635?lnk=gst&q=applescript+brightness#835217b49e660635

I just tried this variation on my MacBook Pro with an external monitor, and the external monitor was unaffected:

tell application "System Preferences"
reveal anchor "displaysDisplayTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.displays"
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "System Preferences"
set value of slider 1 of group 2 of tab group 1 of window 1 to 0
end tell
end tell
quit
end tell

Of course, that won't work on a desktop machine anyway - so Andy's idea is much cleverer.

Rich

[Rich Walsh]

On 15 Nov 2010, at 22:28, Emery Roth III wrote:

> As I said there is probably a better way

It's a bit like:

http://figure53.com/wiki/index.php?title=QLab_Scripts_and_Macros#Start_QAutoSaver

So, you can do it in a single Script Cue, if you like:

tell application "TextEdit"

activate
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s"

delay 0.5
tell me to activate
end tell

Or was that a rhetorical question?

Rich

[Rich Walsh]

On 16 Nov 2010, at 00:26, Rich Walsh wrote:

> tell application "TextEdit"

Oops: that should have said "Shady" (which I don't have to test with).

[Rasmus Kreiner]

You can do this with Quartz and IAC bus. Take a look at the attached workspace.

The apple remote is enabled when you run when you run cue 1. Which for now just is a black

The layout is:

The play button is go

FF REV is select next and previous cue

Volume up is pause all

Volume down is un pause all

Menu is stop all

You'll have to setup the midi inside of the quartz file which you'll find in the video folder.

Best,
Rasmus

[Steve Lalonde]

Fell over this some times ago. 

http://twistedmelon.com/mira/

Maybe someone on the list knows if it's reliable or not but it could solve your «in the box» problem. 

S

Is there a solid way of making the Apple remote act as a GO button for
Qlab or is it the sort of thing that is can only be used with applications
that allow IR remote access via OSX?

It would be great if the remote could be set to just do GO & FF / RR thru
a cue list.

[RJ Givens]

> Is there a solid way of making the Apple remote act as a GO button for
> Qlab or is it the sort of thing that is can only be used with applications
> that allow IR remote access via OSX?
>
> It would be great if the remote could be set to just do GO & FF / RR thru
> a cue list.
>
> I want to hide the mac mini inside a box so that might be an issue if it's
> IR based.

Sofa control works well, just need to make your own apple script within it ( which is rather simple)