DMX traffic signal

or something like it.

One of the projects I'm working on calls for a way for D-Pro, as playback software, to signal the performers -- when playing back a sequence of light cues *not* synced to mp3, since the performance is live -- that they're on the final light look of the number, and maybe the one before it.

I envision having some kind of DMX signal fixture aimed at the stage, so they can see green/yellow/red as they approach the last cue.

Is there any better/more cost effective way to do that than by just hanging a cheap ($50) chinese DMX DJ wash on the pipe?

Not if you factor in your time. Even a dirt-cheap dimmer with some cheap clip lights would run several times that.
The only consideration I would add would be the reliability factor. Although it is not being used to directly light something, it seems that a malfunction could really mess up the show if the performers are using it to cue their actions.

Fair enough; we'll put one at each end of the pipe.

Any failure that will get both will probably take out the whole pipe anyway.

I'm curious about how you're using this. Do the performers wrap up a long jam when they've run out of light cues?

Not really. They're performing live a piece that we know what it sounds like, and the LD will write 5 or 6 cues to match up with it -- but since they're playing it live, we can't time them to a recorded track.

So we just put them in order, and one performer on stage has a powerpoint remote in their pocket, and they advance at whatever the learned appropriate time is.

The point of this is simply to make sure that they know when they're about to go over the edge into black -- either they expect it, and have missed cues, or they doubled on one, and are ahead, are the cases I want them to know about. Since it's impractical to put a display on the stage -- they wouldn't have time to look at it anyway, I don't think -- we'll just put these up with each cue, and they'll have something to look at.

The design may need tuning, I came up with it about 60 seconds after I noted the problem while writing the long-form proposal.

Ah! Pretty clever!

Well, that's pleasant to hear; thanks.