All in 1 Linux show control system

My suggestion for your system, as far as programming goes, is stay away from web coding for this. HTML 5 is an improvement over the older versions but still not stable enough nor latency controlled as this would require. Javascript would be virtually useless for the same reasons. Why not do this in C++ or C#?
 
My suggestion for your system, as far as programming goes, is stay away from web coding for this. HTML 5 is an improvement over the older versions but still not stable enough nor latency controlled as this would require. Javascript would be virtually useless for the same reasons. Why not do this in C++ or C#?

C++ requires extensive work in porting onto every platform you want to use it on, C# just plain doesn't work on things that aren't Windows (or, ugh, mono). HTML5, on the other hand, works to varying degrees on any modern web-capable device or browser. I'm not sure where your prejudice against JavaScript is coming from, nowadays it is very fast (on browsers that aren't IE) and is just as inherently reliable as the platform it's running on, just the same as C# or any compiled language. WebSockets remove the latency concern normally present with XHR/AJAX/"Pull" based messaging systems, as they give JavaScript direct control over the underlying socket - it won't get any faster than that.
 
yanterrien, it sounds like a great initiative!

I am sadly no programmer(except some basic knowledge of Java and Matlab), but to me it sounds like a good way to make it possible for good open source solutions. Maybe this is the start of what AJ Pen talks about in this interview, but open source.
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ENTECH INTECH - Extended Linkin Park Interview with AJ Pen - YouTube

Am I understanding you correctly if I believe you create "the base"(API?) for communication with the real world(MIDI, LTC, DMX, Serial)? And other programmers can create custom "plug-ins" with GUI for having a timeline, cue's, midi/MSC control, dmx control etc.?
 
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I've never had great luck with Linux in terms of the DMX512 apps. Even midi sequencers seemed to crash often, and the way jack enumerated devices made it impossible to script.

One tip if you hate Windows but want to use one application is Windows XPe and Windows Embedded 7. You can rip out everything and build a single purpose system, if you want something like an appliance.

When that fails, go Mac.
 
I'm actually looking at writing something simple over winter holiday. It won't be fancy (think qlab 1.5 levels of functionality w/ no additional licensed), but it will run on linux. If anyone wants to throw some code my way, pm me.
 
What language were you thinking of writing this in (hard to contribute code if you don't know the language).

Also, now that magicq does video/audio more easily with the magicHD portion of the software, I would say by far that is the best way to go for the ability to do everything in one place (and I do both lighting and sound, does that mean I hate myself?).

I'd say try magicq out again, using the onstagelighting tutorials to get you started, and the newer ones on magichd afterwards. I use it on both linux mint and windows.
 
Maybe it's not exactly what you want, but there is an open source show control software that runs on Linux, Windows and MAC ( V-Control ) It is not like QLab. I think the main difference is that V-Control is more a device control solution. It can not play Video or Audio by itself. V-Control is more a Master that controls other devices (via RS232, TCP, UDP, DMX, MIDI, IR, Relays etc.) If you are interested we can discuss if it makes sense to extend V-Control.
 
I'm actually looking at writing something simple over winter holiday. It won't be fancy (think qlab 1.5 levels of functionality w/ no additional licensed), but it will run on linux. If anyone wants to throw some code my way, pm me.
I do hope you have gone ahead with your project. I second the question of what language, etc you are using? I'd love to see someone develop even a simple yet rock solid mulitiplay equivalent for linux open source. Especially given to later see it expanded to include DMX etc.
 
I'm actually looking at writing something simple over winter holiday. It won't be fancy (think qlab 1.5 levels of functionality w/ no additional licensed), but it will run on linux. If anyone wants to throw some code my way, pm me.

There is already a WIP called, I think, Linux Show Player; I think it's in Python.

Yup: https://code.google.com/p/linux-show-player/
When I looked at it early this year, it had *baaad* dependency problems for deployment so I can't comment on where in the functionality cycle it is. But it's often worthwhile to throw labor at an existing project rather than a new one...
 
