DMX Lighting Question

[cprman67]

I was thinking of going to that as well, but I keep holding off, since they said the ots "MAY" offer a little program within OTS. That's why I wish they would tell us what is coming up...I don't want to spend the money on that only to have it come out in the program. Any 'insiders' heard anything about the lighting control? I won't tell anyone else....I promise.

[Mike Sinclair]

That's exactly my train of thought. I'm considering going with myDMX, but if Ots is going to have light control built into it, I don't wanna drop the $ to have that become obsolete.

[JAylmer]

I have had the same thought for many years as well, but if you need DMX the $$ for the controller end, either hardware or software are very low.

[cprman67]

I guess technically speaking, you would have to purchase a dongle in either case. And, if I read it correctly, when you buy myDMX the main cost is the dongle and not the software....

[Jumpin' Jeff]

I found only that Ots Studio includes the info about light control. I'd be extremely happy if they offered a simple Midi out signal to trigger the beat in any DMX or other MIDI controllable software. Actually, maybe 2 midi signals... One to indicate beat one, and another to indicate 2-4, to allow software to somehow stay in sync. Don't get me wrong, doing 4 would be even better, allowing a note for each beat 1-4.

This Midi output may very well require an additional MIDI out port. Of course it would be great if you could choose 2-3 input MIDI ports as well in Ots.

Lighting control itself, IMO, should be left to the existing DMX software. The coding of that software in itself would be another extreme feat that goes well beyond the scope of what Ots has suggested as a 2.0 feature, so a trigger mechanism would keep it simple and make us happy. Freestyler is free, and uses an open DMX interface to communicate with your DMX devices, and from what I can tell, is MIDI controllable.

An Open DMX interface can be had for $63US...
http://www.enttec.com/index.php?main_menu=Products&pn=70303&show=description&name=opendmxusb
This device is supported by the freestyler software.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnlSm_yyR8
I have freestyler on my system, and when I find my DMX module, I'll attempt to get it working with my M_Audio Trigger finger MIDI controller to verify this.

[mel garland]

Got to agree with you Jeff.  Not that I know much about DMX I can't see OTS going down the road of designing a programme for DMX but to send out a  midi signal makes more sense.

[jabo]

I use chauvet showxpress and know a good deal about this program if you need help.  As for the power situation, your lights don't care where the power comes from as long as they have power they will be fine.  DMX must be run daisy chain fashion from light to light but power does not matter.

I would never run ots and DMX on the same computer, too much room for error in way too many ways.

[jabo]

I very, very, very seriously doubt that OTS will ever put out a lighting controller with the power and flexibility of ShowXpress. 

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Jabo, I agree they would never put out anything comparable to any type of dmx controller software currently available.

I used to run LightJockey on my setup along side Ots without any issues at all, and now run Freestyler without issue.  I'm curious how you feel error would be an issue.

[jabo]

Human error more than computer error.  Computers are too cheap not to separate the workload and make things much easier for the user. 

[Jumpin' Jeff]

You've confussed me.
You say more human error, and then say computers can't handle it.

I believe computers can handle it. Todays systems are very powerful and we are letting them idle along without much work IMO. They are designed to hadle it. The biggest issue is getting your display interface configured to make it less of a human problem. When I use lighting control, I put Ots on the left of my display, and light control panel on right. It's impossible to run both interfaces at the same moment. A mouse or keyboard can't do 2 things at once. IMO, seperating the 2 to 2 different PCs, wouldn't take away the human factor. Human error would still exist, so why blame the computer(s).

[jabo]

I never said the computers can't handle it, can you show me what you mean?

The human factor would be lessened if using two monitors, but then if one program locks up for some reason you just made it dark and quiet, if one video card goes out.  Now if you don't have two monitors the error of having to switch between screens comes back into play.

I never said you had to have two computers, I said that it is better to have two computers.  I run my lighting on my back up computer for OTS, we are all carrying a back up computer in case of emergency right? 

[krzyd]

I never said the computers can't handle it, can you show me what you mean?

The human factor would be lessened if using two monitors, but then if one program locks up for some reason you just made it dark and quiet, if one video card goes out.  Now if you don't have two monitors the error of having to switch between screens comes back into play.

I never said you had to have two computers, I said that it is better to have two computers.  I run my lighting on my back up computer for OTS, we are all carrying a back up computer in case of emergency right? 

I agree, I run showexpress on a spare laptop.

[JAylmer]

One future possibilty is that we will import eg. a Freestyler sequence into an OTS file as a DMX chunk (already reserved).
Play the OTS file and a "Freestyler player" plays the DMX sequence/chunk.
That way OTS itself would not need DMX device drivers, visualisers, lighting hardware setup etc, all that would live in Freestyler.

[DJMartin]

Personally I would never run OTS and DMX software on the same computer on a gig, even they are sure able to handle this without a problem. Reason is that usually lights will be controlled by a LJ and the music by the DJ. If I do work alone or in a situation, where more background music is desired and the lights are reduced to more static color fades, then run the DMX either from a spare (backup) OTS laptop or by an older netbook.
The DMX software we're using is using the USB-DMX interface as the software dongle. So that is very good to take whatever computer is available as long as there's a free USB connector.

It's little more hardware to carry with, but as mentioned before, you have a backup if either one of them has a problem.