Qlab Clock

[peacefulone61]

I am looking for a suggestion to something that I am not even sure how to describe fully. Our theater uses Qlab to handle all of our sound cues, and Audio playback. I recently was able to sit in on a dance performance. I noticed that the stage manager and lighting board opps were using stop watches to make calls on lighting and effects. these cues were based on a set time in a song. What I would like to do is get some sort of digital clock that displays the time code of the song. I know Qlab had the functionality to achieve this. It just was vague on what type of clock I would need and how to connect it. Has anyone done something like this? Thank you for any thoughts and suggestions.

 

[Gobokat]

I am looking for a suggestion to something that I am not even sure how to describe fully. Our theater uses Qlab to handle all of our sound cues, and Audio playback. I recently was able to sit in on a dance performance. I noticed that the stage manager and lighting board opps were using stop watches to make calls on lighting and effects. these cues were based on a set time in a song. What I would like to do is get some sort of digital clock that displays the time code of the song. I know Qlab had the functionality to achieve this. It just was vague on what type of clock I would need and how to connect it. Has anyone done something like this? Thank you for any thoughts and suggestions.

Just so I understand what your goal is - do you want Qlab to run the lighting cues (as in a MIDI connection to your lighting desk) or are you looking for QLab to output a SMTP or MTC signal that another device could use as a display-only time output for other humans to trigger events?

 

[peacefulone61]

Just so I understand what your goal is - do you want Qlab to run the lighting cues (as in a MIDI connection to your lighting desk) or are you looking for QLab to output a SMTP or MTC signal that another device could use as a display-only time output for other humans to trigger events?

I would like like Humans to trigger the cues.

 

[MNicolai]

I haven't experimented with this myself but I suspect you make this happen on any iOS device connected to that network using the Qlab Remote or Go Button app without investing in purpose-built hardware.

 

[z2oo]

If I understand what you're looking for, this could be an easy thing to do... If you can duplicate the display of the QLab machine for the SM/board op, you can always just open the right-hand sidebar and watch the progress of each track as it plays. There's a button to swap between counting up from zero (time elapsed) and counting down to zero seconds as well (time remaining). You can open the sidebar by clicking the icon next to the "Settings" gear on the bottom right of QLab, then click "Active Cues" to see this.

 

[themuzicman]

If the SM is already calling cues off of physical times in a song, I would urge you to either just timecode sync the songs or use MIDI to fire -- why add a human element to it if they are just calling off a stopwatch? At that point they are already part Robot, so why not just go all the way?

If you are super dead-set on a physical readout you can go one of two ways --
1. Screenshare the QLab computer (preferably just mirror the display via KVM without keyboard control) and just keep open the part of the screen that has "List/Carts & Active Cues" which will have a countdown duration. I will say, the way a lot of professionals program this has a lot of room for error as I'll run a Group Cue and timing needs to be off the group, but you only see running SFX individually so you miss a lot of information as it doesn't take into account loops or total run-time.

2. Spin Timecode with the cue you are trying to track. At this point, you're better off just slamming the LTC into the LX desk and coordinating with the LX Designer to just build their cue stack around this, but whatever works -- you need to have any of the 3 "Pro" licenses in QLab installed, and you would physically just run a Timecode Cue and specify the start time as 0:0:0:0. You can then pop open the Timecode Window and mirror the display, or buy a nice physical LTC Clock Reader

 

[Jay Ashworth]

On the "let them see elapsed time" front, yes: get a VGA, DVI, or HDMI 1x2 splitter, and give the light board op a duplicate monitor (or just relocate the monitor between you and them), and show them how to see the time marks.

Qlab will let you create time-delayed marks in a group that will all launch simultaneously with the track, and each do something... be that actually firing the light cue, or something else Qlab knows how to do.

 

[lorilights]

I know that this is good in terms of generalities (using a stopwatch to know when a cue happens) but having it happen on a beat of music requires a much more detailed time ....even using a stopwatch it is easier to count beats for many cues. That said, I have students program lighting projects off times with follow cues so as long as you hit sound and lights go at 00 it all works well. Never used the MIDI control function because that's just boring...and there are still a lot of cues that happen outside a specific piece or time such as house lights, curtain speech lights, bow lights, active shooter panic lights, for example. So I would never run a piece off an auto-timer without a person there to override it at any time.

 

[Bryan Beauchamp]

We have a setup similar to what Jay suggest in our theatre – A monitor on the stage managers desk that mirrors what I’m looking at from the AV director’s position. To make it work, I open the timecode window in Qlab, make the window really big and put it in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. In our case time code is triggering many of the lighting effects, but some aspects of our show have to be called manually by the SM, for safety reasons. The SM knows that certain cues are supposed to happen at such and such time and watches the screen for timecode and then makes the call.

You could do the same thing, set up a monitor, open the timecode window in Qlab and let the SM and LD simply use the timecode window as a reference point even if it’s not triggering anything.

 

[ateichman]

If all the humans are doing is watching a stopwatch and running cues at specific times, it's time to automate. QLab will do this work far more accurately and consistently than any human. Disclosure: I'm a long-time professional (human) stage manager. Create a timed sequence that the crew can initiate along with the SQ, and then let the rest run itself.

There are a couple of ways to do this, including those suggested above. Since the times are already known (crew are already calling from them), it's dead easy to build an auto-follow sequence to suit.

I agree with the idea of having QLab also trigger the lighting board. Much easier to do, and to build into the same sequence. Alternatively, have the lighting board trigger QLab - same idea, just run in reverse.

Finally, if you are using QLab 4, that now has the ability to "learn" a sequence through execution of it. You're past that stage now, having figured out all the times, but for next time…

There are lots of things humans do better than hardware, but watching a clock and pushing a button are not among them.

 

[talkingtobrian]

I agree - while analog methods are still acceptable, if you have multiple people watching a stopwatch so that you can sync cues I think you need to reconsider your methods, especially if you already have QLab. (You’ll need a license for anything other than simple stereo audio cues, however.) Build your network and sync your boards for the parts that have critical sync. Sure, still have board ops on hand to override or whatever, run non-synced cues. But the minute you have multiple stopwatches you are already not in sync, you know?

As for extraneous cues, like house lights and whatnot, you should be building al of that into your related cue lists anyway (unless it’s something like an off like house light system).

Finally, if you really need a timer or anything else, QLab can spit that out, and depending on how you do it you can broadcast/mirror that. I’ve done some shows with a countdown clock on the speaker’s confidence monitor, for instance.

Hope this helps. Btw, if this is for an educational purpose that you are insisting on using stopwatches, then I think that there is a great educational reason not to use them, and let students find / see other creative ways around this problem.

 

[ateichman]

I agree on the "teachable moment" point. Times change. Tech changes. Education needs to change, too.