#QLAB IPAD HOW TO#
#QLAB IPAD SERIAL#

I actually teach undergrad students in my (required, basic) Entertainment Controls Class to type ASCII messages back and forth to each other, first using open-source Teraterm over serial, and then Essential Net Tools over a little network. Of systems these days basically just accept their internal scripting language controls over an IP port (these two systems-SFX and GrandMa2-have been running lighting and sound for our haunted house this way for the last few years). And that kind of simple human typeable control is still common today here's an animatronic controller I just got firing from Medialon Manager last week (I'm doing a lot of haunted house upgrades this summer). That simple protocol is very easy to test, use and program, and was a big improvement, from my perspective, over things like the then common Sony 9 Pin control scheme, a three byte binary message with a check sum. I've long been a fan of simple, human-typeable, ASCII based control messages, back to the days of the Pioneer Laser Disc player, which would take simple commands like 'pl' for play, or 'st' for still (each just followed by cr/lf). My primary case for simple ASCII-based control messages came down to this: I went back and forth about this in a fascinating exchange with Figure 53's founder and lead developer, Christopher Ashworth you can read the whole thing here.

#QLAB IPAD HOW TO#

(Medialon's Eric Cantrell figured out how to automatically frame an OSC 'Go' message with this syntax: Manager (OSC_String_to_Send = '/cue/' + QNumberString + '/start' + ('!00' * (5-Length(QNumberString))) + ',!00!00!00!0A!0D') ) For example, to tell QLab to Go on the next cue in the workspace using OSC, you would have to send '/go 0x00 0x00, 0x0A 0x0D' The /go is the main OSC 'address', the null octets (0x00) are there to pad out the address name to the required multiple of four octets, the ',' character is the start of arguments for this address (there aren't any for this address), and then the 0A and 0D are Carriage Return/Line Feed.

None of this is a big deal for a computer to handle, but it makes the construction by humans of simple strings for control kind of complicated.

For example, it needs its messages padded out to multiples of four octets, and you have to handle arguments for messages in a specific way, etc. OSC, though, is kind of complicated overkill for the kinds of simple ASCII-based control I prefer and have written about before. Figure 53 implemented Open Sound Control (OSC), which is a great protocol for things like fetching and managing lists of cues for the QLab remote control IPad app. Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.The release of Version 3 of the widely-used, Mac-based sound effects playback program QLab from Figure 53 brought with it something I've been waiting for for a long time: controllability over IP. If you’re interested in the Crestron / iPad end of this, contact Hugo:Īnd if you need your own RS232 to DMX bridge, we’v got plenty of stock in the online store. Apparently there are also installed ‘smart’ wall switches which can be used to recall the stored preset scenes. DMX from the box drives installed LED arrays throughout a home or business.

#QLAB IPAD SERIAL#

They’ve written some neat preset-setting software for an iPad, which communicates with a Crestron controller, which in turn outputs serial data to our little black box. Once the box arrived, we spoke briefly on the phone to help them get started using the box’s control language.Ī month or two later, we heard back. A few months ago they purchased one of our RS232 Driven DMX Engines. One of our customers works with a systems integration group in Quebec, Canada.

Qlab ipad