How can I control Avolites lighting console

[ademarlocks]

Hi to all , I need to control lighting by timelines, already been studying the outputs but did not understand how I can shoot setups for our AVOLITES , someone could give me a way to go ,i know I need some hardware for this, but do not know what or how to use.

[jfk]

Hi to all , I need to control lighting by timelines, already been studying the outputs but did not understand how I can shoot setups for our AVOLITES , someone could give me a way to go ,i know I need some hardware for this, but do not know what or how to use.

 

Live shows or canned playback?

 

Not sure what AVOLITES is - the Avolite web site seems indicate the products include lighting consoles,

dimmer racks, network devices, and media servers.

          If you wish to trigger stored events in a lighting console,

          the console model will determine if and how that is best impemented.

 

Can you be more specific on the device you are attempting to interface?

[ademarlocks]

I am very grateful for the attention, in our company we work with corporate events, providing lighting service, sound and image, my work concerns the physical design and the projection with watchout, normally the events we produce take a lot of planning and designed medias are created specifically for the event, I would love that lighting interact with the media projected, our AVOLITES consoles "titan one" that is a software with a DMX interface and the old "Pearl 2010", I would love to be able to interact with these consoles.

[Walter]

Hi there. I guess there's no simple answer, all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Call on sequences which you could do with a dmx channel and/or level. Some consoles will accept artnet which should work without interface or use an enttec node to create a dmx signal, or midi notes (i.e. lighting operator creates a sequence for a speaker introduction, just trigger the sequence by sending out a dmx cue or midi note)

But sometimes you have an entire performance which you would like to sync, then I prefer to work with a timecode you could master. Ideal during programming since lighting operator could program without you if he has a pre-vid of the show on his laptop with one audio channel being the performance and other channel being the timecode. However, console needs be to able to read out TC.

These are just two examples, I'm sure many other options are thinkable, these are just the two workflows I prefer.

[Thomas Leong]

The one and only time I did this was use an intermediary show control software between Watchout and a Pearl 2000.

 

To trigger Watchout Tasks and/or the Main Timeline, the software sent the 'run' control command via TCP/IP.

To trigger the Pearl 2000, the software sent MIDI Notes which triggered 15 presets on the Pearl. Mix the presets with a couple or more MIDI Notes and one gets a mix of pre-programmed light cues. The Pearl manual shows how to set it to receive MIDI In.

 

In theory, I suppose MSC is another way to trigger Watchout with the Pearl if the latter can send MSC out.

[jfk]

I did take a look at the documentation for the console - Pearl 2008/2010/Tiger Manual.

As you might have surmised from posts above,

it is a console not well suited for control interface.

 

It does not support MIDI Show Control.

 

It has a proprietary MIDI command set based on the basic MIDI commands (Note, Program Change, etc.)

which is really intended for communication between various Avolite option devices.

It also supports MIDI Time Code chase (but not SMPTE, go figure).

 

I do not see any support for Avolite console accepting DMX input,

although I could easily be missing something.

 

As noted above, depends on how you are using it.

 

If the show is a straight run beginning to end,

a SMPTE time code - MIDI Time Code converter setup

to lock the two would make some sense. 

Watchout cluster as master, a SMPE Time Code audio .wav file played from WATCHOUT,

fed to a SMPTE - MTC converter, to the chasing Avolite console.

 

For a cued show, nothing so elegant.

Receiving MIDI Notes from the console to blind trigger watchout tasks

is possible, but not a reliable way to do it like MIDI Show Control provides.

Need a MIDI interface for your WATCHOUT computer for that approach.

BTW When I specify a WATCHOUT system that will receive MIDI input, I suggest the following:

two (2) MIDI input interface ≈ $70 each
one (1) MIDI Solutions Thru ≈ $120 each
three (3) MIDI cables (M-M) ≈ $20 each
This way you can feed the MIDI input signal to both watchmaker and watchpoint cluster master.

WATCHOUT will only use one or the other, never both, but setting it up this way makes 

transitions from Production control to cluster control painless - no re-patching.

Not to mention having redundant MIDI interfaces provides a bit of backup when Murphy visits.

 

Or you could go through the laborious process of triggering tasks

from console DMX channel level changes sent to WATCHOUT DMX input.

You will need a DMX - ArtNet convertor for that approach.

 

As Thomas points out, a custom "interpreter" in between the two can provide more valid function.

 

At the end of the day, if you were considering purchase of a new console for an integrated show system,

this is not a console you would choose.