Considering MYDMX for our Theater

Fade OUT of a scene is fairly easy. What happens is if you select a NEW SCENE and that scene has a FADE programmed, then you're done, it's that simple. It will cross-fade from Scene 1 to Scene 2 using the value of the fade in Scene 2, assuming the fade switch is selected for the fade.

If you simply want to do a fade to black(blackout), you simply program a fade into the blackout scene.

Now, if you want to have your movers pre-set, you need to thing a bit in advance. You can made a pre-scene, but it has to complement the scene you want to call. During that pre-scene, you set your movers to position. Then, when your actual scene comes on, you're set.

Here's what I'm doing. I am doing a show that can range from 97 minutes to 2 hours and 9 minutes depending on how long the intermissions are. We added "deleted scenes" into the shadowcast main feature, so it added time.

The entire show is programmed as best as possible(using myDMX) to be timed perfectly to the film. It's super close! Anyhow, I use blackouts to pre-set things(including RGB values so my LED lights can fade up to the right color), color wheels and X/Y positions as applicable. In scenes themselves, if a light isn't being used, and it's needed for the next scene, I'll build a step that pre-sets the light(s) for their next function as applicable.

This show also has 15 or 20 blackout scenes.

In one series of scenes, I pre-set my movers to point out, with gobo and color set properly. The next scene, they come on. Next scene they swing IN and UP and change color and rotate the gobo. Then they go OUT. While waiting, the next scene, I added a step to have the lights AIM to the back doors(where cops come in) to help set the scene and help them see. One blue, one red. The cops come in and then the lights rotate UP after a 5 second hold. Then the next scene, they are doing out of phase circles in red and blue to represent dome lights. The whole thing fades to blackout. On the movers, the shutter kicks in, but the colors stay left alone. During blackout, I prefer the lights for the next time I use them.

Thinking ahead will let you get this taken care of. Just because you're not USING the light doens't mean you can't get the light ready to be used.

I also made a scene that I've talked about before, but let me get general: I made one mover beacon as we only wanted one mover doing it. I chose the wrong one. So, I manually duplicated the settings to the other mover. Instead of taking out the steps, I left the other mover alone outside of closing the shutter. It looks silly with a light moving and not making light, but hey, what if I want to have both beacon later?

I also recommend making at least 3 to 4 scenes in each of your show files:
1: Blackout. This is an immediate blackout, no fade.
2: Blackout with Fade. Your choice of fade times, 2-3 seconds works good. 4 seconds is OK too. Find your favorite value.
3: Junk scene. I call this my work scene. I typically use this as Scene 1. I don't care what happens here, it's just for screwing around with. Bring lights up, down, test things, move things, do my controller programming.
4: Blackout with LONG fade-out is optional. I use a 10-second fade-out for this. Nice when transitioning from movie presenter to feature film at film festivals I do.

Chris- Thanks A Lot! Once again your answer are clear and understandable. Maybe you should write manuals for a living cause I swear most people that do stink at it.

2 little questions:

How sure are you that MYDMX will give me the consistency with intelligent lights to hit the same spot each time? Of course given that the light is not moved. Is there any variation on where the lights end up?

Is there a list of things to do to a computer to optimize it for use with MYDMX?
Thanks for your help.

I used to do tech writing and manuals for datacomm products, especially for products I helped develop.

Those two little questions aren't so little!

1: Consistency. They key to consistency is two things. First, the obvious is consistent placement of the fixture. The second is really the fixture itself. I think for example, the X-Move LED Spot first generation was very inconsistent with how it would move around. Many people complained it would drift. They had to power cycle the light to get it to properly return to zero. This isn't practical.

Now, not to bash any ADJ product or praise any Chauvet product needlessly, but I have a pair of Chauvet Q-Spot 150's, which I've had for several years now, and using them for near 3 years with MyDMX, the results have been very consistent. In the big show I am working on, te lights hit exactly where I want them to each and every single time. Fixtures with X and Y channels, plusX and Y fine channels have 16-bit movement, and hence tend to use better motors. The added price reflects this more expensive technology. As per typical, you get what you pay for.

Despite my good results with these lights, which haven't given me any issues, I am looking to replace them, or at least get more movers.

Question 2 regarding optimization. Optimization really comes down to how much work you need to do with your computer. In my case, my 17" MacBook Pro has to do quite a bit of work besides MyDMX. My suite of software includes MS Office, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Pagemaker, Sonar Home Studio, Nero 7, Sony Vegas Pro 9, ProTools M-Powered 74.csXX and many other applications besides MyDMX. With the kind of money I put into this computer($3400+ at purchase with screen and CPU upgrades, then a later RAM upgrade I did), we're talking close to $3600 for this laptop. No way it's just doing one thing.

For any computer, especially going on the internet, a few things should be done. The first is to use a broadband router to prevent direct attacks to the operating system by dirtbag spammers. The second is anti-virus software, which I've been recommending Norton Anti-Virus for at least 15 years. For spyware protection, I recommend Spybot Search & Destroy, which is free. The only downside is you must manually run the updater and search, but do that once a week. Tihs three-level approach will prevent MOST problems.

Now, as far as optimization, again, it really depends on what you need to do or can afford to do. Since you're most likely not going to waste a laptop just for MyDMX, my suggestions are as follows:
When using MyDMX, I recommend that you disable your WIFI and network adaptor. The computer won't do queries for DHCP and sniffing for networks. This is more critical for WIFI as unline the wired network, WIFI will continously try to find a network to connect to. One of the gripes about XP and later is that sometimes you just want it to fail, and WIFI takes more to fail. WIFI tends to be more of a resource hog sa well.

Other things to turn off is Apple Mobile Services and anything related to Ipod and Itunes, I have an iPhone, but I use my MacBook Pro as a Mac when dealing wiht my iPhone. When I use myDMX, I am booting using BootCamp and coming up as a PC.

Look at your system tray and look at other things that you don't absolutely have to have.

Type MSCONFIG in your RUN box and disable other things you don't need.

If time permits, I like to redo my entire computer(all of them except for servers) at least once a year. This just genreally cleans out any crap that has accumulated and helps keep things optimized as well. Then, only install what you can't live without.

Overall, I have found that disabling WIFI to be the biggest optimization. If you use the 3D Visualizer, especailly live, the faster CPU"s, better graphics cards and more RAM re definate must-haves.

Chris,
Thank You for that reply.
I appreciate your time.
john