Conventionals in a Cuelist

It's Nutcracker Season... Whoo Hoo!!!

So the show this week was designed and run by the first outside LD not intimidated by our new HogIII (we bought it this past July). He's experienceing a problem I haven't seen. He starts up his show at the login screen and does a lamp check. When he goes to run through his cue list for the show, the conventionals don't come up. Our Studio Spots work just fine.

Here's what we have:

1 HogIII
1 DP2000
1 HP laptop running 3PC (not connected when we see this issue)
1 Linksys hub connecting the network
1 DMX universe with 100+ conventionals and fog machines
1 DMX universe with 2 Studio Spot CMY Zooms

So far the problem goes away when you restart the console. Today when it happened I connected the laptop to the show and got the same result when I ran through the cues.

Because the phenomena happens with both the console and the laptop, could it be the DP2000? Has the console attracted a new theater ghost? Is my console mad at me because I asked the board op for Barenaked Ladies at Radio City about his GrandMA?

Anyone have any ideas?

Much Thanks,
Kerry Brandon
Technical Director, Jim Rouse Theater for the Performing Arts at WLHS
  • Can you look at the Output screen and see if they are being held by something in the background (Show Sources)?

    It sounds as if something is holding them down in the background to me....
  • I will try talk about the Vista and see if the Studio Spot stop to move...
  • If you talk about the Vista...the world stops revolving apparently.

    :poke: :fgd:
  • Now that we're talking about Vista, I'll see if the console even boots up.

    Jon...

    That's what I originally thought too, but not so much. If you look at the Output window with 'Show Source' selected, there is nothing in any of the cells for the conventional channels. The thing I find odd about that is usually there's a '0%' indicating that the intensity is zero.

    k
  • Kerry,

    If you load up the show and play the cuelist (without going through your lamp check), does the list play properly?

    How are you doing your lamp check? Are you using Highlight and Next / Back to step through fixtures?

    Is it possible that you have anything captured in the programmer or any inhibitive submasters affecting levels?

    I would definitely suggest running Garbage Collect and Check Integrity from the Shows window (Setup -> Shows). These should detect and correct any possible problems with your show file that may be causing issues.

    Thanks.
  • Tom,

    1. Didn't try running the cues before the lamp check. We're done with that show. Don't know if I'll be able to try that.

    2. Using highlight and back/next to run the check.

    3. Nothing was in the programmer and we have not set up any inhibitive masters.

    4. Did the garbage collect thing and I got the same result the following day.

    Kerry
  • Kerry,

    You mention you are using highlight... are you using the default settings or a highlight palette?
  • Brad,

    Not sure what you're asking; still new to the console. I do know that I'm not using a palette to do the lamp check.

    Kerry
  • Kerry,

    No worries... I am glad that you are still learning. When you use highlight, it will revert to factory defined settings for fixture parameters. However you identify a palette as a "highlight palette" so that you (the user) define what happens to each fixture/parameter when in highlight mode. See section 18.3.1 in the user manual for further details.

    You can also define a "lowlight Palette" that will cause the other fixtures in your editor that are not selected to change to a specific look when you are highlighting. For example I often make a lowlight palette that places my fixtures in full intensity and an indigo color. Then when I have 10 lights in my programmer, select fixture one and press Highlight, the first fixture will be open white and the others will be on in indigo. As I press NEXT to focus each fixture I can see where the other fixtures are on the stage, but they are not blinding me or the area I am focusing too. This is a very useful way to keep light on stage when focusing positions AND to allow you to keep track of where all the fixtures are pointing. You can read about Lowlight in section 18.3.2

    If by chance your show is using a Highlight palette AND your conventionals were not in the palette or recorded with a zero intensity, then this could be causing the problem you reported.

    It sounds like you probably do not, so we will continue to investigate your problem.
  • Ok, now I know what you're talking about (when you said "highlight palatte"). I had forgotten about the highlight and lowlight feature when I read your last post.

    Nope; not using either palatte. I still have the show saved. I was a witness to the issue but never tried to recreate it. I have some time next week to play and I'll see if I can make it happen again.

    The LD that saw the issue grew up on the Hog 2. I suspect that he has a specific sequence of what he does before and during his lamp check. If indeed this is a bug, and it's caused by a specific command line sequence, I doubt that I'll be able to replicate the issue.

    Here's to hoping.

    Kerry
  • Thanks Kerry,

    Please let us know if you figure anything out....

    have fun with the Nutcracker... I was just saying the other day how it has been many, many years since I have worked that show. Ah but back in the day I worked that show way too much too.... I feel your pain. :)
  • Hi Brad,

    Hope you had a great holiday season. I am happy to report that my theater survived the ususal onslaught of Nutcrakers. We only did three this year.

    I was not able to replicate the issue we have been talking about in this thread. However, I have been experiencing other oddities with the Hog3 console related to control over lighting fixtures. Most notably, and this has happened more than once, I will not be able to control any parameters of my Studio Spots with the encoder wheels or the track ball. What happens is that a series of menus pops up on the lower left hand of the right display on the console. So, as an example, if I select the 'Beam' function, a menu pops up for every group of parameters that would ordinarily be assigned to the encoder wheels. There will be a menu for Gobo1 with all the things you can do with (i.e. rotate, spin, etc). Another menu for gobo2, another menu with iris, zoom, focus and so on. These menus will pop up for any function I select (color, position, intensity, etc).

    I can control the Studio Spots if I use the command line. If I restart the console, all will become well. I suspect that there is a button somewhere that I am pressing without intending to and it is causing the phenomena explained above. As I am still learning the Hog3 (just got WYSIWYG up and running last month; it's cool but lacks details) I am just writing it off as a quirk.

    Just thought it would be worth mentioning as it isn't too different from the conventional control issue I began this thread with.

    Thanks,
    k
  • Kerry,

    Could you possibly take a picture of the "menu" that's popping up and post it here? I'm not entirely sure what it is that you're describing.

    Based on your explanation, it sounds like it might be a stuck key, but it's hard to say. Even if that's the case, it could be either a software or a hardware problem.

    Do you have an external keyboard plugged into the console?
    What software version are you running?

    Thanks.
  • Hi Tom,

    I've now seen the 'menu' issue many times. What is happening is that when I select a Studio Spot, control of the various parameters is not transferred to the encoder wheels. I am able to use the command line to ask for intensity but have not tried controlling non-intensity parameters with the command line.

    The 'menus' I was attempting to describe are the lists of available functions for each feature (i.e. beam, color, position, etc.) that come up above the command line. They're not really 'menus'; I just couldn't think of a better way to describe them. You should just ignore that part.

    I am keeping a camera handy. The next time it happens, I'll post a picture.

    Sorry for the confusion.

    Kerry
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