Open Source/Free Lighting Control Software

[Chris Hocking]

Hey'ya Everybody!

Has anyone here had a play with any of the Open Source/Free Lighting Control Software out there on the Internet?

Open DMX Theatre, DMXDesk, MasterPeace, FreeStyler, Manolator, Simple 16 DMX, Magic Q, Office Wing, etc, etc. --- there is heaps of interesting bits & pieces!

What I would like to see is an Open Source 'Jands Vista' type application. A Macromedia Director/Flash interface that outputs DMX. I seriously think the timeline is the way of the future...

What features would you like to see in lighting software package?

I think a "tap" button would be a really handy tool (as found on some audio delay units, etc).

What I would really like to see happen is the online ALIA community team together and design and plan a software package, and then some actually takes all the information and puts it together. Waste of time you think? Not really! We would be a creating a tool that helps us do our job easier! Too much work? Not really! All I suggest is that we maybe create a new Forum were ideas and suggestions can be submitted. Using the information that is posted one of us can put all the data together to create some diagrams, flow charts, images, etc. of what the interface will look like, feature, etc.

Just an idea! Anyone interested?

~ fergz

(P.S. Please don't post Mac vs Windows vs Linux vs Whatever comments in this forum trend! Forget about the software/hardware side for now... If anything, lets just get some ideas flying around...!)

[adam]

Hi,

There is a "PC" version of vista on the way. (PC = Windows/Mac/Linux/Whatever from my understanding.)

Yeah, the "tap" is kinda cool, but my fav. thing is the global rate multiplier as found of "Event" and "Event 4".

There is so much great stuff out there... do you feel limited by what already exists?

This project sounds like an insane amount of work to try and do somthing that others have either mastered or are so far ahead it's not funny.

Sorry about the pessimism.

Adam
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Adam Boon
webmaster@paservices.com

[Andy Ciddor]

From what I can see, the open source software is there because some people (like me) just really like writing code. The authors of these packages are experimenting with different programming interfaces, different ways of generating effects, different ways of viewing space, time and movement, etc, etc.

I can clearly remember when the the MA Commander was just such a prototype software package, that ran on an IBM PC. It had good, and at-the-time revolutionary, ideas in it, and eventually became a piece of dedicated console hardware that changed the way moving lights were programmed.

For a quite a few years now, it's been really hard for anyone who wanted to make their own console, to do so without a lot of capital behind them. Although the programming platform was on everybody's desktop, the DMX output part was an expensive piece of kit.

I think that with the USB to DMX dongle that Nic Moreau at Enttec has developed and the driver software that goes with it, lots and lots of new concept consoles will have the chance to see the light of day.

When I first heard about the Jands Vista, I said "Oh great! Just what we need.... Yet another new high spec console with yet another new operating philosophy". However it IS a great concept and I'm glad that Jands were brave enough to pour so much effort and money into something so radical, because I think that it does make yet another important step forward.

The opportunity now exists for anyone who can string together a few programming statements to invent an entirely new way of controlling lighting (or anything else that will talk DMX512).

Maybe the best thing we can do through these forums is to:

1. Discuss programming and interface ideas.
2. Pass around copies of everyone's alpha attempts at consoles and discuss what's good or bad about them.
3. Invite creative criticism of the ideas and prototypes from some of our region's smartest console developers and engineers (many of whom are ALIA members and visit these forums).
4. Try to arrange an ALIA discount on Enttec's DMX to USB dongles. so that anyone can try out their software on real gear.
5. Organize access to real lighting rigs to test out the complete hardware/software system.

Or we could just decide that all the best controls systems have already been invented and that this is just a waste of time and effort.

I was blown away when I used my first electronic (SCR) remote controlled dimmers (on a single preset console). I was stoked the first time I ever saw a memory console. I have had my socks knocked off a dozen times since, by consoles such as Precept, Showmaster, Jands Rock matrix systems, MMS, Galaxy, Vector, Vista, Wholehog, maXim, Rollacue, Colour-Tramp and so many others, but I'm damned sure that the real golden age of consoles has yet to begin.

Does any of this sound interesting??
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Andy Ciddor

[Chris Hocking]

Hey'ya Adam & Andy...

[adam]

The problem is, whilst all this "pie in the sky" open source talk is all well and good. (And by all means, Go for it!). I have been watching this strategy barely work for Linux over the last 7 years. And that's a huge community of "computer programming geeks" programming their little "computer programming geek" brains out.

I am all for the development of new control concepts. but am still sceptical of a total end product.

There would need to be some major planning if such a project was taken on and I would strongly argue (for a start) that creating an application based upon windows (as suggested) is grossly inappropriate.

It was suggested in the other thread about vista - the possibility of Lighting console "Plug-ins". This is an area where we could focus these efforts. Create a standard plugin environment where development of control (or effect) concepts can be created without all the hassle of going ground-up.

About $. Everything is expensive in this industry... How much should a console to control $400K worth of lights cost?

Adam
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Adam Boon
webmaster@paservices.com

[Andy Ciddor]

In a sense Adam is right in saying that such a project is very unlikely to produce a full scale all-singing/all-dancing lighting console, to compete with the likes of a Strand 50X, a WholeHog, a Vector or an Obsession.

What it may produce however, is a whole bunch of different ways of looking at luminaires, control programming, designing, effects, interfaces, displays, control panels, etc, etc. If a better way of interacting with a robotic luminaire comes out of such an experiment, it may well be incorporated into the next iteration of releases from, HigEnd, ETC, MA, Compulite, Avab, ADB, Jands, Strand, AVO, LSC, Zero88, etc.

As far as I can see, we are still a long way from having seen the "ideal" lighting console, so whatever may come of people playing with ideas in an environment such as this forum, can only add to our body of knowledge and ideas.

I designed my personal ideal control console interface about 13 years ago, but so far the technology has not yet made it a possibility. I look forward to trying the idea out in a couple of years time when OLED technology finally comes into its own.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one to have an idea, so I would hope that such a project may give some people's ideas an airing, without the need for capital intensive prototype development.
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Andy Ciddor