Messaging to orchestra director

LPdan

Well-Known Member
We are looking for a solution to be able to send messages to the orchestra director from a PC in the booth. Ideally, we would mount a small monitor on the director's music stand, and he could see messages sent. It would be great if we didn't need a computer/laptop on the receiving end. I can imagine setting his monitor up as a duplicate display. Does anyone know of software that might let us make comments/messages, maybe with a time stamp like messenger apps? Another possible option would be a desktop program that sent pop-up messages to a phone. Any ideas on the best way to do this?
Thanks!
 
Macs have the Message app, so easy to text between a Mac and a smartphone.
 
Phone companies (usually? always?) have email to text gateways. Try sending a text message to your email address, and the reply-to address should get a text message to the phone; it's often something along the lines of phonenumber@phonecompany.com This isn't real-time (though it's usually fairly quick, maybe 10-20 seconds if things work normally). It does, of course, require usable cell service wherever the conductor is.
 
Thanks for all the input on phone solutions, I see a couple that will work. Any other ideas for non-phone solutions?
 
This program would work well for the approach of setting up a monitor by the conductor that is a secondary display to a computer in the booth: https://www.da-share.com/software/presentation-timer/

Obviously the time functions are the main thing it's built around, but it also has the ability to send messages with controls to change the color, show/hide the message, etc.

I've used it before with our confidence monitor on the balcony rail, but more recently transitioned to something custom (built around Magic Mirror) running on a Raspberry Pi stuck to the back of the monitor. The main advantage there is a web interface that lets me control it from my phone or any other computer on the network--rather than having a dedicated computer in the booth with a video connection to the monitor. There wasn't an off-the-shelf module to do what I wanted, and what I did to make it work is a little hacky... I'm not a real programmer, but sometimes I pretend by bashing other people's stuff around until it works... Anyway, if you wanted to go this route I could try to share what I did.
 
Why not a basic Word editing program, black text on white background, make text size as big as you want. Laptop in booth, use the 2nd VGA or whatever output to a cable to the monitor in the pit, plus deactivate screen save.
 

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Gonna sound like "one tune charlie" here.. but Mumble has along side it's audio channels display a real time text message stack.. Can just type into the pc, and it shows up
at any of the stations that have a monitor.
There are also ways to just text to one particular user
Can also cut in phone with mumble app via wifi.. but then it would all be on an internal network rather than having to use the
cell company. And as I keep saying.. it's free what's not to like, and theres a whole lotta retired win7 pc's hanging around right now.
several in my basement Or you could do a video feed and write on an eraseable whiteboard :)
 
Just give the MD an android pad or iPad and open up the same google doc as you have open in the booth. It will change on both ends in real-time over WiFi.
 
RenewedVision ProPresenter comes to mind. It's a purpose built live presenter software (like a better Powerpoint) that includes a dedicated "Stage Display." There you can put clocks/timers or you can send a message and make it flash to grab attention. The clip below shows the "booth/CR" interface. In the upper right corner you see a preview of the stage display. Unfortunately it's a bit pricy. The demo version is fully featured, there is just an occasional watermark that comes up on the outputs. Works on both PC or Mac.

There is an iPhone/iPad app available that can connect over Wifi to show the Stage Display, eliminates the need for long cable runs.

I've had great success with it all the lectures I do. I've used it a few times in a theatrical production, mainly for my own run-of-show and timing but the stage display was setup in the wings to give actors and idea of where we are at a glance.

Hnet-image.gif
 
RenewedVision ProPresenter comes to mind. It's a purpose built live presenter software (like a better Powerpoint) that includes a dedicated "Stage Display." There you can put clocks/timers or you can send a message and make it flash to grab attention. The clip below shows the "booth/CR" interface. In the upper right corner you see a preview of the stage display. Unfortunately it's a bit pricy. The demo version is fully featured, there is just an occasional watermark that comes up on the outputs. Works on both PC or Mac.

There is an iPhone/iPad app available that can connect over Wifi to show the Stage Display, eliminates the need for long cable runs.

I've had great success with it all the lectures I do. I've used it a few times in a theatrical production, mainly for my own run-of-show and timing but the stage display was setup in the wings to give actors and idea of where we are at a glance.

View attachment 20209
I believe there is also an Apple TV app that will run the stage display.
 

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