The Cue Blog

A Podcast about Control. We Go To Eleven.

Figure 53 is having a contest!

What do you get if you win?

  • Free Tixato fees for your event (excluding credit card processing fees)
  • A free QLab 3 Pro Bundle License
  • A free Go Button License
  • A cash prize to be used towards production expenses. That can mean supplies for sets, costumes, lighting, sound, or video equipment. It can mean paying the artists involved or renting a space. For high school productions the cash prize is $2,000, for college productions the cash prize is $3,000.

 

How to Enter?

Send Figure53 your best pitch by 11:59 PM on June 1, 2015. Mailed entries must be postmarked by June 1, 2015. The pitch can be an essay, a video, photos from your previous shows, a song, a script, some combination of these things, or some great idea that we haven’t thought about yet. All pitches must include a preliminary budget for how the budgeted funds will be distributed. Pitches will be judged on strength and unity of artistic concept, access to administrative and logistic capabilities and support to realize a full scale production, and innovativeness. They will select two winners, one high school level and one college level.

For info contact Lola Pierson or visit the official page HERE!

Get ready to challenge your brain and see what the brain of a QLab expert can come up with. Mic Pool has taken QLab to a whole new level with his engaging and beautiful online coffee table book: The QLab Cookbook.

He has 20 cool projects and workspaces to challenge even the most hard core user.

His unique ideas and brilliant execution keep me coming back to this over and over.

Download

Download

By Josh Langman

Consolidated and adapted from Sam Kusnetz, “Prepare, Execute, Troubleshoot” (figure53.com/notes/2013-10-29-prepare-executetroubleshoot); luckydave, “System Preferences for Show-Mode Computers” (wiki.figure53.com/QLab+Hints+and+Tips); and numerous operator checklists. Last updated 23 March 2015.

This checklist assumes you’re running QLab 3 on Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks or later for sound and video playback. Most items on this list apply equally to show machines running other software as well.

Before First Tech

1 If the computer is used for anything other than your show (it’s a personal computer or in use for other shows), start by making a dedicated user account for your show, under System Preferences > Users & Groups. It should not be an administrator account. Give it a password. (If it’s a dedicated show machine, skip this step.)

2 On your show account, download QLab from figure53.com. Install all appropriate licenses.

3 Delete all applications and documents that you don’t need. Trash every application except QLab, System Preferences, Safari, TextEdit, the Utilities folder, and anything else you need for the show. OS X will not let you delete some applications. In this case, click on the application icon, type Cmd + I, and under “Sharing & Permissions,” change your privilege to “Read & Write,” then delete the application. Empty the trash.

4 Load your bundled show file onto the computer. Put the folder in the center of the desktop. Make sure it is the only thing on the desktop.

5 Remove everything from the Dock except QLab and System Preferences.

6 Turn off your internet connection. Disable WiFi and make sure you are not connected via ethernet.

7 Write the OS X administrator account password and the show account password on a Post-It note and stick it next to the trackpad (if a laptop) or at the bottom of the monitor (if a desktop computer). If the computer’s a laptop, put a black cover on it or tape over the glowing apple on the back with a square of black gaff tape.

8 Set your system preferences as described below:

System Preferences

1 Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop: Set the desktop background to solid black. Turn off “Translucent menu bar.”

2 Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver: Set the screen saver to never start. Disable all hot corners.

3 Dock: Check “Automatically hide and show the dock.”

4 Mission Control: Uncheck “Displays have separate spaces.” This will not take effect until you restart. Remove all keyboard and mouse shortcuts.

5 Spotlight > Privacy: Add the system hard drive and any external drives that you’re using for the show to the Privacy pane. Disable all Spotlight shortcuts.

6 Notifications: Drag all applications to “Not In Notification Center” and uncheck all options.

7 CDs & DVDs: Set all options to “Ignore.”

8 Displays: Uncheck “Mirror Displays.” Arrange your secondary display to make it difficult to accidentally move the mouse onto it. Uncheck “Automatically adjust brightness.”

9 Energy Saver: Set all sleep options to “Never” for both Battery (if a laptop) and Power Adapter. Uncheck “Put hard disks to sleep when possible.”

