Luminair iPad App

macsound

Well-Known Member
Has anyone used Luminair as a lighting controller? Runs on iPad, spits out sAcn over wifi (I know I know) and interfaces with a bunch of other hardware.
http://synthe-fx.com/products/luminair

I'm looking at using this for 2 purposes. 1 is training and 2 is rehearsals, both with a kids theatre company.
I like that you can link Phillips Hue physical buttons, so there could be props, and because it's on an iPad, I could lockout parts of the screen so I don't have to worry about kids messing up a config while they're "learning".
 
I used it a couple versions ago for small events and it worked fine for conventional dimmers and static LED stuff. It was slow to program though, but once you had your scenes setup it was easy. I stopped using it when they released it as a new version and killed the old one. I don't use it enough to pay $100 for it every time they release a new version.
 
I have used it but it is a bit clunky. I am not sure it would be worth teaching kids how to use it because the availability of offline software is so accessible and using industry standard stuff means they learn the good stuff right off the bat.
It is simple to use. You program looks and then press buttons to get the look onstage. Hit the wrong button and get the wrong look.
I guess it is horses for courses so do some research and make an informed decision.

Regards
Geoff
 
My experience is pretty dated, so take it with a grain of salt. When I was programming with one of these 6-8 years ago, the best thing I did was set up my sacn node to hold last look on control loss. This smoothed over a lot of dropped signal and device problems. This was in a retail environment and they were doing a lot of dynamic looks. Dropped signal just mean the lights stayed on, so it wasn't a bad failure mode. You're in a more controlled and direct environment than my experience was, but I had a lot of problems with people wandering out of service range for the ipad, dead batteries, bad signal, etc.
 
We're looking at this too, as our light board is 15+ years old. Same reasons - simplicity, cost, and ease of use for kids. They all use iPads anyway, so this seemed like a logical jump - we just want to give them a taste of being able to control a rack of lights, get them hooked, and pass them off to the high schools with actual drama programs. :p

I'm going to see my light guy tonight at rehearsal - I should have an idea of when we're going to get everything hooked up and take it for a spin - I'll let you know how it goes.
 
For another use case, an iPad or iPhone bolted to the wall with the app running could be a great alternative or upgrade for an outdated wall panel. And cheaper than most simple models too.
 

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