I do seem to think there is DMX control software for Linux, I remember seeing it somewhere. Can't recall. I currently don't have a computer with enough HDD space to dual-boot (had my main machine fry, HDD and all). Perhaps one was MagicQ? Don't recall.

There is. It's called QLC+, and it is a very feature rich system for doing DMX control in Linux. Its at http://www.qlcplus.org/. It's written for Linux, Windows XP+, macOS, and even runs on a Raspberry Pi hobby computer.

The last one would be for people who also have a cramped control booth, as the Raspberry PI is about the size of a 3.5" internal hard drive. QLC source code is free, the binaries are free for everything but Raspberry PI, and Raspberry PI binaries cost 15 euros worth of whatever your local currency is.
 
I've spent the last hour looking on the forum to find something pointing to something I'm looking for, and no luck...so I'm starting a thread.

What i want to do:
-Run sound cues (up to 8 channels out)
-Run lighting cues
-Run video cues
-all by pressing [space bar]

oh...and did I mention all this on a Linux box running Ubuntu 64bit?

If you can run two Linux machines, one for sound, one for lights, you can get the lights done with QLC+, and the sound done with EventSoundControl, https://www.eventsoundcontrol.com/en. Both software systems run on Windows, Linux, and Mac. EventSoundControl costs money for a 5 user license, 39.50 Euros.
 
Frankly, I think that an "all-in-one" controller is kind of a bad idea. Having one piece of software on one machine that does everything has to come with a lot of caveats, for instance:
  • If the software crashes, your whole show is toast, whereas with discrete systems, if sound takes a crap, you may not have to stop the show.
  • A jack-of-all trades is always a master of none. Meaning that software (or hardware) that is designed to do one thing well, will always be easier and more efficient than software/hardware designed to try to do many things.
  • Bandwidth and processing power. Many processes that we run in entertainment require lots of processing power and network bandwidth. Sure, you can maybe add NICs to a machine, but it likely would not be hard to bog down even a high-ed CPU if you are trying to run high-res video, multi-track audio, and lighting.
So, you say: "what about software like Q-Lab? It does a bit of everything." That is true, and it would be OK as an all-in-one for a small space, but it doesn't really provide the ease of use or the high level functionality of say, a dedicated lighting controller. I mean, unless the idea is to write effectively three separate programs (lighting, sound, projections) that people would want over what already is available, and then roll them into one application with a unified cue stack, then I don't really see too much life for a project like this.
 
Hey there,
this is Martin. I am the developer of EventSoundControl. Did it for my own usage but it is to expensive to do this only for my own and so I decided to publish it. As I began I needed a clean, simple and fast solution to play audio cues and playlists. Because there was nothing that was fine for me, I started EventSoundControl some years ago.

I think Alex is right mostly but in some cases it is very useful to have a simple all in one solution for small projects. With EventSoundControl I'd do it like that:
- prepare and use QLC+ for the lights
- prepare the video playlist in VLC an throw any output to a second screen, enable web control input in VLC
- create a button with the desired audio file in EventSoundControls "button player"
- give the audio button a hotkey like the space bar
- edit the audio button by EventSoundControls editor to give it some "actions" close to start the audio file:
- "MidiOut" action(s) for controlling QLC+ (virtual MIDI is available at linux systems)
- "HttpRequest" action(s) for controlling VLC

Yes you can control whatever you want from within EventSoundControl by midi, osc (next release), simulated key strokes (Win only) or HttpRequest. So you can get a control surface with audio capatibilities. ;)
 
One possibility for this (which does seem a bit like brute forcing this) is to virtualize and do a multi-head setup, which could easily be centrally controlled with MIDI. As I said, it is a tad on the crude side, but it is a possibility.

As @Martin Simon said, it seems like a decent idea. I've been playing around with VLC a fair bit lately, and you could certainly do what he's talking about with it. I'm sure you might also be able to find software that converts MIDI into specific keystrokes, so you could control VLC via the "Play/Pause" media key via MIDI.
 

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