One Control to Rule Them All

[indigoapropo]

I am researching for an upcoming dance show that would like to something a little bit different with Lights Sound and Projections. Lets see if I can adequately explain my goal with the three of them:

First and for most I need a trigger mechanism for all three so ideally the SM running them would only have to press one button.

The second goal is a little more complicated. We are interested in having the projections effected in some way by the lighting or sound. For instance if there are an array of circles projected the size could change with the beat of the sound or the color would change with how bright it is on stage.

Right now I'm using Isadora but I'm unsure if it has the capability I'm looking for.

Any advice would be tremendously helpful as I have to submit a budget fairly soon.

 

[Joshualangman]

Actually, Isadora is made specifically for live-rendering projections that react to various inputs for live dance shows. So yes, it can do what you want for video. (Not sure about lights.) It would be worth watching the tutorials on the Isadora website. One of the most common uses of Izzy is to render projected effects that "follow" live dancers. If you are doing video that reacts to some other pre-recorded media, like music, it may make a lot more sense to pre-render that video. Part of this question reminds me a little bit of a pet peeve of mine, designers having SMs call, say, a sound cue based off a point in another sound cue. If they're both sound cues, you can program the second one to happen at the correct time based off the first one. GOs are for triggering cues off of human actions, like things that an actor or dancer does. Similarly here, if the music that you want your video and lighting to react to is pre-recorded, as opposed to live, then there is really no reason not to have your video and lighting also be pre-recorded. It's when you want video or lights to react to a human being's movements that you really need Izzy's live rendering functionality — and this, as I said above, is specifically what the program is designed to do.

 

[DRU]

I took the two day projections course at USITT this year, and we got to play around with Qlab, Watchout, and Isadora. Of those three, Isadora is your best bet for interaction.

Does your light and sound board have MIDI control built in? Use MIDI to have your Isadora computer to change cues and levels on each board.

Programming Isadora in a linear fashion will take time. And rather than make it one button to control everything, program a couple buttons to change specific things, such as light cues and projection slides, rather than one button.

 

[ThomasL]

Your first objective - one-button to run them all - can be easily achieved with VenueMagic DMX+AV or VenueMagic SC+.

Not too sure about your second objective. Perhaps you could write and ask the Venuemagic people. They are quite helpful.
Watchout might be able to do that with its Tween functions for Scale and/or Brightness, but I'm not good with functions, apart from the fact that you may need a MIDI Controller and sensor for this.

 

[AhClem]

Would ArKaos Media Master be suitable for your projections? I'm not sure how the features compare to the Isadora software, but a small theater I work with has used it to sync their projectors, audio cues and lighting cues, all triggered using the space bar to step through the lighting cues. ArKaos also offers control using MIDI devices as you control input.
I'm not certain from your description which, if any, of the mediums (i.e. lights, sound, projections) is the primary 'motivator'. (who's leading the band?) If I can help answer any questions on using/controlling ArKaos let me know.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Yes, Isadora can handle this, but not on its own, you need a light board and communication with your Isadora machine. Depending on how cue heavy your production is, you may need to create the control surface of Isadora a bit.

MIDI will most likely be your friend for triggering your lighting console. Consoles from even 20 years ago can accept it to trigger cues, so most modern boards should have no problem. You can even get a USB to MIDI adapter for fairly cheap.

If you have Isadora running the sound and projection, it will be very easy to have the audio to trigger an envelop generator which can be used to bump the size or add a colorizer for the circles. Since it would be controlling the lights, just have it programmed to change the projection at the same time to change the lights. If you truly want it to react, you will need a camera, a video capture card, and then use video watcher actor and blob decoder actor to detect brightness changes.