voztimbrada
Member
I am currently involved in the planning phase for a new theatre, set to open next year. I am the primary tech advisor, and am trying to educate myself a bit in regards to the various options for show control. I have a fair amount of experience running from computer based systems. But since we will have a bit more budget at our disposal, I'm interested in learning a bit more about the hardware solutions available.
The theatre will be roughly 200 seats, and will be utilizing prerecorded audio tracks a lot for very music centered shows. So I'd like to get set up with show control that uses the audio for the master, or perhaps time code. Lighting design will be fairly involved, and synced with audio. We will also be using multiple projectors and possibly an LED wall. So we need the capability for multiple layers and outputs of video. I'm also very interested in an extremely stable set up. Budget is not infinite, but spending $20,000 to $30,000 on these elements alone is not out of the question. I'm also interested in finding out about options for redundancy, backups without show interruption in the case of a failure.
I'll list the two options that are my primary choices right now, but I'd love to hear suggestions, pros/cons or learn new information that will shed some more light on things. Here are the two scenarios I'm considering at present:
1. Software based set up:
2 Mac Pros
1 to run audio with time code, or midi commands, etc. as well as lights via software console and dmx interface
1 to run video server software ala Arkaos media server or something along those lines
Either can serve as a back up, if one were to fail
2. Harware set up
ETC, High end systems, HOG or comparable board
Hardware media server(s) to run video and audio
Is there a major element/product/option I'm missing? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance!
The theatre will be roughly 200 seats, and will be utilizing prerecorded audio tracks a lot for very music centered shows. So I'd like to get set up with show control that uses the audio for the master, or perhaps time code. Lighting design will be fairly involved, and synced with audio. We will also be using multiple projectors and possibly an LED wall. So we need the capability for multiple layers and outputs of video. I'm also very interested in an extremely stable set up. Budget is not infinite, but spending $20,000 to $30,000 on these elements alone is not out of the question. I'm also interested in finding out about options for redundancy, backups without show interruption in the case of a failure.
I'll list the two options that are my primary choices right now, but I'd love to hear suggestions, pros/cons or learn new information that will shed some more light on things. Here are the two scenarios I'm considering at present:
1. Software based set up:
2 Mac Pros
1 to run audio with time code, or midi commands, etc. as well as lights via software console and dmx interface
1 to run video server software ala Arkaos media server or something along those lines
Either can serve as a back up, if one were to fail
2. Harware set up
ETC, High end systems, HOG or comparable board
Hardware media server(s) to run video and audio
Is there a major element/product/option I'm missing? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance!