I know it’s not supported, but it should be! Maybe more technical minds can discuss possibilities. This is something a lot of fellow Programmers / Board Ops in Local 52 are trying to work around right now. There is an increasing need to have full Magic Sheet control with a walk around laptop on set.
LED, Wireless, and new technology keep showing up on sets, with the demand to be able to control it in fast paced temporary setups. Sometimes the Board Op is the only person on the crew who can troubleshoot a set, whether it is wired or wireless, on stage or location. Some Gaffers don’t know how to address an LED, don’t read plots or channels, speak vaguely, and just point. The fast pace of the setups creates a situation where the lights brought to set are never in order. There is often a wireless component to speed up the setups. The console is never on set, sometimes not even near it. Multiple rooms in a stage or location are being lit simultaneously. The rigging crew plugs in conventional dimming in no particular order because it’s fastest. Some stage rigs have hundreds of practical dimming. All this leads to Magic Sheet interaction being imperative.
It is helpful to know that in 99% of setups our lighting is static. Could this help to get around the need for such large file transfers to and from the Master? There are only one to two Magic Sheets usually being referenced at a time, or edited on the fly. Instead of operating as a Client, maybe it works in a more limited capacity for sending data. Or maybe it operates like a beefed up version of an OSC Remote with Magic Sheet Access. "Limited Wireless Client."
I rely on OSCRFR and iRFR daily and it has been a major game changer. Having the entire console wireless on a laptop has been even better. I now do this every time during the prep of a rig. I log in as a Master when the rest of the company doesn’t have all their Wifi clogging the airspace, and it works great for my needs. On shoot days I go back to the dimmer room coat closet where they hide the console on most stages.
During shooting, most people achieve the wireless client by first using a wired client off the existing console, then operating that from another laptop with a Screen Sharing App on the same wifi. It would be great to skip the middle man and have it integrated with EOS.
Please discuss!
