I'm in the process of deploying a show control setup for a musical I'm working on. I've got 2 PCs and an ETC Express 48/96. One PC lives up in the light booth and is a laptop coupled to a projector for video. The other is a fairly old first gen Pentium 4 system with a PCI sound card and balanced outputs coupled to the mixing desk.
Ideally, I want to leave the sound FX playback PC with the mixer so that the board op can make use of the other software on the machine (remote interface to the desk, remote meters for the crossover) during the show. This is going to involve a 36 foot or so run of either MIDI cable or serial cabling (either actual RS-232 cable or adapting it to Cat 5E or Cat 6).
I'm using the video system as the master show control machine. Both PCs will be running Show Cue System. Doing testing with all 3 devices next to each other, I've discovered that if I send 2 MIDI packets in a single cue, if I send the one destined for the Express first, the second packet never makes it to the audio PC. Reverse order works every time. MIDI chain is video -> Express -> PC using the Thru port on the Express. Given that minor issue, and the longish run, might I be better off using RS-232 (supported by the software) to link the systems instead of MIDI? I do plan to call ETC on Tuesday to see if this is a known issue. Haven't had too much good luck with their older products and MIDI lately. (Don't even try MSC on Emphasis - if you're lucky, it will just drop packets. If you're unlucky, it will hard lock the face panel).
Thanks for any advice/pointers. I've got a month and a half to figure this out and test, just want to minimize the purchasing of unneeded parts.
Ideally, I want to leave the sound FX playback PC with the mixer so that the board op can make use of the other software on the machine (remote interface to the desk, remote meters for the crossover) during the show. This is going to involve a 36 foot or so run of either MIDI cable or serial cabling (either actual RS-232 cable or adapting it to Cat 5E or Cat 6).
I'm using the video system as the master show control machine. Both PCs will be running Show Cue System. Doing testing with all 3 devices next to each other, I've discovered that if I send 2 MIDI packets in a single cue, if I send the one destined for the Express first, the second packet never makes it to the audio PC. Reverse order works every time. MIDI chain is video -> Express -> PC using the Thru port on the Express. Given that minor issue, and the longish run, might I be better off using RS-232 (supported by the software) to link the systems instead of MIDI? I do plan to call ETC on Tuesday to see if this is a known issue. Haven't had too much good luck with their older products and MIDI lately. (Don't even try MSC on Emphasis - if you're lucky, it will just drop packets. If you're unlucky, it will hard lock the face panel).
Thanks for any advice/pointers. I've got a month and a half to figure this out and test, just want to minimize the purchasing of unneeded parts.