Submitted

OSC Integration

So, I just worked on a project with a large turning scenic element. The automation output OSC positioning which was then connected to BlackTrax, so that projections would auto-keystone, fade in and fade out based entirely on the OSC data.

While a Channel based control of elements like furniture or moving elements that cannot output positioning data is a good way to work around the lack of communications between elements, a true real-time positioning would be remarkable to have.

One step further would be then to have the ability to have moving lights automatically track positioning, the same way that BlackTrax does with video projectors. On this project, the amount of work to synchronize moving lights to moving scenery was formidable, especially since there were almost 100 moves.

Thanks!

Rick

RickPM
Parents Comment Children
  • in reply to sktusing

    Thanks Scott, for me it's not what I'm asking about. Simply having OSC streams is not of much use if there's no way to have it translated into 3d space. BlackTrax understands the 3d model and does the real time processing for you. For my project cited above - it was one OSC channel for a turntable rotation of an incredibly complex 50 ton unit. Setup took 10 minutes to link the 3d model to the OSC data and the rest was calculated on the fly.

  • in reply to RickPM

    This is what Augmented is also doing, I'm hoping that in the future it can also do this kind of real time processing.

  • in reply to RickPM

    Hi Rick,

    Although it's not directly integrated into Augment3d, so you can absolutely achieve what you're describing using a combination of Eos/Augment3d and LightStrike right now. This has already been done for many shows.

    LightStrike can bring numerous automation system protocols directly into it, whether that's PosiStageNet, sACN, whatever it might be. You can then either control the rig directly from it, or send data to another application. LightStrike can even combine systems, for instance taking the rotation of a revolve, and combining that with the position of an object in Eos/Augment3d, and provide XYZ position for that object on the revolve.

    One of the output options is OSC, and just before the quarantine, we were using it on a show at the National, streaming XYZ data straight to fixtures to control their position. Robert Juliat's SpotMe system was providing XYZ data, which LightStrike was then translating into Eos OSC to allow moving lights to track the followspot. It's also been used for revolve and person tracking on numerous West End and Broadway productions.

    Of course, direct integration into Augment3d would be wonderful, but if you're interested there's a solution right now, for a fraction of the price of BlackTrax. You can download it for free and have a play, there's a demo mode which provides output for a limited time, but everything else works without a licence, so you can experiment as much as you like.

    I'm currently working on a major interface redesign, which is well on the way. If you'd like to chat further, please just drop me a note via my website.

    Cheers

    Dan

  • in reply to dsmurfin

    Hello Dan,
    is there a way to track performers if there is nobody tracking them physically? 
    Thanks

  • in reply to Daniele

    Hi Daniele,

    You would need some source of data to integrate with LightStrike as it doesn't directly track objects, but takes in other sources of data and uses those for tracking. There are a number of ways of doing that with Ultra Wide Band (UWB) tags.

    Cheers

    Dan

www.etcconnect.com