[QLab] How do you get Q Lab to generate then listen to it's time code to trigger cues?

[Andrew Thomas]

Hi There,

How do you get Q Lab to generate then listen to it's own time code to trigger cues in Q Lab?

Cheers,

Drew

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[Sean Dougall]

Hi Drew,

There are a few ways you could do this. The simplest is probably to use an IAC bus to route the MTC back into QLab, like so:

- Go into Audio MIDI Setup (under /Applications/Utilities)

- Double-click on the IAC Driver icon

- Make sure the device is online and that at least one port is defined

- Use that port for output from the MTC cue in QLab

- Also use that port for the sync source in the Timecode tab of the main cue list

Of course if QLab is the only thing you're trying to trigger with this timecode, you could do without timecode entirely and instead put the relevant cues in a group cue set to "Fire all children simultaneously", and use their pre-wait times to define their timing relative to each other, which would give you slightly more accurate timing. If your setup is such that timecode works better, though, the above should work.

Cheers,

Sean

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[Andy Dolph]

even if Qlab is not the only thing reading timecode, you could still
use the approach Sean describes below for the Qlab stuff and then the
time code for everything else... That said..

If Qlab is generating the timecode, then why use timecode at all?

I understand using timecode when it's coming off a video deck or
something like that which everything needs to synch to - but why not
just send individual midi commands to your other devices from Qlab -
that way you can look at all of your cue timing in one place (Qlab)
and adjust it in one place...yes, it means creating the "go" cue in
Qlab as well as the actual cue on the light board or other device, but
to me the small amount of extra work isn't a big deal compared to the
ability it gives me to see and adjust everything together.

do understand I'm not trying to start a war here - it's just another
way of doing it - and it works very well for me since in most cases
I'm handling sound, lighting, and projection - in a situation where
departments are more separate, they may be happier with just getting
time code.

Andy

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 3:31 AM, Sean Dougall <se...@figure53.com> wrote:
> Of course if QLab is the only thing you're trying to trigger with this
> timecode, you could do without timecode entirely and instead put the
> relevant cues in a group cue set to "Fire all children simultaneously", and
> use their pre-wait times to define their timing relative to each other,
> which would give you slightly more accurate timing. If your setup is such
> that timecode works better, though, the above should work.

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[Richard B. Ingraham]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: qlab-b...@lists.figure53.com [mailto:qlab-
> bou...@lists.figure53.com] On Behalf Of Andy Dolph
> Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 2:26 PM
> To: Discussion and support for QLab users.
> Subject: Re: [QLab] How do you get Q Lab to generate then listen to
> it's time code to trigger cues?
>
> do understand I'm not trying to start a war here - it's just another
> way of doing it - and it works very well for me since in most cases
> I'm handling sound, lighting, and projection - in a situation where
> departments are more separate, they may be happier with just getting
> time code.

You just answered your own question. In most places there is a lot more
than 1 person dealing with lights, sound and projections. It's usually at
least 1 for each of those. In some cases I've been just the "show control"
guy. So I wasn't responsible any of the actual designs. All I did was just
make sure that timecode was read off the multi-track playback decks, and
that lights received timecode to their 2 lightboards and the same with the
sound console, which read the timecode. The Show Control computer only
fired off a generic "GO" command to the scenery automation at the
appropriate time code points, but on newer systems, the scenery automation
just reads the timecode itself and that process is eliminated as well. That
leaves only serial commands for things like video switchers, projectors,
etc.... Maybe some hazers and such, but a lot of those are now run by
lights via DMX.

So in those kind of situations there is no way you would want to deal with
putting all the light cues into the your Show Control computer. It would
literally be Hundreds of Cues! For a 60 to 75 minute show. And it would be
sending commands to 2 light boards.

Just an example.


Richard B. Ingraham
RBI Computers and Audio
http://www.rbicompaudio.20m.com