10 Trackpad: Disable all options in all tabs.

11 Keyboard > Keyboard: Uncheck “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light.”

12 Keyboard > Shortcuts: Disable all shortcuts.

13 Sound > Sound Effects: Set sound effects to play through Internal Speakers. Drag the alert volume to silent. Uncheck “Play user interface sound effects” and “Play feedback when volume is changed.”

14 Sound > Output: Set the output to Internal Speakers and drag the output volume to silent.

15 Network: Remove all network devices that you don’t need for the show (probably all of them).

16 Bluetooth: Turn off Bluetooth.

17 Sharing: Turn off sharing of everything.

18 Users & Groups > Login Items: Remove all applications from the Login Items pane.

19 Date & Time: Disable “Set date and time automatically.”

20 App Store [Software Update]: Disable “Automatically check for updates.”

21 Time Machine: Turn off Time Machine.

22 Restart the computer to make sure all preferences take effect.

Before Each Performance

1 Start with the computer off. If it’s already on, turn it off.

2 Plug the computer in, even if it’s a laptop.

3 Connect the audio interface (sound card) to the computer’s USB or FireWire port.

4 Connect and turn on all external audio hardware: the interface, the mixer, the amps, etc. Set all levels on the interface, mixer, and amps to zero (unity) or your previously determined levels. Keep your input channels on the mixer muted.

5 Connect the projector to the computer’s Thunderbolt or HDMI port, or to your external video card, using whatever adapters are necessary.

6 Turn on the projector.

7 Turn on the computer.

8 Turn off WiFi to make sure you are not connected to the internet.

9 Make sure your system audio output is set to the internal speakers (System Preferences > Sound).

10 Make sure your projector is recognized and not mirrored (System Preferences > Displays).

11 Turn the system volume down to silent on the keyboard, then mute it.

12 Launch the QLab show file. Maximize the window. (Do not put QLab in full-screen mode if you are running video.)

13 Go to Tools > Black out desktop backgrounds.

14 Make sure the workspace is set to Show mode to prevent changes.

15 In QLab Preferences > Audio, check that your audio output is patched to to your external interface.

16 In QLab Preferences > Video, check that your video surface is patched to the attached projector.

17 Unmute the mixer.

18 Run a sound check.

19 Run a video check.

20 Standby to go into preshow cue.

tshirtCongratulations to Claude Heinz – WINNER OF THE DMX USB Pro Manager Challenge and a FREE T-Shirt.

From Claude:

Here’s a screen shot of DMX USB Pro manager running on OS-X. I downloaded this version today.

There is a driver conflict with OS X that needs to be taken care of for the D2XX driver to work (and this is required for pro manager). This is my script for disabling the Apple driver that conflicts. I have to run this every new version of OS X (which for me–I’m usually running a developer preview of the latest OS X–is anytime I want to use a DMX USB Pro because I probably have a new system version installed since the last time I used the widget)

The script removes the previously disabled driver from the last system version/time I ran the script. Then, it renames the conflicting driver so it effectively disables it. Finally, system extensions are cached and can persist even after a restart. So the script touches the extensions directory (marks it as changed) then it flushes the kext cache. This takes a while to run because of the cache flush. But when its done, the D2XX driver will work.

I save these commands in a shell script file called “AppleUSB_FTDI_Disable.sh”. But, you can type them individually into the terminal. If you’re not familiar with well scripts, the “#! /bin/bash” line tells the system how to run the rest of the file. You don’t type that if you are running the commands in the terminal. Fell free to share this with other listeners of “The Cue”

-Claude

#! /bin/bash

sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBFTDI.disabled

sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBFTDI.kext /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBFTDI.disabled

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

sudo kextcache -u /

streamNaturally, everything at The Cue HQ is powered by OSC show control. For a limited time, we’ve made it publicly accessible. Point your OSC packets to thecuecontrol.ddns.net (port 54000). Download the QLab or TouchOSC files and try for yourself!

Note: UStream introduces a ~15 second delay.

We are challenging any Mac user to confirm that you can get Enttec’s Pro Manager to run and see a DMX USB PRO on your machine. Send us a screen shot and how you did it and you could win a T-Shirt and more…

UPDATE: We Have a Winner. Congrats to Claude Heinz.